Middle East - Anthony Ham [36]
became president in elections held in 1956. His aim of returning some of Egypt’s wealth to its much-exploited peasantry struck a chord with Egypt’s masses. Egypt had its first ruler in centuries – Egyptian or otherwise – who placed the lot of ordinary Egyptians at the top of the priority list. He became an instant hero across the Arab world.
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Many Jews believe that when the Messiah comes, the Temple will simply reappear on the Temple Mount. Muslims, of course, prefer to keep the mosques on the Mount. Muslims call the area atop the Temple Mount the Haram ash-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary). Al-Haram (the Sanctuary) is the same name they also give to the Grand Mosque in their holiest city, Mecca, in Saudi Arabia.
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Nasser’s iconic status reached new heights in the year of his inauguration, when he successfully faced down Britain and France in a confrontation over the Suez Canal, which was mostly owned by British and French investors. On 26 July, the fourth anniversary of King Farouk’s departure, Nasser announced that he had nationalised the Suez Canal to finance the building of a great dam that would control the flooding of the Nile and boost Egyptian agriculture. A combined British, French and Israeli invasion force, which intended to take possession of the canal, was, to great diplomatic embarrassment, forced to make an undignified retreat after the UN and US applied pressure. Nasser emerged from the conflict the most popular Arab leader in history.
Such was Nasser’s popularity that the Syrians joined Egypt in what would prove to be an ultimately unworkable union, the United Arab Republic. At the time, it seemed as if Nasser’s dream of pan-Arab unity was one step closer to reality. But behind the staged photo opportunities in which the region’s presidents and monarchs lined up to bask in Nasser’s reflected glory, the region was as divided as ever. With the United Arab Republic at Jordan’s borders to the north and south, King Hussein feared for his own position and tried a federation of his own with his Hashemite cousins in Iraq; it lasted less than a year before the Iraqi Hashemite monarchy was overthrown, and British troops were sent in to Jordan to protect Hussein. Egypt and Syria went their separate ways in 1961.
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Of the almost 11 million Palestinians, only five million live in Israel (1.3 million) or the Palestinian Territories (3.7 million). Palestinians comprise around 60% of Jordan’s population, with around 400,000 in each of Lebanon and Syria.
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Meanwhile, Lebanon was taking an entirely different course, exposing the fault lines that would later tear the country apart. The Western-
oriented Maronite Christian government that held sway in Beirut had been, in 1956, the only Arab government to support the US and UK during the Suez Canal crisis.
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No God but God: Egypt and the Triumph of Islam, by Genevieve Abdo, focusing on the Nasser and post-Nasser period, is one of the best books on the Egyptian Islamist movement.
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And yet, for all the division and gathering storm clouds, there was a palpable sense of hope across the Arab world. Driven by Nasser’s ‘victory’ over the European powers in the 1956 Suez crisis, there was a growing belief that the Arab world’s time was now. While this manifested itself in the hope that the region had acquired the means and self-belief to finally defeat Israel when the time came, it was also to be found on the streets of cities across the region. Nowhere was this more true than in Beirut, which had become a regional economic powerhouse and was