A DIFFERENT WAR

 

A DIFFERENT WAR

The idea for “Grandma’s Army” began when I had seven grandchildren in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) at the same time.  However, my family’s participation in the IDF started off  much earlier - when Israel barely had an army and I was decidedly not a grandma!  

The war, in which my husband  took part, is  usually known as the Suez Crisis. It took place only eight years after the Israeli Declaration of Independence, and had far-reaching consequences - at both global and regional levels. 

On regional levels, the war gave an impetus to the spread of pan-Arabic ideology, leading to the unification of Syria and Egypt and creating the UAR (United Arab Republic).

On global levels it marked, not only the end of the British and French influence in the Middle East, but also the decline of the two European powers. It’s outcome was arguably one of the most significant episodes in post-1945 British history, highlighting Britain's declining status. Instead, the US gradually became the new guardian of Israel’s interests.

After the War of Independence  (from 1949 to 1953), terrorists called “fedayeen” (Arab raiders) cut across badly guarded borders to Israel. They derailed trains, burned buses, blew up buildings and murdered more than 1,300 civilians.

Housing, clothes, food and fuel were scarce. There was massive emigration to Western countries. To compound the lack of basic necessities, in those four years the Jewish population of Israel more than doubled. All around the Mediterranean the frustrated Arab governments turned on their Jews and drove them out. The beleaguered new Jewish State of 600,000 took in 700,000 Jewish refugees!

The Suez Crisis was precipitated by Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser’s decision in July 1956 to nationalize the 120-mile Suez Canal, which had been jointly controlled by Great Britain and France. Nasser  hoped to charge tolls that would pay for construction of the Aswan Dam across the Nile River, a project that Western countries had refused to finance. More than two-thirds of the oil used by Europe flowed through the strategically vital waterway connecting the Mediterranean and Red Seas, and British Prime Minister Anthony Eden vowed to reclaim the “great imperial lifeline.”

Colonel Nasser was a flamboyant revolutionary nationalist. In his book “The Philosophy of the Revolution”, he proclaims that he’ll unite the Arabs in one great nation, revenge their defeat in 1948, and wipe out “the Zionist entity” once and for all.

In addition to the fedayeen terrorists, Nasser also blocked the Straits of Tiran, preventing Israel from using the Canal. The Israelis knew they would sooner or later have to fight Nasser and, with very few resources, the best way was with the British and the French, not alone.

Israel joined Great Britain and France in a tripartite invasion that began on October 29, 1956, when Israeli armed forces agreed to attack the Sinai Peninsula, thereby becoming the aggressors. Ben-Gurion was urging the English Foreign Minister, Selwyn Lloyd to advance the date of their landing in Suez. The French were all for that. But the British insisted they won’t land until about a week after the Israelis  invaded Sinai. Ben Gurion argued that we’d be fighting alone all that time. The Egyptians could bomb our cities. The Russians might even intervene. “Well” Lloyd said, he was sorry about that, but England couldn’t be seen as starting a war, her allies would disapprove.