Its northern deserts were a battleground in the Egypt-Israeli conflicts of the 1950s and 1960s, and it was occupied by Israel for many months before it passed permanently back into Egypt's hands with the treaty of 1979.
Egypt and Israel were combatants in its northern deserts.
The president needs to spurn the vital center, defy the spirit of reconciliation, and recognize he has only a little time left to tell the public what it doesn't want to hear.