The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict #30: When James Bond Collides in Mission Impossible
The Result is Ocean's Eleven With Armies of 3 Countries: Building Task Force at the Sèvres Conference
In October 1956, the French convened a secret tripartite meeting between France, the United Kingdom, and Israel to discuss the military initiative against Egypt. After compromises on the part of all the participants in the tripartite conference, the parties reached an agreement. They signed the protocol of the conference, which included the commitments of the powers towards Israel, the main ones being military aid for the defense of the Israeli home front, free movement of Israeli vessels in the Straits of Tiran, regardless of the political results of the war, and also opening the Gulf of Eilat to Israeli sailing.
It was agreed that the operation would begin with a planned act of provocation by Israel in Egypt, which would be a reason for the United Kingdom and France to submit an ultimatum demanding the immediate evacuation of all military forces on both sides of the Suez Canal, to ensure the peace of international navigation in the canal. Israel would accept the ultimatum, so to speak, and would be ready to release the force. Assuming that Egypt refused the demand, the United Kingdom and France would start a war with Egypt.
The two powers pledged that the post-war arrangements would ensure the free movement of Israeli vessels in the Straits of Tiran, the destruction of the "fedayeen" bases in the Gaza Strip and on the Sinai border, and so that the Gaza Strip could no longer be used as a base for terrorist operations against Israel. In addition, Israel was also attributed to a series of political goals that included the overthrow of Gamal Abdel Nasser's regime, the achievement of a peace agreement with Egypt, and the opening of the Suez Canal to Israeli shipping.
Sinai War, also known as Operation Kadesh and the Suez Crisis of 1956
The operation to take over the Suez Canal, the real goal of the war in terms of the parties that initiated it, i.e., the United Kingdom and France, was supposed to begin immediately after Israel's opening move, but the operation was postponed for a day. The British-French joint command decided to allow the Israeli and Egyptian forces to skirmish with each other in the Sinai desert, thereby facilitating the attack on the canal. When the IDF had already taken control of the Sinai Peninsula, the British and French forces took control of the northern canal cities and began to move south.
When The Kids Fight, A Responsible Adult Is Needed To Sort Things Out
In response to the invasion, the Egyptians sank ships in the canal and blocked it, and Arab countries disrupted the supply of oil to Western countries. The United States pressured the United Kingdom to withdraw from Egypt, and the Soviet Union, which feared losing its influence in the region, threatened war if the military forces did not withdraw.
At the initiative of the United States and the Soviet Union, a resolution was passed by the UN Security Council, calling for the operation to be halted and all forces to be withdrawn.
At the end of the war, the Prime Minister of the Soviet Union, Nikolai Bulganin, sent harsh messages to France, the United Kingdom, and Israel, defining their actions as aggression and including a threat of attack. Two days later, the UN plenary passed a resolution demanding that the invading countries withdraw from the territories they occupied. Following this resolution, David Ben-Gurion ordered the UN ambassador, Abba Evan, to announce that Israel would withdraw by March 1957. In exchange for the withdrawal, the United States undertook to ensure Israel's freedom of maritime passage in the Straits of Tiran. An international UN emergency force was deployed on the Egyptian side of the border with Israel, as well as in Sharm el-Sheikh. As a result, the shipping lane in the Gulf of Eilat remained open to the free movement of Israeli vessels.
The Aftermath
The United Kingdom and France suffered a severe strategic defeat in the war, and their political standing was damaged. The United Nations passed a resolution granting the Suez Canal ownership to Egypt, and thus, they failed to achieve the operation's main goal. In addition, a significant rift opened within the NATO organization between the United States, which opposed the operation, and its two European allies, and they dropped their positions as world powers. As a result, the Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom and France had to resign.
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Although the Egyptian army was defeated in the battles, politically, Egypt came out strengthened. In addition to receiving ownership of the Suez Canal, Egypt maintained its control over the Sinai Peninsula, thus being able to present a firm stance against an attack by two powers and Israel. Gamal Abdel Nasser's position was established as an important leader of the Third World countries, and Egypt won a central leadership position in the Arab, Muslim, and African worlds.
Although the great powers pushed David Ben-Gurion into a corner and left him no choice but to start a war, Israel won several significant achievements, including the freedom of maritime navigation in the Gulf of Eilat guaranteed by a UN resolution, the removal of the threat from the Egyptian army and infiltrators, and all of the country's borders except the Syrian border were quiet for several years. Israel's military position became very strong in the eyes of the countries of the world, a fact that also had economic significance, as many developing countries began to purchase military technology and consult on security and agricultural issues from Israel. It's not an easy or even impossible task to oppose a greater power on which a country's entire existence depends for its survival. David Ben-Gurion negotiated firmly, and despite receiving a signed agreement, he didn't blindly trust the greatest powers' word or the political agreement and led the IDF to victory on the battlefield.
On the other hand, long-term strategic goals attributed to Israel, such as weakening and even overthrowing the regime of Abdel Nasser, forcing the beginning of a peace process with Egypt, and opening the Suez Canal to Israeli shipping, were not achieved.
"Older men declare war. But it is the youth that must fight and die." - Henry A. Kissinger
In this war, Israel had 172 dead, 817 wounded, three missing, and one prisoner who was returned in a prisoner exchange deal, along with three soldiers who were captured about a year before the war. Egypt lost between 1,500 and 3,000 soldiers. About 6,000 were captured, and large quantities of weapons, ammunition, tanks, and other military equipment fell into the hands of the IDF.
Flash Forward To 2023
Following the war in Gaza, commercial maritime vessels en route to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal are not safe. They are subject to terror attacks by the Houthi Movement in Yemen, a terrorist organization sponsored by Iran. As a result, many global shipping companies have announced suspending their shipments through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal until they are safe again. The Suez Canal is the fastest and most direct maritime trade link between Asia and Europe. Approximately 12% of global trade passes through the Suez Canal, representing 30% of all global container traffic. Until the terror problem is resolved, shipping companies will divert the traffic of ships around Africa, extending the journey by 7-10 days and causing up to a 22-day delay compared to using the Suez Canal. Maritime disruptions in the Suez Canal and the Red Sea due to the current crisis are expected to affect 10% of world trade and will lead to an increase in general transport fares. The main loser from Houthi terrorism is Egypt, which is in a severe economic crisis and has also lost a significant part of the country's main source of income: the sea crossing in the Suez Canal.
What does this mean to ordinary people reading this in the US? This is a live example of how a terrorist organization impacts the global supply chain and shows one of the causes of global inflation, which also affects your life. As a result of terror attacks by the Houthi, 10% of all maritime trade has a broader effect on all the goods produced in the world; thus, the global supply chain will suffer delays, shortages, and increases in the cost of goods. Finished products that consumers buy at Target, Walmart, or Amazon, for example, are manufactured in different regions of the world and contain several layers of production until the consumer sees the product on the shelf or available online. Therefore, dear students, if you think that a war on the other side of the world does not affect your life, you may be surprised to realize that it does affect your household expenditure. So, if you wonder who is going to pay the bill? That’s right - it’s you and all the other consumers in the world.?
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