Suez Crisis I

Setting the scene for the infamous and hardly remembered Suez Crisis. The Suez Crisis was what brought an end to European political dominance and finally finished the ancient French and British Empires. This episode covers such topics as the foundation of Israel by David Ben-Gurion, European decolonization, and the history of the Suez region. 

Chapters

• 1:11 Suez History
• 5:50 David Ben-Gurion
• 7:40 Clashes in Palestine
• 8:59 Isreal Declares Independence
• 13:02 Decolonization
• 18:54 Egypt
• 20:51 Operation Eagle and Revolution

Transcript

Suez Crisis
On January 31st 2003 a secret meeting is taking place… a meeting between the then Prime minister of Great Britian Tony Blair and the President of the united states George W Bush… In this meeting the two leaders are discussing a way to provoke a war with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq,  with Bush floating the idea of painting a U-2 spyplane in United Nations colors and letting it fly low over Iraq to provoke Iraq into shooting it down, thus providing a pretext for the subsequent invasion. It also shows Bush and Blair making a secret deal to carry out the invasion regardless of whether weapons of mass destruction were discovered by UN weapons inspectors, in direct contradiction to statements made by Blair to British Parliament afterwards that Saddam would be given a final chance to disarm.
 A month and a half later Bush and Blair would get their Invasion and it would be met with almost universal condemnation even from some of the united states and united Kingdoms closest and oldest allies…
17 years later the effects of this secret meeting are still being felt.
50 years before the Bush-Blair 2003 Iraq memo as it is known today, another secret meeting was taking place… A meeting that like the Bush-Blair memo isn’t very well remembered today, and had similar effects on the countries attending the meeting…

Chapter 1 Suez canal History and construction.
In Egypt there is a region between The Sinai peninsula (in asia) and where the Nile pours into the Mediterranean,(in Africa)  today this region is called The Suez, The Suez is the only point where Africa and Asia touch, at its shortest point from Port Sa’id in the north to (Port Tawfik) in the south it consists of a 193 kilometer stretch
 lying at the corssroads of asia and Africa this region has been extremely important.
 Numerous canals had been built and closed dating as far back as 1850 BC
Some closed due to war and conquest others due to natural events
Venice conceived the idea in 1488 after Bartolomeu diaz opened a trade route with India Via South Africa although this never happened
During 16th century the ottomans considered opening a navigatiable canal but it was deemed too expensive
In 1798 Napoleon showed interest in finding the remnants of an ancient waterway pass
He gathered a large group of archeologists, scientists, cartographers, and engineers their discoveries were recorded in (Description De L’egypt) it showed detailed maps depicting the discovery of an ancient canal connecting the red sea to the Nile
Napoleon wanted to construct the Suez Canal however this never happened due to the misinformation that the Red Sea was 10 Meters higher than the Mediterranean 
In 1830 a report was submitted to the English government claiming that the water level was the same and the canal was feasible. Britian ignored they feared the canal would disrupt trade with india and preferred a connection by train from Alexandria via Cairo to suez which was built instead.
Ironically this Canal would become in the words of the famous German Chancellor Otto von Bismark “The Spinal Cord of the British empire” it would also lead to the Empires downfall…

In 1854 Sa’id Pasha was a Khedive (the Viceroy of Egypt )
Egypt at this time was a province of the ottoman empire, however due to the slow and painful decline the ottoman empire had been experiencing for the past few centuries Egypt was basically independent
Pasha was a francophone educated in paris, he liked French culture and was convinced by Ferdinand De Lesseps (a former French diplomant to Egypt turned businessman) to build the suez canal 
The deal was that The Suez company (A new French company with the Egyptian government originally controlling 44% of the shares and the remainder being owned by wealthy Egyptian and French investors)   would pay for and build the canal with the land being leased for 99 years , after the 99 years the land would be returned to Egypt
The Suez Canal company was created on the 15th of December 1858

Work started on the future Port Sa’id (named after Sa’id Pasha) where the canal today flows into the Mediterranean on the 25th of april 1859
The Canal was to be 193 kilometers
It Shortened the trip from London to asia by 9,000 kilometres
Between 1859-1869 the canal was constructed. the first 5 years it was built by Egyptian peasants who were essentially slaves, it was very difficult and dangerous work and many thousands of them died. For the last 5 years Europeans with steam powered shovels finished the canal.
In 1875 The leader of Egpyt, who was the son of Sa’id Pasha was a man named Isma’il Pasha. 
Ismail pasha was a Great reformer. His reforms however Bankrupted Egypt and in 1875 he was forced to sell the Egyptian shares to the British government.
From 1882 Egypt was Occupied by the british during the Anglo-Egyptian war Britian would have a military presence in Egypt until 1956
2 years later The Berlin Conference occurs, it carved up Africa’s remaining countries giving the majority of land to the two most powerful European nations The United Kingdom and France
In 1888 the Constantinople convention agreed all countries could use canal during peace or war (but this wasn’t always followed the british who constantly had a military presence in the region would often use the canal to their benefit in times of war)

CHAPTER 2 BALFOUR DECLARATION AND WHATS GOING ON IN EUROPE WW1 AND 
The European powers over the course of about 30 years would go from being the most powerful and dominant countries to second class players. 
In 1914 WW1 starts, this 4 year war completely devastated mainland Europe, 
The suez canal and Egypt were targets of the Central powers during The Great War,
The Ottoman Empire at this time controlled Palestine and the levant which contained many different ethnic groups some of whom were the jews and arabs 
in 1917 Britian who had a strong military presence over Egypt announced the Balfour declaration stating  support for the establishment of a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine, this was in order to weaken the already dying ottoman empire who fought for the Central powers in world war 1. 
The British time and time again offered national sovereignty to the many ethnic groups of the multi homogenous ottoman empire in an attempt to destroy it from the inside.
Enter David GrUn
David Grun or today as he is known David Ben-Gurion is considered one of the founding fathers if not The founding father of ISreal today. The international airport in isreal is named after him.
Ben-Gurion was a staunch Zionist working all of his life to achieve the eventual return of the Jews to the holy land (Palestine)
Ben-Gurion was a polygot and spoke, Polish, Yiddish, Turkish, English,Hebrew, some French and attempted to learn Arabic but was unable to
He was very religious and held Socialistic-Community like views but that didn’t mean his loyalties lied with the soviets or the west for that matter, his loyalties lied entirely with Zionism and the jews, 
For example he Was more proud of the Immigration of jews rather than victory over the arabs in the future conflicts.
He was Very Charismatic, Loved by Isrealis, today he is Revered as The father of Isreal
His father was a leader of the Hovevei Zion (Lovers of Zion) a movement among the oppressed jews of easern Europe who had the aim to avoid persecution by emigrating to palestine, so in 1906 the 20 year old Grun arrived in Palestine
Ben-Gurion is the name of one of the ancient Jewish leaders during The Great Revolt (first jewish-roman war) Ben-gurion was inspired by the middle age chronicler Josephus Gurion to adopt the name.

While world war 1  was raging on the Ottomans who were suspicious of Ben-gurion’s Zionist activity expelled him from the Ottoman Empire
He moved to New York, and married
As the British supplanted Ottoman rule in the middle east he realized he could rely on british and American jews for Zionist support
Ben-Gurion enlisted in the British armies Jewish legion to liberate the middle east for Jews 
After the end of the war The british who had essentially promised land to everyone Reneged on their promises and along with France kept a colonial presence over the former territories of the ottoman empire, 
Ben-Gurion continued his fight for the Jewish homeland in Palestine and jews continued to emigrate en mass

Over the next 20 some years as more jews emigrated to Palestine , anxiety mounted among the Palestinian arabs who felt as if they were being swamped by jews, resulting in violent clashes between the two communities
On the Wikipedia page for List of killings and massacres in Mandatory Palestine between the years 1920 – 1948 (the declaration of Isreali independence) 
Over 115 separate incidents where at least 3 people were killed are listed, Thousands of jews and arabs have been killed.
The rising tensions led to speculations of Genocide on both sides,
according to an interview in an 11 October 1947 article of Akhbar al-Yom, Azzam said: "I personally wish that the Jews do not drive us to this war, as this will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades"
The next month a civil war officially erupted in British Mandatory Palestine

According to the Israeli Yehoshafat Harkabi, "Plan Dalet" called for the conquest of Arab towns and villages inside and along the borders of the area allocated to the proposed Jewish State in the UN Partition Plan.[3] In case of resistance, the population of conquered villages was to be expelled outside the borders of the Jewish state. If no resistance was met, the residents could stay put, under military rule
This led to a mass exodus of Palestinian’s 

Chapter 3 1948 Arab Isreali War
On May 14th David Ben-Gurion officially declares Isreal an independent state.
 with UN,US, and Soviet support Isreal was established
Isreals Goals as stated by Ben Gurion 
1. “strive to develop the land for the good of all its residents”
2. “be based upon foundations of liberty, justice and peace
3. “isreal would ensure social and political rights to all citizens without discrimination of religion race or sex”

Ben-Gurion maintained the Idea of equal rights to all citizens including Arabs and safeguard of the holy places of all religions despite struggle with arabs in an attempt to avoid the coming war, he was an aggressive leader however he was aware of the strength of his enemies

Palestine was decided by the UN to be divided into 2 states Palestine and Isreal
33 countries approved (in UN vote) including France, Usa and USSR
13 countries voted against it (virtually all Arab)
10 abstained from voting Including Great Britian
Arabs walked out of UN in protest
The result was the continuation of the Palastenian mass exodus and creation of numerous stateless refugees
Jewish immigration skyrocketed 
The next day,  the Arab League forms with Egypt Jordan Syria Lebanon and Iraq in response to the Isreali declaration of independence 
The Arabs invade and The UN intervened with a 4 week ceasfire
Isreal Began importing Arms from Czechslovakia – Operation Balak as it was called proved to be of extreme importance to the new isreali state, before the operation there was roughly one weapon for every three isreali fighters
Although both sides increased their manpower over the first few months of the war, the Israeli forces grew steadily as a result of the progressive mobilization of Israeli society and the influx of an average of 10,300 immigrants each month.
Following Israeli independence, the Israelis managed to build three Sherman tanks from scrap-heap material found in abandoned British ordnance depots.[108]
The isreali’s also managed to obtain stocks of British weapons due to the logistical complexity of the British withdrawal, and the corruption of a number of officials
The isreali’s found a lot of sympathy from neutral parties, for example two British soldiers sympathetic to the Israelis stole two Cromwell tanks from an arms depot in the Haifa port area, smashing them through the unguarded gates, and joined the IDF with the tanks. These two tanks would form the basis of the Israeli Armored Corps

When the ceasfire ended the isrealis launched a counter offensive (70,000 palestinians fled)
The Isreali’s occupied the areas allocated to the palestinians
The arab Union had no cooperations or coordination, King Abdollah of Transjordan (modern day Jordan) assumed the Arab Legion a group of about 10,000 soldiers trained by the british, they were said to be the strongest fighters of the war.
King Farouk of Egypt feared that King Abdollah would be seen as the main champion and leader of the arab world, he thought Abdollah’s success would lead to his own personal aspirations being overshadowed
All of the arab nations feuded with each other over their own terrertorial gains, abdollah wanted the west bank with a port on the Mediterranean,
Farouk wanted the lands of southern Palestine and declared a gaza based (Egyptian led) government in the south along the modern day Gaza strip
Iraq wanted all of the fertile crescent. The infighting weakend the arabs and allowed the isreali’s to gain a foothold In the region. 
The Palestinian leaders also feuded with each other and were unable to come up with a single plan of action

ISreal began destroying Egypt in the south the arab states did not intervene or assist, so the egyptians were required to ask britian for help. 
Eventually all arab states would sign separate peace agreements with Isreal and the isreali borders would become the modern day borders
Isreal occupied 98% of Palestinian terriroty
Gaza becomes an egpytian territory
And Jordan was gifted the west bank as a token of “their loyalty to Britian” (loyalty because they didn’t proceed with their invasion of Isreal.

The winners of this war were Isreal who won a stunning victory over numerically superior Arabic nations and Jordan who achieved their political goals (minus gaining access to the Mediterranean sea) of getting the west bank
The losers were the Palestinians and Egyptians which would set up the template for our future war…

Chapter 4 the UK, France, And Decolonization
While Isreal and the arab nations were fighting, Europe was attempting to rebuild itself, The destruction from both world wars and its physical and economic impacts left Britian and France in precarious positions.

In 1945 the Labour party takes power in England declaring the manifesto “ Let Us Face the Future: A Declaration of Labour Policy for the Consideration of the Nation , Victory in War must be followed by a Prosperous Peace”

Clement Atlee came to power as the prime minister of the United Kingdom, Atlee is today consistently ranked the best of Britians Prime minisers (along with his predecessor and successor the more well-known Winston Churchill).
Atlee was a socialist who said “The Aim of socialism is to give greater freedom to the individual” he is credited with making The united kingdom a welfare state as well as being a key architect of NATO
Japan during world war 2 had occupied all of the east Asian colonies of Britian and France this caused a decline in prestige and led them to face the tumultuous situation of decolonization
The belief in self determination and racial equality had become more prevalent and White mans burden was becoming a taboo

In march of 1946 Attlee declared a British cabinet mission will visit india to talk with the INC (indian national Congress) and Muslim league to talk about acceptance of their propositions
Britian Offered india a draft which proposed dominion status to be granted after war (in an attempt to gain their support)
While it was a colony the British hadn’t treated India well, and it was It was Rejected by Mohandas K. Gandi who said “it’s a post dated cheque in a chasing bank”
India gained its Independence by august 1947, Gandhi had been leading a peaceful movement for independence for some time now
 the British considered India “The Jewel of the Brtiish Crown” and its most powerful colony, 
Britian similar to what they had promised the arabs and jews during world war 1 had promised to give India independence during world war 2, Britain also granted independence because its resources were drained and it needed to repair itself… 
The British also feared India would erupt into civil war as tensions grew between the muslims and the hindus, with the muslim faction being particulary disdainful due to the british support of the Jews in palestine
The Sun was setting on The British Empire…
Britians military and political prestigue continued to decline for the next 7 years…

The British were embarrassed to play second fiddle to the USA and USSR the French were humiliated to have had to deal with a military occupation of their country as well as collaboration with their historic enemy the Germans.
 This created a Napoleon Complex in the French nation
Roughly 100 years before France was considered the greatest nation with the strongest military in the world, now France was barely managing to keep itself afloat…
The French were attempting to reform their government with the French 4th republic, essentially it was a revival of the 3rd republic with much of the same government in place, however they attempted to fix some of the problems in with the previous government,
 specifically with the communist factions… 
In order to do this the French 4th republic put into place a lot of social reform and economic development, 
By 1946 the government had established, a comprehensive social security system, unemployment, disability, old age pension, and healthcare to all citizens
The executive Branch of government was strengthened in an attempt to prevent the unstable situation that had occurred with the French 3rd republic
One of the main problems with the 4th republic was frequent changes in the government, between 1946 and 1958 France had 21 different administrations in its short 12 years of history,

The French took a different route with decolonization, where the English begrudgingly allowed India and most of its other colonies independence the French feeling castrated by what had happened to them in the second world war took a much stronger stance…
French Indochina would be what you could consider “the jewel of the French crown,” it was one of the east Asian colonies, mentioned earlier that had been occupied by the Japanese. Today it would be Vietnam Cambodia and laos 
In 1945 the French returned to Hannoy and Saigon
Ho Chi Minh, a communist who was educated in paris and trained in Moscow, was a hero of wartime he was supported by all Vietnamese not just the communists
 he wanted to modernize Vietnam, but he needed French assistance to do this, so he asked for money and engineers… instead the French installed a puppet government.
He started a guerrilla war, basing his ideology on Mao Zedong’s Communism, 
In an interview from CBS Ho was asked “The French have tanks and Napalm, how can you beat them” Ho replied “we have a secret weapon, Nationalism”
The French suffered heavy casualties in the guerrilla war
Until 1950 it was a local conflict, the French VS Vietnamese
In 1950 the Americans sent 100 million dollars in AID (in today’s money about 400 million USD) The Americans were in the deep stages of the cold war and wanted to stop communism by containment
By fall 1953 the French had 500,000 men in Indochina a 2-1 numerical superiority over Vietnam 
By 1954 the battle of Dien Bien Phu the French were defeated and expelled
Containment was implement to stop the spread of communism and the Americans got involved in what would become a disastrous war for themselves
But probably the most important “colonial possession” for France was Algeria… France didn’t think of Algeria the same way it thought of Tunisia, morocco or even Vietnam for that matter. Since 1830 France treated Algeria as an extension of France itself. 1,000,000 Frenchmen lived in Algiers the capital city, by 1950
Seeing the weakness of the French after Dien Bien Phu on November 1st 1954 the Algerian war begins 
Similar to how the British had treated the Arabs and jews the French promised greater self-rule after world war 2 but didn’t fulfil its promises
The FLN (National Liberation Front) began a guerilla war against France ambushing patrols and Derailing trains the rebels also destroyed Algerian Villages loyal to the French,
 They sought UN recognition and the establishment of a sovereign Algerian state
It would become a brutal war with many atrocities on both sides,
Vietnam and Algeria were far more violent uprisings than India,

EGYPT CHAPTER 5
Egypt was never a part of the British Empire, It was a protectorate, The difference being that Egypt still had de facto independence,
the British had militarily occupied egypt and maintained a presence there for about 70 years, for the main purpose of “Defending” the Suez canal. 
88,000 British soldiers were stationed on the banks of the Suez Canal It was the largest military base in the world. This angererd the Egyptians who felt as if they were a colony. 
The UK unilaterally declared Egyptian independence in 1922 because of the growing nationalist sentiment in the country and frequent insurrections, however British influence continued to dominate Egypt's political life and fostered fiscal, administrative, and governmental reforms.
King Farouk inherited the throne in 1936, he was disliked, lived a lavish lifestyle, was corrupt and weak.
During world war 2 Egypt had been attacked by the Italians from Libya, they opted for neutrality but ended up fighting alongside the British. The Axis advance throughout Egypt threatened British control of the Suez Canal, the Middle East and its oil resources. The Second Battle of El Alamein occurred about 100 kilometers west of Alexandria and marked a significant turning point of World War II and was the first major victory by British Commonwealth forces over the German Army. It is generally considered along with the battle of Stalingrad to be the turning point of the war.
During world war 2  King Farouk’s decision to keep all the lights burning at his palace in Alexandria, during a time when the city was under blackout in fear of an Italian bombing, particularly angered some.
After the war, King Farouk brought large numbers of German former military and intelligence personnel and ranking ex-Nazis to Egypt as "advisors". This move infuriated the British, who had been training and assisting the Egyptian Army since the creation of the Kingdom of Egypt in 1922.[4]

Frequent terrorist and civilian attacks had happened to the british soldiers as well as western civilians, on January 25th, 1952 the situation reached a fever pitch in the city of Ismailia, located in the central suez region and named after the great reformer himself, Ismail pasha…

EGYPT (BRITISH MILITARY ACTION, ISMAILIA) CHAPTER 6
The following is an official report to the house of commons regarding the events of January 25th 1952 codenamed operation Eagle…
“On 16th October, 1951, the Egyptian police failed to control the riots which broke out in Ismailia and British troops had to restore order. After this 600 auxiliary police arrived from Cairo.
Egyptian terrorists had been and continued attacking our troops and convoys while the Egyptian police looked on. In some cases the auxiliary police, alongside the terrorists, attacked our troops. On 17th, 18th and 19th November, 1951, the auxiliary police fired on our patrols in Ismailia. After this General Erskine arranged for the regular and auxiliary Egyptian police to remain in their barracks while our families evacuated the town. After this both regular and auxiliary police in Ismailia were replaced by fresh companies from Cairo.
The normal rôle in Egypt of auxiliary police is to provide a reserve for riot duty armed with staves. Those sent to the Canal Zone on both occasions were armed with rifles.
After the change over had taken place evidence increased that the new auxiliary police were taking part in attacks on our troops and installations. On 3rd and 4th December, 1951, auxiliary police opened fire on our troops near the water filtration plant outside Suez and killed 11. On 18th December, 1951, fire from the police station in Ismailia killed a British officer passing in a jeep.
Twenty auxiliary police and four terrorists in a lorry attacked a road block near Tel-El-Kebir. As a result of this and other attacks in the neighbourhood our troops cleared the area, finding, in the police station compound of El Hammada (a small village), a senior police major-general and 116 armed police, as well as quantities of ammunition and other arms.
The steadily mounting casualties amongst our troops and the attacks upon them caused the Commander-in-Chief, at the end of November, 1951, to recommend the disarming of the auxiliary police. On 7th December, 1951, His Majesty's Government authorised the Commander-in-Chief to take this step if the situation demanded it.
On 23rd January, 1952, when our casualties had reached 33 killed and 69 wounded, the Commander-in-Chief told the Chiefs of Staff that, in view of the repeated evidence of attack by the auxiliary police, he considered that he must disarm those in Ismailia, and that he had ordered General Erskine to do so. His Majesty's Government approved this decision.
Location of Egyptian Police on morning of 25th January.
The position in Ismailia on the morning of 25th January was:—
1. (a) About 400 Egyptian police, of whom about 60 were regulars, were in the Caracol, the normal regular Police Station and the Governor's Office.
2. (b) Some 600 Egyptian police, almost all auxiliaries, were in the Bureau Sanitaire located about 400 yards distant from the Caracol. The Bureau Sanitaire is normally the health office but was taken over as temporary barracks for the additional auxiliary police.
§The major operations took place against the Bureau Sanitaire of which the occupants were almost all auxiliary police. This building had been substantially fortified since its occupation by the auxiliary police.
§At 0614 hours and continuing until 0640 hours broadcasts were made from loudspeaker vans calling upon the police to surrender. At 0656 hours firing by the police started from the Bureau Sanitaire and continued with increasing intensity until 0710 hours. We then retaliated by firing one round of blank from a 20-pounder tank gun as a warning. The police continued to fire.
§At 0715 hours we returned the fire for the first time, six rounds of 20-pounder tank gun and a few rounds of two-pounder being fired as well as small arms. This produced a very heavy fusillade from the police.
A fresh broadcast was then made, followed by a pause to give them time to surrender. At 0815 hours fire was again opened by us on the same scale, followed by a broadcast with another pause for surrender. All this had no effect on the police and they continued to fire.
At 0900 hours two platoons of our infantry, supported by tanks, forced their way inside the walled compound of the Bureau Sanitaire which was used as barracks by the auxiliary police. Our infantry quickly suffered fourteen casualties and were withdrawn.
Final Surrender
At 1000 hours fire was opened again and at 1037 hours surrender started. We suffered three killed and 13 wounded. The Egyptian police casualties were 41 killed, 73 wounded, and 886 surrendered.
If the Egyptian Government had maintained proper control over their police forces and, in particular, their auxiliaries, it would never have been necessary to carry out the operation at all.”
Operation Eagle Humiliated the already angry Egyptians and The following day burning and looting of some 750 retail shops, cafes, cinemas, hotels, restaurants, theatres, nightclubs, and the city's Opera House—in downtown Cairo occured, 9 British and 26 westerners were killed, The protestors furiously kicked the bodies of the foreigners. This would come to be known in History as Black Saturday… 
What happened next was the downfall as well as rebirth of a nation… and the Rising of the Father of the Pan-arabist Idea… Gamel Abdel Nasser…
END OF PART 1