Second Arab-Israel War Of Israel; The Sinai

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                     

In 1956, the Egyptian government seized the Suez Canal from British control. The loss of this vital passageway for international trade infuriated British officials. In response, the United Kingdom partnered with France and Israel in a secret plan to take it back through military force. Later that year, the three countries invaded Egypt and recaptured the canal, but there was a major problem with their plan: the United States.

The Suez crisis happened in the midst of the , when the United States was trying to convince as many countries as possible to side with it over the . U.S. officials were eager for anything that might erode the world’s opinion of the Soviet Union, and they got it in 1956, when Hungarian citizens overthrew their communist government. The Soviet Union responded. Sending its military in to brutally crush the revolution. U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower and his administration pointed to the bloodshed in Hungary as a prime example of Soviet repression. But the Suez crisis distracted the world’s attention, and it put the U.S. in a bind. While the United States was allied with the British and French, American officials knew that the Arab world greatly resented the invasion of Egypt. They realized that, if the United States supported the invasion, it would hurt its own popularity throughout the Middle East, potentially allowing the Soviet Union to grow its influence in the region.

The 1956 Suez Crisis (also known as the Tripartite Aggression or the Second Arab–Israeli War) was a secret military campaign launched by Israel, Great Britain, and France against Egypt from October 29 to November 7, 1957. 

Key Details & Timeline

• The Catalyst: Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal on July 26, 1956, after the United States and Britain withdrew financial support for the Aswan High Dam. HighDam, Military Actions:
• • On October 29, 1956, Israeli forces invaded the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip.   It ended March 1957.                                                      
    
                                               An Israeli Air Force Meteor in flight
  • Britain and France issued an ultimatum, then launched air strikes and landed troops at Port Said in early November. 
• Resolution & Withdrawal: Heavy political, economic, and diplomatic pressure from the United States, the Soviet Union, and the United Nations forced the coalition to halt operations and withdraw. Anglo-French forces left by December 1956, and Israeli forces withdrew from Sinai by March 1957.  
• Aftermath: Egypt retained control of the Suez Canal, Nasser’s political prestige surged, and the event signaled the decline of British and France as global superpowers while expanding US and Soviet influence in the Middle East.

The Aswan High Dam, often called simply Aswan Dam, was built between 1960 and 1970 across the Nile in Aswan, Egypt. One of the world's largest embankment dams, it was developed by the Egyptian government with the help of the Soviet Union to control flooding, increase water storage for irrigation, and generate hydroelectricity. The dam was seen as pivotal to the country's industrialization plans. Like the Aswan Low Dam, which had been completed in 1902, the High Dam has changed the economy and culture of Egypt.                                                       

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