SUEZ WAR

The UN Security Council, in the middle of 1948 called upon Israel and Arab states to sit down to talks. Israel forced Egypt to agree by driving its army to El Arish in the Sinai. Britain, recalling an Anglo-Egyptian offered to help Egypt but the latter did not want to undergo this humiliation and agreed to talks at Rhodes. Ralph Bunche of the UN organized the conference with the warning that anybody not cooperating would be blamed for the breakdown. Another reason for his success was that he insisted on bilateral talks between Israel and each of the Arab states. For this he won the Nobel Peace prize.

The General Assembly passed a resolution on 11th December 1948 asking the concerned parties to negotiate peace. The PCC or Palestine Conciliation Commission came to be formed. It comprised of USA, France and Turkey. All the Arabs went against it and insisted that Israel accept the 1947 borders as agreed in the Partition Resolution. Refugees were to be repatriated. This new approach they would henceforth use in all following defeats - the doctrine of limited-liability war. It meant that a country could opt for an all out war knowing that even in the face of defeat the status quo would remain!

1949 summer saw armistice agreements between Israel and the others - Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. Iraq had also been a party to the war but refused to come to terms. Egypt continued to remain hostile - the first step being the closing of the Suez Canal to Israel. The UN Mixed Armistice Commission, on 9th August 1949, upheld Israel’s complaint. Ralph Bunche announced - “There should be free movement for legitimate shipping and no vestiges of the wartime blockade should be allowed to remain, as they are inconsistent with both the letter and the spirit of the armistice agreements.” In 1951 August, Egypt was ordered by the Security Council to open the canal to Israel. Egypt refused. In clear terms the Foreign Minister of Egypt said that his country would not be satisfied until the name of Israel was obliterated from the map of the Middle East!

NOVEL WARFARE:
From 1955 President Nasser of Egypt began to import arms from the Soviet Union. While he slowly began to build up his arsenal he took the psychological approach of whipping up xenophobia. He reminded his countrymen that they were the disciples of the Pharaohs and the children of Islam. He exhorted them to cleanse the land of Palestine. Until then there would be no peace but only the call of vengeance and death for Israel. Arab terrorists were the ‘heroes’ or fedayeen who were trained and equipped to provoke border action, infiltrate into Israel, and commit acts of sabotage and murder. Jordan had to bear the brunt of Israel’s reprisals as the Fedayeen were based there. The attacks were in violation of the armistice agreement but the UN condemned Israel for aggression because of the counter attacks the latter had to undertake.

Trouble escalated with Egypt blocking the Straits of Tiran and nationalizing the Suez Canal in July 1956. Nasser clearly declared on 14th October that Egypt was not alone in its fight against Israel. His mission was to free the Arab world from Israeli designs - designs which originated abroad. With such strong feeling of hate, talking about peace and negotiations was pointless. Within two weeks Egypt concluded a tripartite agreement with Syria and Jordan. Nasser came to command all three armies.

The Suez Canal as well as the Gulf of Aqaba was blocked to Israel. Fedayeen strikes intensified. This coupled with hot statements from the Arabs made Israel, supported by Britain and France, attack Egypt on 29th October 1956. Abba Eban, the Israeli representative in the UN explained the position of his country on 30th October.
Contradicting the Armistice Agreement for the following six years skirmishes and intermittent warfare continued:

1) 1,843 cases of armed robbery and theft.
2) 1,339 cases of clashes with Egypt.
3) 435 cases of incursions from Egyptian territory.
4) 172 cases of sabotage by Fedayeen.
5) 364 Israelis wounded.
6) 101 Israelis killed.

In 1956 alone 28 Israelis were killed and 127 wounded.

The position had become untenable for Israel. She had a relatively small standing army and relied mainly on reserves in the event of a crisis. This meant that by calling frequently upon the reserves the country would become immobilized.

THE ROUTING OF EGYPT BY ISRAEL:
In 1956 Israel decided on war. Within three days 1000,000 soldiers were brought into action. It took 43 hours to make the air force fully operable. Landing in Sinai, paratroopers proceeded swiftly towards the Suez Canal without any resistance. It was only the British and French that made them check the onward march. The Egyptians ignored Anglo-French requests to withdraw to the west bank of the Canal on the plea that they were the ‘victims’ and that Israel was being allowed to camp just 10 miles east of the Suez.
30th October saw the USA sponsoring a Security Council resolution asking for immediate withdrawal of Israel. Britain and France exercised their veto and on the following day stared air attacks on Egyptian airfields near the Suez Canal. Israeli forces (IDF armed corps) routed the Egyptians, sweeping across the desert and taking into control nearly the entire Sinai by 5th November. On that very day British and French paratroopers landed near Port Said and came up to 25 miles of the city of Suez. Suddenly Britain agreed to a cease-fire.

It was Soviet pressure of threatening to use ‘every kind of modern destructive weapon’ that made Britain react. The USA too had her interests - wanted to make a much needed $1 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund contingent in the event of cease-fire. The French vainly tried to persuade the British to finish the job they had started - the task of capturing the Canal. But all that could be gained was that Britain took some time before agreeing to the cease-fire.

Although the allies had failed to push the matter to the end, Israel was satisfied with the operation that took only a hundred hours. In the end Israel held the Gaza strip and had reached as far as Sharm-al-Sheikh along the Red Sea. The Israeli death toll was 231 soldiers.

USA ENFORCES WITHDRAWAL OF ISRAEL:
President Eisenhower of USA was far from happy with the secret pact between Israel, Britain and France to evict Egypt from the Suez Canal. USA’s plea for peace had been ignored and moreover she had been kept uninformed. Tensions broke out. America turned to the Soviet Union (just after the latter’s invasion of Hungary) to force Israeli withdrawal. The threat was discontinuance of assistance, UN sanctions and expulsion from the world body. Consequently Israeli had to withdraw from the regions it had conquered without getting any concessions from Egypt. Thus was sown the seeds of the 1967 war.

Another reason for Ben Gurion, the Israeli Premier conceding to the demands of Eisenhower, before finally evacuating strategically placed Sharm-al-Sheikh was that the latter had given the assurance that the Suez Canal would be kept open. That apart, USA sponsored a resolution creating United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) to supervise the regions vacated by Israel.

For sometime the Fedayeen were kept in check but they would soon resume their activities by regrouping themselves loosely as a terrorist organization known as the PLO or Palestine Liberation Organization.

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