Sunday, December 03, 2006

Time to reflect — 50 years on

Oct.29, 2006

Time to reflect — 50 years on

In 1956, just eight years after Israel was created in Palestine, the Jewish state showed its aggressive regional teeth by joining the disastrous invasion of Egypt alongside Britain and France in what came to be known as the Suez crisis.
Within Israel the invasion is described as the "forgotten war" because of the fiasco that resulted from it in the short term. However, it was also a turning point for Israel to nurture its expansionist designs that started with the war of 1948 and led to the conflicts of 1967 and 1973 and the two aggressions that it waged against Lebanon in 1982 and 2006.
The world should have realised that Israel posed a serious theat to the stability and security of the region when it became party to the Anglo-French plot to retake control of the Suez Canal after then Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser privatised the strategic waterway linking the Mediterranean to the Red Sea.
It was Israel which led the action with an attack on Egypt, with Britain and France sending paratroopers in a deceptive move that was described as aimed at "separating the belligerents" but in practice to take control of the strategic canal.
Many reasons were forwarded as to why Israel took it upon itself to launch the plot, including that it wanted to stop incursions from the then Egyptian-controlled Gaza Strip, gain access for Israeli vessels to the Suez Canal, and an attempt to increase territory. Experts say the best among the reasons was that Israel had sensed Egypt's Nasser as a potential threat and saw the Anglo-French plot was ideal to get rid of him.
The grand design was foiled because the Soviet Union threatened to intervene with nuclear weapons, and the US refused to back the Anglo-French move, more because of Washington's rejection of France assuming a high-profile role in the region. The war lasted only 10 days. The invaders had to be withdrawn by the end of 1956 and it also marked the first time the United Nations assigned neutral forces wearing the UN uniform ato keep peace in the area.
It marked the beginning of the decline of the British and French influence in the Arab World and the strengthening of the US role in the region. However, the country that benefited most in the years that followed was Israel, which manoeuvred itself into a position where it got itself listed as the US's most favourite ally in the Middle East.
It played a strong card by presenting itself as a potential victim of Egypt-led Arab moves to "annihilate" it with support from the Soviet Union and the US immediately swallowed it hook, line and sinker.
Today, the US is the staunchest ally and protector of Israel and the hook that it swallowed 50 years ago remains strongly embedded so deep that extricating it could cause serious internal damages to the US itself. Or at least that the impression that Israel has managed to create.
On the anniversary of the Suez crisis, it could pay off well for the US to make an objective assessment of the events since then and realise that the loss of its credibility and decline of influence in the Middle East resulted from its alliance with Israel.
Washington might not actually believe that it has lost anything, but all anyone needs is to ask an average American today to realise that the great nation is on a fast downward slide in its relations with the Arab and Muslim worlds, thanks to Israel.