The Haj - Leon Uris [261]
Clever man, that Lawrence of Arabia, clever man.
11
Monday, October 29, 1956
WAR!
From the moment Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser had seized control of the Egyptian Government two years earlier, he had marched down an irreversible path. His goal was the oft-stated obsession to destroy Israel.
Father and I watched events unfold with opposing reactions. I did not see any purpose for a war insofar as the Palestinian refugees were concerned. Despite Sabri’s exuberance, Nasser would really do nothing to better our conditions. If he won and we returned to our homes, we would only be exchanging Jordanian tyranny for Egyptian tyranny. He was only using us.
On the other hand, Haj Ibrahim had been completely swept up by Nasser fever. He could think now just in terms of a war against the Jews. He was unable to foresee what would happen beyond the day we returned to Tabah.
I do not give you the various episodes in their order of occurrence, for they often overlapped and intertwined. However, what Nasser and the other Arab governments did was important.
Nasser undermined Jordan by promoting refugee riots in the West Bank, then forced Jordan into a military alliance under his command. He was heavily bankrolled by the Saudis, who were the mortal enemies of the Hashemites and who were as interested in Jordan’s demise as they were in the defeat of the Zionists.
Nasser encouraged Syria to attempt to cut off Israel’s source of water at the Jordan River headwaters.
Nasser stopped all ships destined for Israel from using the Suez Canal.
Nasser closed the Strait of Tiran to all Israeli shipping to and from Eilat, thus denying Israel a route to the Orient. These closures of international waterways were, in themselves, acts of war.
The United States was committed to funding the building of a high dam on the Nile at Aswan. When Nasser arbitrarily seized the Suez Canal and nationalized it, Americans withdrew their support for the dam.
Russia had a centuries-old dream of a warm-water port and was eager to get a foothold in the Middle East. The Soviet Union rushed in to fill the vacuum created by America’s withdrawal from Egypt. Billions of rubles were pledged to complete the dam. Along with it came a massive influx of Russian weapons.
After seizure of the Suez Canal, Nasser refused to attend an international maritime conference to discuss the waterway’s future, thus putting the Western economies in peril and suddenly giving Russia a frightening position in the region.
Nasser had at his beck and call the armies of Syria, Yemen and Saudi Arabia and received assurances of full cooperation from Iraq and the balance of the Arab world.
During this period Egypt armed and trained the Palestinian fedayeen. Nasser was responsible for launching three thousand fedayeen raids into Israel on missions of murder and terror.
Flaunting international law and promising daily to exterminate the Jews, Nasser moved his legions, bulging with Soviet weaponry, through the demilitarized zones of the Sinai.
On October 29, Israel struck first.
I remember well the smell of war in the air and a tension so awesome it crackled like electricity. The sky seemed dark at noon. It was like our last days in Tabah and the battle for Jaffa all over again.
We were to learn later that Israel had gone into a secret alliance with the British and French, who were still enraged over the seizure of the Canal. The plan was a two-pronged strike. Israel would hit first, crossing the Sinai. Britain and France would then take the Canal.
The British and French lost their nerve under American and Russian pressure and quit in mid-battle. Israel had to go it alone.
On the first day Radio Cairo announced one smashing victory after another. Demonstrations proclaiming Nasser as the new Messiah erupted like wildfire among