For all his flaws, Nasser was a heroic figure who symbolized the national democratic, secular and anti-colonial hopes of Arabs everywhere. The U.S., Britain, France, and Israel have ensured that there are no national democratic leaders or regimes left in this region. Instead, we have Hamas, Hezbollah, and their ilk. What a tragedy.

BBC online special feature

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When he nationalised the Suez Canal Company on 26 July 1956, Egypt's President Gamal Abdel Nasser became the hero of the Arab world.

He was one of the army officers who had taken part in the coup which overthrew the country's British-backed monarchy in 1952.

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Taking control of the canal was an act of national self-assertion - and defiance of Britain - which electrified Arabs everywhere.

Nasser was seen as a new breed of ruler ready to stand up to the old colonial order.

By the time the Suez Crisis had run its course - and Britain and France had been forced to make a humiliating withdrawal from Egyptian territory - his regional position had become unassailable.

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Originally posted by Fidel:
It's hard to believe that the CIA and Israeli's once funded groups like the Muslim Brotherhood and Osama bin Laden. They aided and abetted militant Islam in order to subvert leftist Arab nationalism.

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You're quite right. They can accommodate religious fanatics, or so they must believe because they keep creating them. Nationalist leaders (leftist or not) who enjoy popular support scare the living daylights out of the U.S. and its allies. Those are the movements that spell the end of imperialist domination.

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Originally posted by siren:
This is perhaps a good place to post a CBC link about Lester Pearson's Suez intervention. Links to some of his speeches, live at the site.

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It's fascinating. I once knew -- but had forgotten -- that Pearson's innovation was really an index of Canada's (or at least the Liberal Party's) inclination away from British foreign policy and toward alliance with U.S. interests. Of course, 7 years later, Pearson came to power supporting U.S. demands for arming Bomarcs with nuclear warheads, where Diefenbaker had rejected the nuclearization of NORAD.

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Originally posted by Fidel:
It was a great day for Egyptians and for the memory of slave labourers who built the canal.

It's hard to believe that the CIA and Israeli's once funded groups like the Muslim Brotherhood and Osama bin Laden. They aided and abetted militant Islam in order to subvert leftist Arab nationalism.

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Originally posted by saskganesh:

yes thats true. but the irony which you are sure to miss is that the USA forced the ceasefire on the UK+France, thus ensuring Nassar's brand of nationalism.

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Correct! Yet again, the U.S., vying with rival European powers (Britain and France) to gain a foothold in the region, inadvertently bolstered the reputation of a force to be reckoned with over years to come.

Here's a typical U.S. take on the story. Interesting that it doesn't mention our great hero "Mike" Pearson, actually crediting Eisenhower with creating the U.N. Emergency Force:

The Suez Crisis: A Crisis That Changed the Balance of Power in the Middle East

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In October the crisis took a new turn, unexpected by the United States. Unknown to American officials, France and Britain colluded with Israel in an elaborate scheme to launch a secretly coordinated war on Egypt. Under the ruse, Israel would invade the Sinai Peninsula, Britain and France would issue ultimatums ordering Egyptian and Israeli troops to withdraw from the Suez Canal Zone, and, when Nasser (as expected) rejected the ultimatums, the European powers would bomb Egyptian airfields within 48 hours, occupy the Canal Zone, and depose Nasser. American officials failed to anticipate the collusion scheme, in part because they were distracted by a war scare between Israel and Jordan as well as by anti-Soviet unrest in Hungary, in part because they were preoccupied by the impending U.S. presidential election, and in part because they believed the denials of friends in the colluding governments who assured them that no attack was imminent. Yet war erupted on October 29 when Israel launched a frontal assault on Egyptian forces in the Sinai. Within days Israeli forces approached the Suez Canal.

Caught off-guard by the start of hostilities, Eisenhower and Dulles took a series of steps designed to end the war quickly. Angered that his allies in London and Paris had deceived him in the collusion scheme, Eisenhower also worried that the war would drive Arab states into Soviet dependence. To stop the fighting even as British and French warplanes bombed Egyptian targets, he imposed sanctions on the colluding powers, achieved a United Nations ceasefire resolution, and organized a United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) to disengage the combatants. Before UNEF could be deployed, however, Britain and France landed paratroopers along the Suez Canal on November 5.

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