The Jewish Story: Israel Among the Nations, part III: Operation Kadesh

let me tell you one thing said Ben grin it doesn't matter what the world says about Israel the only thing that matters is that we can exist here on the land of our forefathers while I'm pretty into existence and I have the great privilege of being in that holy land cuz I'm Rob Mike Feuer and this is the Jewish story episode 15 Israel among nations part 3 operation Kadesh so I know we're in the middle of a story and I'm not gonna keep you in suspense for too long with an introduction but I do want to plant the question here right at the beginning of the episode one that might be more pressing today even than it was in 1950s and in the question is are the structures of international law a help or a hindrance to justice and more specifically by creating a form of Nations and empowering it to legitimize and judge the actions of its members does the United Nations further the words of Isaiah inscribed at its an entrance nation shall not lift up sword against nation neither shall they learn war anymore or by serving as a cover for the politics of might makes right and reducing international law to a stick with which the strong can beat the weak does it push those ideals further away and a perhaps more pointed question that flows from that one which is specifically relevant to the Jewish story is does Israel really belong in such a body I mean after all we are the nation which dwells alone reckon not amongst the nations as it says over there in Bombay bar 23 9 and the distinction between Israel the nation's is a principle of biblical thought but so is their ultimate reunion in the time of redemption let it be soon let it be now and as we're going to see today the question of where exactly Israel sits amongst the nations the United Nations in particular was a crux issue in the war of 1956 operation Kadesh as it was known in Israel so like I said we're in the middle of a story and it's about to get pretty exciting at the end of last episode I hope you occurred that all the pieces were in place Israel had at long last secured its arms channel from France and we left shimon peres is working furiously to get as many weapons as possible into the country before the storm he saw coming broke Ben green is back in charge as Prime Minister giving free rein to his protege chief of staff Moshe Dayan to pursue the retaliation policy for all cross-border raids and don't forget as the casualty count rose so did the Egyptian military's humiliation in general Israel felt war in the air the constant Fedayeen cross-border raids the blockades of the Straits of Tiran Nasser's genocidal rhetoric in paper in on the radio waves now ben-gurion may have returned as Prime Minister in 1955 but you should know that his arch rival Menachem Bagan had also nearly doubled the seats of his more militant pay route party bigan was finally the leader of the opposition not just morally but politically and his voice thundered from the podium pressing ben-gurion for action before the Hitler on the Nile could finish the job the Germans had begun meanwhile the formal colonial powers of Middle East Britain and France were struggling to adjust to that new world order the French were deep in the bloody Algerian war fast approaching not only the end of their rule there but ultimately their retreat into near international insignificance sorry if you're listening to this in Paris and some actually call the failure of the Algerian war the death knell of colonialism altogether now the British had already seen the sunset on their empire back in 1948 really with Indian independence now I know somebody out there is gonna argue with me that the British had Holdings all around the world still but practically they were struggling to keep their dignity on the international stage as well as hold of power in the Middle East and they should have heard the end of that era when foreign secretary Selwyn Lloyd tried to threaten Nasser in February of 1956 the Secretary was in Cairo to insist that Nasser negotiate and what was rapidly becoming the Suez Crisis when the Egyptian dictator stonewalled Lloyd reminded him that we still have glove and the legion now he was referring to General John Baggett glove you may remember from the war of independence British subject Kim and really architect of the British trained and equipped Jordanian Legion but Lloyd's attempt at colonial power play became alone of the emperor has no clothes Nasser laughed in his face and informed the secretary that King Hussein of Jordan had just now exiled globe from his country that news only reached the Foreign Secretary on his return trip to England so at the beginning of 1956 Nasser looked to be on top of the world he was unquestionably the regional military power because the Soviets had supplied him with enough check arms to give Egypt a qualitative and quantitative edge over Israel the Arab world increasingly saw him as a hero of anti-imperialism and a rising leader of pan Arab nationalism and if his rhetoric was to be believed he was prepared to crown his rise by erasing the so-called humiliation of 1948 Israel would soon be removed from the map of the Middle East meanwhile on the other side of the Atlantic the United States was sitting on the edge of all this action attempting to keep the peace without being the world's policeman and that's of course not an easy posture to take because remember the u.s. is treaty bound to both Britain and France through NATO the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and thus potentially a partner willing or not in any a military adventures which lie ahead in our story they are also pursuing an increasingly hardline approach to Soviet expansionism we're only months away at this point from the so-called Eisenhower doctrine the president's declaration authorizing the commitment of US forces quote to secure and protect the territorial integrity and political independence of such nations requesting aid against overt armed aggression from any nation controlled by international communism and you listen closely that might include Nasser he is after all at this point a Soviet client so we add to this mess in the American political scene a historic commitment to Israel's security bolstered by an increasingly effective domestic pro-israel lobby but one that exists in tension with Secretary of State John Foster Dulles new policy of even-handedness in the Middle East and just when you thought it wouldn't get Messier 1956 is an election year one in which the Democrats heavily backed by the Jews are breathing down Eisenhower's neck no having led the free world against the Nazis Eisenhower believed that there was no chance and a meaningful and lasting peace outside of international diplomacy the United Nations was the crown jewel of everything he fought for in his eyes nevertheless he recognized that the institution was still too young to wield real Authority and frankly too weak to assert power so at this point the u.s. preferred to pursue diplomacy on its own and to apply economic rather than military pressure and we saw at the end of last episode that practically speaking this meant they tried to draw Egypt back into the Western sphere with money specifically with 70 million dollars in direct funding of the Aswan Dam irrigation project and backing for an even larger World Bank loan but Nasser really wasn't interested in playing ball with the West anymore maybe it was the power of the check arms deal they had gone to his head or maybe he believed the voices around the world hailing him in almost messianic terms as the champion of anti-imperialism but no matter how you cut it the American Secretary of State had already lost his trust in the Egyptian dictator when the extended diplomatic recognition to the Communist People's Republic of China back in May and so when Nasser sent his ambassador to Washington to notify the secretary that Egypt was ready to accept all the conditions set for their aid package Dulles informed him that the American government was withdrawing its offer of financial support and then the Secretary of State had an insult injury he released a press statement calling into question Egypt's financial ability to carry out the Aswan project without the aid he just rejected you know as the World Bank President Eugene black later said Dulles was really to blame for escalating the situation quote it's just as if you went to the bank and ask the bank to lend you some money they might say we won't lend you any money you don't put it in the paper that their credit is no good now to say that Nasser was enraged is a gross understatement this wasn't just a public in Seoul he saw the Secretary of State's reminder that quote the United States remains deeply interested in the welfare of the Egyptian people and not necessarily their leader as a veiled call for his overthrow now apparently the United States was also unaware that the colonial era had ended they were about to get a little bit of wake-up call because Dulles wasn't the only one who could make statements to the press on July 26 1956 only a week or so after the withdrawal of American aid for the Aswan project President Nasser declared martial law throughout Egypt and then sent his troops into the Canal Zone and announced the world the nationalization of the Suez Canal now he wasn't subtle nor did he hide his purpose the tolls from the passage through the strategic waterway would now go instead of through British and French pockets to the funding of the building of the Aswan Dam now Nasser not only had a Soviet patron he had seemingly limitless sources of cash and the american decision to play economic hardball had clearly failed in a big way the nationalization look now hit the British and France like a shock wave British prime minister Anthony Eden broke off a state dinner with the king of Iraq to call an emergency cabinet meeting and their denunciation of Nasser's Act was joined immediately by French premier gaim elect the British and French press reacted predictably with rage beating the war drums and demanding immediate reoccupation of the canal however public opinion outside Britain in France was more or less neutral many just felt that Egypt had done nothing illegal by nationalizing a canal that ran through its own territory others particularly in the developing world actually saw Nasser's act as one of historic justice after all what right exactly did the French and British have to control Egyptian sovereign territory taken in the colonial era by force and at home and in the general Arab world Nasser's popularity soared the Council of the League of Arab states declared the solidarity of Arab governments with Egypt and many countries actually sent letters of support and congratulate Asians once again across the Atlantic the Americans always had a slightly different view of events than their NATO allies the President Eisenhower and secretary dulls the British and France had lost the game as soon as Nasser made his move the President did release a statement of concern over the nationalization but he avoided giving any indication of what an American response might look like meanwhile he rushed to head off what was clearly British in France militancy Nasser had declared his commitment not to impair traffic through the canal excepting of course Israeli traffic that he had blocked in 1951 and the Americans believed that the world had already accepted the nationalization of the canal by Egypt as a fait accompli it would be foolish in their eyes to consider anything but diplomatic means at this point but when the State Department representative Robert Murray arrived at a hastily convened tripartite conference British American and French he discovered that their European allies were already planning for war when he cable to Addison how he told him if the British believe quote Suez was a test which could be met only by the use of force in that the French government saw eye-to-eye with the British that they were prepared to participate in a military operation now when the United Nations was founded in 1945 two of its Charter principles were to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war and to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained and the struggle which is coming highlights just how lofty and frankly irrelevant those sentiments were only ten years later as the summer progressed and the British and French moved closer to war American attempts at diplomacy moved into high gear England and France seemed to play along but what the u.s. saw as a way of preventing conflict the Europeans are really viewed as a delaying tactic one that would buy them time while they planned their attack in August Secretary of State Dulles traveled to London for yet another international conference on this crisis this one now made up of all the world's major maritime powers and he carried with him the idea of an international advisory committee for the canal something that would work in tandem with the Egyptian government without violating their sovereignty but the British and the French were not interested they would only lend their support to an international body that would actually operate the canal not just advise the Egyptians so on September 3rd they sent Prime Minister Robert Menzies of Australia to Cairo to present the London proposal the nos are one wonders oh he got the short stick everybody knew that his mission was doomed to failure NASA would never agree to what he already saw as collective colonialism a return to foreign rule in his land by the backdoor and Menzies certainly didn't help anything when he hinted that a refusal to accept the proposal would end in what he called trouble you are threatening me NASA responded very well I am finished there will be no more discussions it is all over oh how wrong he was it actually just begun because now the British and French had their excuse diplomacy had failed in their eyes really the only barrier that remained was Eisenhower's opposition British Prime Minister Anthony Aydin addressed a letter to the president calculated to strike a nerve in the man who had been the Supreme Commander of Allied forces in Europe quote in the 1930s Hitler established his position by a series of carefully planned movements he wrote these began with the occupation of the Rhineland and were followed by successive acts of aggression against Austria Czechoslovakia Poland and the West and then and it clearly veiled reference to the Cold War Aidan went on to say that if the international community allowed Nasser to get away with nationalizing the Suez Canal his enhanced status would enable him to incite revolutions across the Middle East of course backed by Soviet arms there was one last nod to international diplomacy on September 23rd Britain and France attempted to have the canal internationalized via a UN Security Council resolution but the Soviets quickly vetoed the move as was expected and anyway weeks before this the French had already reached out to the British to move forward on their plans for war Prime Minister Eden was more than interested but he told the French he wouldn't agree to attack without some pretext that could provide political cover and they said no problem we've got just the right man for the job back in Israel Nasser's newfound assurance on the international stage had led to an increasingly belligerent posture across the border the Fedayeen raids rosen frequency and Ben green and Dayan responded with ever larger scale retaliation and as the conflict intensified so did the Egyptian rhetoric we must be strong Nasser declared in order to regain the rights of the Palestinians by force in mid-summer only weeks before the nationalization the commander in the chief of the Egyptian army announced the hours approaching when we will stand in the front ranks of the battle against imperialism and its zionist ally a sense of siege began to grip the country and as the pressures rose cracks began to show in ben-gurion cabinet not surprisingly along the old fracture lines between the activists and the diplomats we've discussed it many times I'm not gonna go over it or even overstate the differences between ben-gurion militarists and Moshe her aides diplomats in the end of the day it's always important to remember that each one believed both war and diplomacy were critical to Israel's survival but whereas ben-gurion style was belligerent sureit's was appeasing and furthermore perhaps the biggest difference between them was that charade had far more trust in the structures of international law particularly in the United Nations at the end of march after a particularly bad petyon attack the cabinet held a marathon 6-hour debate over ben-gurion proposal to finally conquer the Gaza Strip once and for all and remove the threat of the Fetty Union according to share it's diary entry of the day when he insisted that war was not the solution and that rather they should turn to the UN the Prime Minister scoffed at him and at the international body chari responded that were it not the United Nations the Jewish state would not have come into existence at all at which point ben-gurion no no no he shouted only the daring of the Jews created the state not any mm resolution oom-oom-oom is most column which is the nations of the world and in Hebrew it's mmm and it's oom shrew means nothing so you gotta hear the dismissal in that and ben-gurion was far far from alone is dismissal the UN by the way because throughout the violence of the 1950s Israel as a whole Israeli as I should say looked at the United Nations and the international mechanisms created to monitor ceasefire with their Arab neighbors with increasing resentment things that were just meant to hold them back and force them to fight with one hand tied behind their back and furthermore Israeli leaders were quick to learn that there was a clear double standard operating in international law you know perhaps for the most blatant example of this comes in our story when Soviet tanks roll into Hungary crushing everyone in their way in the very same week that is very paratroopers and to the Sinai but that story is gonna lie ahead for now as a hard spring turned court toward an increasingly bloody summer the activists within the cabinet began to press for a preventive war against Egypt in particular Shimon Peres and Moshe Dayan pushed to strike the Egyptians before they could integrate the massive amounts of new Soviet arms into the military now I do feel the need to open a slight window on the psychology of this time lest anyone listening think that this was simply war mongering or raw reactive fear and I think that the best way to do this is by quoting one of the most famous speeches in Israeli history it was given by Moshe day on as a eulogy for Roy Rosenberg a caboose Nick murdered by the Fetty in in a late spring of 1956 just listen to one paragraph it's a little bit long but pay attention yesterday at dawn Roy was murdered let us not to Danny cast blame on the murderers what can we say against their terrible hatred of us for eight years now they've sat in the refugee camps of Gaza and have watched how before their very eyes we've turned their land in villages where they and their forefathers previously dwelled into our home it is not among the Arabs of Gaza been in our own midst that we must seek Roy's blood how did we shut our eyes and refused to look squarely at our fate and see in all its brutality the fate of our generation beyond the furrow of the border surges a sea of hatred and revenge revenge that looks towards the day when the calm will blunt our alertness the day when we shall listen to the ambassador's of maligned hypocrisy who call upon us to lay down our arms because we swore thousand times that our blood will not be spilled lightly and yet again yesterday we were tempted we listened we believed let us take stock today with ourselves we are a generation of settlement and without the steel helmet and the guns muzzle we will not be able to plant the tree or build a house let us not fear to look squarely at the hatred that consumes and fills the lives of hundreds of Arabs who live around us let us not drop our gaze less our arms be weakened this is the fate of our generation this is our choice to be ready and armed tough and hard or else the sword shall fall from our hands and our lives will be cut short it's worth listening to that again but did you hear the elements he doesn't blame the Arabs for their hatred he only sees the reality that choosing to live for him means choosing to fight and choosing not to fight means bringing needless death upon his brothers and he certainly doesn't look to the international community be ambassadors of malign hypocrisy who call upon us to lay down our arms for any protection much less salvation Moshe Dayan was the face of a generation which saw its choice as to live by the sword or to die by it now in 1956 there was a good argument to be made that this was the case however it's a worldview which persists as a powerful force in our society even today and at some point we're going to need to consider if it's still reflective of our reality but it certainly was reflective of theirs in june of 1956 the activists finally carried the cabinet ben-gurion forced the foreign minister's resignation and within less of the year Moshe Sharett went from being Prime Minister to foreign minister to citizen he was replaced actually by the famous labour minister golda meir but her story is one that we're gonna have to tell another time you know the next steps already actually who's discussed them just a few minutes ago the US withdrawal of support from the Aswan Dam Nasser's nationalization of the Suez Canal the failure of international diplomacy to check Britain and France on their way to war all of those events were being walked very closely by the Israeli government it was almost as if Bank grain were waiting for a call that he knew would come by the summer of 1956 the French Connection had reached new heights dozens of jets hundreds of tanks ammunition beyond account were flowing into Israel beyond the arms there was also growing intelligence cooperation and ultimately an emergent sense that France and Israel were allies in the United struggle so when the French air commander Andre before approached Shimon Perez in early August and asked as a hypothetical question of course if we make one Egypt would Israel be prepared to fight alongside us Paris agreed without hesitation ten days later he was quietly informed at an anglo-french attack codename operation musketeer was actually in the works and when asked how long it would take the IDF to cross the Sinai and reach the canal two weeks was Perez's reply now as director general of the Defense Ministry Shimon Perez had no authority to agree to such a plan or even discuss it he wasn't even a member of the cabinet but as he later said in his memoirs he would rather risk his neck than risk missing shot and opportunity because here was finally the pre-emptive war that he and Moshe Dayan had been waiting for waiting for they've been pushing for it and so in early September when the French asks straight-out if Israel was prepared to attack Egypt in conjunction with France and Great Britain on October 20th Perez said yes but I do have to ask he cabled ben-gurion twice getting no answer and so he jumped on a plane and flew back to Russa ylim where he and motion Allen teamed up to convince the old man that there moment had finally come but still the prime minister refused to comment but mid-september the French upped the ante saying that the price for their continued support read arms was Israel's participation in the now certain of coming operation on September 23rd ben-gurion finally cabled Paris back in Paris tell them that their dates suit us was all his message said and so on September 29th foreign minister Golda Meir and General Moshe Dayan arrived in Paris on a French bomber in hand and a massive airlift of French arms began you know not an ultimate the poet famed for his Maga shock SF the silver platter really the voice of the generation of 48 and in many ways the man who replaced Ruth's feed Greenberg as the poet prophet this time on the left he was allowed to witness the unloading of one of the French transports and his words I think give voice to the fear and hope that were so characteristic of his times perhaps this is a night of dreams he wrote but wide awake and what I saw was the melting away of the terror gap between us and the forces of destruction iron comes on steadily in the bowels of the earth tremble now Israel's goal in the coming operation were clear they aim to remove the Egyptians from the Gaza Strip and all the bases of the Fedayeen that were attacking them and to end their blockade of the Straits of Tiran but ben-gurion distrusted the world in general and he had many fears about entry into what appeared to be a risky and rapidly evolving war his journal entry of September 27 actually reads I made three negative assumptions one or shall not be the ones to open hostilities two we shall not participate unless there's bridge agreement and their agreement must include our defense against a Jordanian an Iraqi attack three that no action will be taking contrary to us opinion without it being informed but it turns out that the anglo-french plan depended on an Israeli first strike and that they chosen the timing of their attack to coincide with the American elections in order to hobble Eisenhower's ability to react and so ben-gurion balked and the October 20th operation was called off but operation musketeer had a momentum that would not be stopped on October 22nd a French Air Force plane carrying ben-gurion Peres and Moshe Dayan landed at a quiet airstrip Southwest appearance a new deal needed to be struck not only had the French guaranteed that their Navy and Air Force would defend Israel's cities it later emerged that they agreed to share their nuclear technology with the Jewish state as well that the story will have to tell at another time and so on the third and final day of what later became known as the sailors conference I'm sure I said that wrong name for the Parisian suburb where was held ben-gurion presented a list of final objections he was willing to cooperate with the Europeans but not to be their mercenary their goal was the Suez Canal but Israel's focus was on the Gaza Strip in the Straits of Tiran both of which lay on the opposite side of the Sinai Peninsula and so with much back and forth the plan which emerged in response to his concern had three stages Stage one Israel would invade the eastern Sinai surely provoking a massive Egyptian response stage two Britain and France would call for a ceasefire on both sides Israel would announce his agreement but nevertheless continued to advance on the battlefield toward the canal and its own objectives and the Egyptians wrongly invaded would surely refuse any order to lay down their arms CH 3 then would be a combined British and French air and a fibia s-- assault aiming to secure the canal and nominally to quote separate the combatants who were refusing to comply with international resolutions Nostradamus perhaps his regime would fall Britain in France permanent members of the Security Council's would defend Israel in the international forum Israel would possess the Gaza Strip this racist Iran and the Suez Canal would be back in colonial hands what could possibly go wrong the Israelis retreated to make their final decision and as human Peres told the story he and Diane worked all night with the Allies to prepare answers to all of ben-gurion objections quote when we came back to the villa in the morning we wanted to show ben-gurion a map of the Sinai but there was none and so I pulled the pack of Kent that was smoking and took out the silver foil and Diane drew the map and the arrows on the other side the central arrow is as far as the mitla the plan was to parachute into the Mitla pass and from there to move backward toward the eastern border and so the plan for Israel's second war in less than a decade was mapped out on the back of a cigarette pack a 215 p.m. October 29 1956 for f51 Mustang fighters raced westward over the Sinai desert diving to a mere dozen feet off the ground their propellers and wingtips cut the telephone lines linking the 330 thousand men of the Egyptian third inventory to their bases in Cairo only an hour later two battalions of Israeli forces riding French made tanks half-tracks and more than a hundred jeeps equipment they had received only three days earlier from the French rolled into Egyptian territory under the command of Colonel Ariel Sharon they were headed to the Mitla pass the strategic choke point which controlled the only way to travel east to west across the central Sinai at the same time 16 douglas c-47 transports flying low to evade radar cross the sky above them and at 5 p.m. they rose to 1500 feet in the first of 395 paratroopers of the 200 and 2nd Brigade left out into space just east of the Mitla pass the paratroopers dug in at the eastern entrance and awaited the arrival of Sharon's column the link-up came at 10:30 p.m. the following night meanwhile was Sharon holding the keys to the sinai against any reinforcements from the West the rest of the Israeli army swung into action heavy armor rolled into raffia city to cut off the Gaza Strip from Egypt proper while lighter units raced down the coast toward the tip of the Sinai paratroop planes flying overhead phase 1 was an unqualified success Israel had totally surprised Egypt when not soon first got word he assumed that this was yet another Israeli retaliatory raid albeit larger than most he couldn't possibly know that it was actually what the French and the British were waiting for it was their justification for intervention and so these two happened immediately and the world of international diplomacy responded like clockwork on October 30th the American ambassador to the United Nations Henry Cabot Lodge jr. presented a resolution in the Security Council calling on Israel to withdraw from the Sinai and with an eye toward England and France requesting that member states be UN quote refrained from using force in the region well the resolution failed because it was vetoed by France and Britain of course who then announced that their own ultimatum had been given to combatants ceasefire in compliance and withdraw to positions ten miles from the Suez Canal it was an ultimatum that expired at 4:30 a.m. the next day the Israel was still miles from the canal anyway and they had no intention of halting their attack but they played out their role perfectly and accepted the ceasefire as expected Egypt rejected it they had no intention withdrawing their troops from a strategic position in response to invasion they were sitting right on the canal at that time the very next night British bombers out of Cyprus began to strike the Egyptian Air Field and the anglo-french invasion Armada sailed from Malta land Algeria to put phase three under way now our mana may sound like a very grandiose term but altogether the force consisted of nearly 80,000 British and French men on 230 warships including seven aircraft carriers in more than 70 Merchant Marine ships conscripted for transportation they were carrying hundreds of landing craft and more than 20,000 vehicles for the assault the Hitler of the Nile was about to get the blitzkrieg informed the approaching invasion Nasser accepted the UN ceasefire on November 2nd and the very next day Israel did as well under the assumption that it could force open the Straits of Tiran before the ceasefire actually went into effect but the French will cabl them a warning this was a violation of their agreement and they threatened to call off the attack and so ben-gurion withdrew Israel's acceptance by basically setting impossible conditions for the ceasefire the British airstrikes intensify as their Armada approached and Israeli troops raced down the eastern coast of the Sinai they reach Sharm el-sheikh the city of the tip of the peninsula just as the European boats took up position off of portside at the northern head of the Suez Canal ironically the war between the so called belligerence meaning Egypt in Israel ended just as the anglo-french invasion began now I'm not going to talk you through the details of the rest of Operation musketeer I'm sorry but disappointing to you though if you are a war history buff it's worth reading up on not only was it a complex operation filled with drama revisions and snafus it was actually a testing ground for many of the elements of modern war for instance when the Royal Marines executed the first helicopter-borne assault landing in history 22 choppers put ashore 415 men and 23 tons of equipment in less than an hour and a half that's pretty impressive in 1956 but for our story what matters is that the world was not going to allow the British in the French or their Israeli client to play by colonial rules anymore as the fighting raged in Egypt Americans were casting 57% of their votes for Eisenhower the timing was perfect as the French and British had plans because he was indeed distracted but in 1956 America had won power which was indisputable in the Western world money since the post-war rebuilding of the British economy the pound sterling was pegged to the American dollar and that meant that the British Treasury required significant gold reserves to keep the value of the pound stable do a little research on international monetary information if you want but for various reasons Britain had lost nearly 200 million dollars in gold reserves since September and market speculation against the pound spiked as soon as british paratroopers landed on Egyptian soil add to this the news that Syrian sabotage in support of Egypt had just cut off the supply of oil from the Middle East one on which Britain was entirely dependent and that the Americans were threatening to have the Saudis do the same and you can see their economic crisis mounting Harold Macmillan British Treasury secretary attempted to withdraw Britain's contribution to the International Monetary Fund and of regaining a little bit of gold and shoring up the pound but when he did he received a blunt no you see the US was the largest depositor in the IMF and therefore he'll veto power Britain would get no gold until she took a ceasefire at the same time as this was going on the USSR began to shoot off threatening letters to Paris London in Tel Aviv now in reality the Soviets were not sorry to see the world focus on the Suez Crisis rather than their suppression of the Hungarian Uprising they rolled tanks into hungry on October 24th only a few days before Israeli troops crossed into the Sinai but nevertheless the Soviets were not about to squander their newfound influence in the Middle East by letting their client get crushed premier and Nikolai Bulganin letter to ben-gurion written while he was still stamping out sparks of Liberty in Eastern Europe is more than a bit hypocritical here's a good quote for you all peace-loving mankind indignantly brands the criminal actions of the aggressors who attacked the territory entity sovereignty and independence of the Egyptian state disregarding this the government of Israel acting as a tool of foreign imperialist powers continues the foolhardy adventure challenging all the peoples of the East who are waging a struggle against colonialism for their freedom and independence all the peace-loving people of the world this is from the man who's grinding Eastern Europe under his boot at the same time hypocrisy aside the premier made a comment which deserves further consideration it's something I actually hope to do in a later interlude but for now just hear what he has to say carrying out the will of other people acting according to instructions from abroad the government of Israel is playing with the faith of peace with the faith of its own people in a criminal and irresponsible manner it is sowing hatred for the State of Israel amongst the peoples of the East which cannot but affect the future of Israel and which will place a question mark upon the very existence of Israel as a state now this wasn't the only letter he sent and the Premier's letter to President Eisenhower also wreaked of hypocrisy but in addition it contained a veiled threat of clear war as well quote the Soviet Union in the United States are permanent members of the Security Council and the two great powers would possess all modern types of arms including atomic and hydrogen weapons we bear particular responsibility for stopping war and re-establishing peace and calm at this threatening hour when the loftiest moral principles and the foundation and aims of the United Nations are being put to the test like I said they're being put to the test in the Middle East and in Eastern Europe but there's only one place he cares about and so the pressure was on and Britain was the first to cave Prime Minister Aidan plagued by domestic protests the Brits were not happy about the rebirth of imperialism and facing the impending financial crisis that we described agreed to the ceasefire on the evening of November 6 French premier guy Mollet was informed by telephone and though he and his generals were eager to finish the job they couldn't do it alone and so operation musketeer intended to topple the Hitler of the Nile and retake the Suez for the French and British came to a premature end after less than 43 hours of ground for so who won the war there's one thing we can say for sure Britain and France lost Prime Minister Eden sick and broken resigned in January of 1957 from France the end was a bit slower but by 1958 French soldiers returning from the failed war in Algeria and in Egypt roted out the fourth Republic and brought Charles de Gaulle to power the Sun had clearly set an empire all together I can also say that Nasser unquestionably one left himself it seems that the Egyptian dictator may have never amounted to much at all but now because of the Cold War he had a superpower patron to arm him and the last gasp of colonialism in the Sinai campaign had made him a hero of the Arab world Nasser had accomplished something that no other country in the region had yet been able to do he'd openly defied the West and came out on top Egypt Syria Saudi Arabia and Jordan signed an Arab solid there back in January of 1957 affirming their commitment to intra Arab cooperation and really laying the groundwork for much greater political and military cooperation to come pan-arabism as a worldview swept the Middle East and with it not sirs power grew it will only take another decade before he's ready to wield it again but perhaps the most dramatic symbol of the victory of Arab nationalism over European imperialism came on Christmas Eve 1956 just after the European troops departed the Canal Zone when an angry Egyptian mob in Port Saeed surrounded the 40-foot high statue of Ferdinand de Lesseps builder of the canal climbing a ladder a few men placed explosives between the stone pedestal and the bronze statue and as the crowd cheered an eruption of smoke and fire toppled the 57 year old symbol of colonial domination and how about Israel well at first glance she'd achieved her immediate goals the Straits of Tiran were open to navigation for ships coming to and from the port of a lot and the Fed the Inc bases in the Gaza Strip were destroyed there was even a heady moment on November 7th when ben-gurion made a victory speech the Knesset declaring that there had been a new revelation at Sinai claiming the Sinai Peninsula never belonged to Egypt and arguing the Jews had an ancient historic claim to the islands of son apparent Iran that controlled the entrance to the Gulf a lot but within two days things looked very different the menacing letter from the Soviet premier that we quoted threats of American diplomatic and economic embargo and even signs an American jury might not back ben-gurion if he went face to face with the President had him reconsidering his victory speech the French and the British were nowhere to be seen with their promised diplomatic cover from the fallout of Operation Kadesh as Israel knew it by noon November in fact the first elements of a blue helmeted UN emergency force made up of soldiers from half a dozen neutral States were already taking up position in the Canal Zone on the last of the anglo-french forces pull out of port Sayid just before Christmas Israel tried to hold out I mean after all she had the most Lew and in an open address to Knesset in February of 1957 ben-gurion expresses bitterness over the question with which we began are the structures of international law a help or a hindrance justice for eight years he said the United Nations has permitted acts of hostility boycott blockaded murder by the Egyptian government against Israel if the United Nations writes this wrong that will immediately solve all the problems that trouble the American president and ourselves in connection with the streets and the Gaza Strip and the question of compliance or non-compliance on Israel part will not arise at all Israel's right to peace and security is no less valid than Egypt's right to warn destruction the people of Israel cannot submit to discrimination in international relations we have believed and we shall continue to believe in the conscience of humanity we appeal to the American government in to all friends of peace and justice in the world to stand by our side and to help to secure for the people of Israel its international rights sovereign equality peace and security grand words but by March of 1957 American and international pressure force Israel to withdraw the last of its troops from the Sinai ben-gurion gamble had bought a few years of quiet but at what price Nasser was growing stronger the Arab world was awakening and Israel seemed increasingly isolated in the international world the new revelation at Sinai and another opportunity for the emergence of the conscious humanity would have to wait just a bit longer you know before I sign off I want to thank a few folks I want to thank all the folks who give their hard earned money for helping to make this show happen for keeping it free and making it widely available and I want to invite you to join them go right now to my website Jewish story dot CEO in the upper right hand corner you'll see a button that says be a patron and you can click on through and make a little bit of per podcast support if that's too complicated or more than you bargained for you can also write me an e-mail at roth Mike Feuer at gmail or send me a message at Rob Mike Feuer on Facebook and I'll give the details of how you can dedicate a show to the honor of someone with you today or in memory of someone who is not so I'll happy to share that with you just me I also like to thank the Land of Israel Network that's the Land of Israel calm for creating a platform that allows me to reach so many amazing people I want to thank the partes Institute VAR d es org dot IL for building an educational institution gives me the privilege of teaching amazing amazing Jews and I want to thank you for listening