The Suez Crisis Of 1956 Essay -- Arab-Israeli Conflict History Arabs I

The Suez Crisis of 1956IntroductionAmong the just about important foundations in the continuing Arab-Israeliconflict was the seeds that were sown in the aftermath of the 1956 SinaiCampaign, or the Suez Crisis. Whatever the proceeding is referred to as, itsconsequences involving both relations internal to the Middle East and with theworld are impossible to ignore. Looked at simply as an objective event inhistory, unmatchable could note several key outcomes of the war. It marked thebeginning of the end of British and French colonial leadership in the region,and the start of an increasingly high American and Soviet involvement. The waralso proved to the Arab nations of the area that the Israeli military machinewas not one to be taken lightly, a lesson which would be forgotten and retaughtin the 1967 Six Day War. The positive impact that the United Nations wouldhave on ending the conflict, through Canadas idea of creating a UN peacekeeping nip to help enforce the ceasefire, was anothe r important outcome.This paper, however, pull up stakes not have the goal of examining these specificevents in relation to the war, nor will it try to determine which factors weremost significant. My aim will be to gain a more complete understanding of theeffect of the crisis by reviewing key events of the war from two differentperspectives the Israeli and the Arab points of view, plus the experiences ofthe European powers as well. Through a brief comparison of both the coverage ofthe War by the differing authors and the varying interpretations seen throughoutmy study, I will be best able to make an informed evaluation on how the eventwas, and is today, seen in the political and historical forum.Comparison of CoverageThe war, which was begun on October 29, 1956 when the Israelis locomotetheir units into the Sinai peninsula, has had its origins traced back to manyhistorical events. Which is the most important of these is a point of contentionfor the authors I have studied. There do es seem to be for all parties gnarlya consensus that the ascent to power of Gamal Abdel Nasser to President of Eqyptin 1956 , and his move to nationalize the Suez Canal as the main precipitatingfactor in setting murder the conflict.Why Nasser did this, however, is wheremy various sources diverge.Quite predictably, sources used from... ...tter idea of how the Egyptian army forcesviewed and dealt with the crisis.To help in a general rounding of the Israeli view of the crisis, I used Yitzak Shamirsautobiography (Shamir, Yitzhak Summing Up London Weidenfeld and NicolsonPress 1994.), a man who was to play an integral role in the Arab-Israeliconflict as the Prime parson of Israel in the 1980s. My search for an Israeli military perspective was quite arduous, but finally settled on the work of Chaim Herzog in The Arab-Israeli Wars (1982). As Herzog was a major-general in the crisis of 1956, he not only provided me with detailed information of theinvasion itself, but of the various meani ngs and causes behind it. In trying to find Judaic academic sources, I eventually settled on the works of Itamar Rabinovichs Seven Wars and One Peace Treaty (1991), and M.E. Yapps The Near East Since the First World War (1991). While Rabinovich was base in Tel Aviv and hadstronger pro-Israeli views, Yapp, who was a professor in London, England, whosideas were a little more moderate and yet, at least in this authors perspective,seemed to lean quite distinctly towards the Jewish States cause.