Editing Palestine (section)

=====1956 Suez Crisis=====
The Soviet Union provided huge Czech arms shipments to Egypt and Syria in 1955 and 1956, respectively. The Soviet Union also provided training to the Egyptian forces starting in 1955. From 1949 through the 1950s and onward, Syria was embroiled in protests, coups, and civil wars, and after the Suez crisis, in 1958, Syria was again absorbed by Egypt into the United Arab Republic (UAR), under Nasser.

In 1956 Israel struggled against the US over policy, culminating in the Suez crisis. Israel colluded with Britain and France to attack Egypt's nationalist leader, Gamal Abdel Nasser. Nasser's platform was a secular socialist Egyptian state, in contrast to the MB's theocratic ideal. Having taken power with the anti-monarchical Free Officers movement in 1952, Nasser banned the Muslim Brotherhood (who allied with the Free Officers) in Egypt, which gained prominence anyway as a populist organization. Nasser announced the Egyptian nationalization of the Suez Canal Company, the Anglo (British-French) joint-owners of the Suez Canal since its construction in 1869. He offered Britain and France compensation, but instead they colluded with Israel to invade Egypt and take back the canal. Moshe Dayan led the Israeli forces, culminating in a 100-hour campaign against Egypt. 

In a swift victory, Israel seized the Sinai Peninsula after a week of fighting (October 29th - November 7th), demonstrating itself as an asset to the unipolar order. However, President Eisenhower was not convinced of Israel's usefulness, and was worried about Soviet support for Nasser. He ordered a full withdrawal, and Israel reluctantly obliged. Zionists claimed that Israel needed to keep the Sinai in order to give themselves breathing room against the "Arab hordes" of surrounding countries. Having not become aligned with either geopolitical pole, Egypt became a major player in Middle Eastern politics for itself, with Nasser a hero to "overexploited" undeveloped countries.

Israel Defense Forces didn't simply stop the extermination and expulsion of Palestinians during their military operation in 1956. Just before, on October 29th, Israel Border Police shot and killed 19 men, 6 women (one of whom was pregnant), and 23 children (not counting the pregnant woman's child) at Kafr Qasim after imposing an unannounced curfew the same day. The massacre of 275 Palestinians at Khan Yunis and its nearby refugee camp on November 3rd was documented by the UN. On November 12th in Rafah, the IDF rounded up males over the age of fifteen using force (including beatings and shooting over their heads; some were injured or killed from this alone), after which the IDF conducted interrogations and summary executions. The number of deaths in the Rafah massacre were disputed, with the UN claiming 111 casualties and Palestinian sources claiming nearly 200 casualties. Israel naturally claimed the refugees got uppity, so to speak, and had to be punished collectively for resisting the Rafah screening operation. Similar operations, though less deadly, were carried out by Israeli forces in the days between the massacres at Khan Yunis and Rafah, at multiple refugee camps; men between 15 and 60 years of age were detained en masse, interrogated, with some let go, some executed in secret and others imprisoned at Atlit or forcibly relocated to Gaza.

The UN stationed peacekeeping troops for the first time ever in the Sinai to secure the borders against escalation, and Israel was happy to serve the British and French as the protectors of imperialist trade through the canal. After all, this was the exact purpose for which Israel was supported by the British, and the French were the largest benefactors of Zionist organizations before the British. However, the Suez crisis was a nail in the coffin of British leadership of the unipolar world order; the US had been rising rapidly as its heir and ascended to rulership with Eisenhower's display of "tough love".