The economic development of the young state also extends to the East. Japan is Israel’s No. 1 fruit importer. In return, Israel imported Japanese miniature technology products and cars. These items were highly prized in the new state for their sturdiness and reliability.
Egypt buys many weapons from the USSR and Czechoslovakia. At the same time, the country needs funds to build the Aswan dam. Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser decides to nationalize the Suez Canal. Great Britain, builder of the waterway and financier of its construction, had no intention of letting this happen. A crisis erupts.
France does not appreciate Egypt’s interference in the Algerian conflict. It assumed that the rebels were armed by the Pharaohs’ nation. France readily agreed to join the British in defending the Suez water route.
Boats flying the Israeli flag were banned from passing through the Suez Canal. The closure of the Straits of Tiran by the Arabs prevents trade with the Land of the Rising Sun. It is absolutely essential to break this lock. The country’s economy depends on it. Israel joined forces with the Franco-British coalition.
Incursions into Israel by Federayeen-Egyptian armed gangs from Gaza set the region abuzz. Taking advantage of the Franco-British action plan on Suez, Tsahal troops swept through Sinai. In four days, Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula were conquered by Israel.
Who’s threatening whom?
Many Arab nations broke off relations with France and the United Kingdom to join the Arab League. This movement became increasingly important.
The Israeli army took advantage of this war to pacify the seaside. Two great cities were built: Ashdod and Askalon. These cities had always been in the land of the Philistines. Based on a text by the prophet Zephaniah, Israel appropriated these territories for itself: … Askalon will be reduced to a desert, Ashdod will be driven out at high noon… These coasts will be for the remnant of the house of Judah, … for the Lord their God will not forget them, and he will bring back their captives.76 This is the first time in the history of the people of Israel, for 3,500 years, that this seashore has been their territory.
Interposition force
The Soviet Union imposed an immediate ceasefire. The UN, not wanting to lose face, followed suit. The Treaty of Sèvres (1920) defines the broad lines of the peace agreement for the region. Like France and Great Britain, Israel was to withdraw from conquered land. Unacceptable for Tsahal, given the activities of the Fedayeen. The UN decides to create a peacekeeping force to be deployed on the banks of the Suez Canal. The Sinai peninsula will be a demilitarized zone. No more attacks to fear! Under these conditions, Israel agreed to withdraw.
Nazi propaganda
Once again, Israel is reminded of the dark days of the past, when Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser took on a friend of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, SS Johann von Leers, head of anti-Jewish Propaganda under Joseph Goebbels, as his advisor.
A professor at the University of Jena (1938), Johann von Leers was well acquainted with Ernst Haeckel’s work on race evolution. The Arian master race had to cleanse itself of the Jewish plague. Otherwise, it risked becoming infected. Von Leers praised Mohammed’s hostility to the Jews. Islam did the world an eternal service: it prevented the conquest of Arabia by the forces of Jewish evil. It overcame the monstrous teachings of Jehovah with a pure religion. This has opened the way for many peoples to a higher culture …77
Working for the Egyptian Ministry of Information, Von Leers also taught at Cairo University and took part in Voice of Arabia radio programs. His anti-Semitic diatribes earned him the nickname of the new Hitler. The Muslim Brotherhood found him very sympathetic and supported his struggle. Von Leers and Gamal Abdel Nasser want the total destruction of the country of Israel. Not a single Jew is expected to survive. The German propagandist converted to fundamentalist Islam would not stop his diatribes until 1965, when he died. Unfortunately, for more than fifteen years, Von Leers’ words shaped the opinions of Israel’s Muslim and Arab neighbors, as well as those of Arabs living in Eretz. It is above all the younger generations who drink his hate-filled words like whey, as the truth to be sought.
The Jewish officers know who they’re up against. It’s all about staying firm and keeping watch. One slip of the lip and it’s war or massacre. Tensions between Jews and Muslims are enormous. Sometimes, a misinterpreted detail is the spark that sets off an act with catastrophic consequences.
New refugees
In addition to welcoming European refugees, the young nation has yet to open its doors to brothers fleeing Muslim or Islamic persecution. Some 320,000 Jews of North African origin, having lost everything to save their lives, entered the Promised Land.
Here are the numbers of Jews who were forced to leave the countries of North Africa:
| 1955-1963 | 260 000 | Moroccans, |
| 1957 | 56 000 | Tunisians, following the Suez war, |
| 1962 | 14 000 | Algerians, following independence. |
| Total | 330 000 |
Kfar Qassem massacre
On October 29, 1956, an Israeli officer ordered the killing of all the inhabitants of a village not respecting the curfew. Despite the reluctance of non-commissioned officers and soldiers, the officer carried out his order. Forty-seven people, men returning from work in the fields, women and children, were needlessly killed.
After investigation, the author of this absurd order, a Jewish officer, was sentenced to 17 years in prison.
In Israel, Kfar Qassem is commemorated every year. Children in schools study and reflect on the need to disobey an order that goes against basic human rights! When an order is illegal and contradicts one’s conscience, it must never be carried out!
La Menora
Artist Benno Elkan completes his work after six years. The colossal Menora, a gift from Great Britain, is delivered to Israel. The various sculptures represent Jewish life. The main trunk recounts the Warsaw ghetto, the prophet Ezekiel’s vision of the Valley of the Bones (Ezekiel 37.1-14) and the rebuilding of the nation of Erets Israel. The Menorah is on display in the Rose Garden, opposite the Knesseth (Israel’s seat of government).
First Sinai withdrawal
1957 | After extensive negotiations, Israel, having received the necessary guarantees that the Straits of Tiran would remain open, namely that the UN would monitor compliance with all points of the treaty, ordered the withdrawal of Tsahal troops as a gesture of peace. One sentence of the Joint Resolution to Promote Peace and Stability in the Near East (UN 1957), mentions: Israel is guaranteed the right of navigation in the Gulf of Aqaba! The withdrawal of the invading forces must be followed by the deployment of the UN’s first peacekeeping force, the United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF-I).
Islamic Revolution
1958 | Hunted for his extremist activities, Saïd Ramadan leaves the Arab world for safer Europe. In August, he settled in Geneva, from where he continued his pro-Islamic revolution. He receives several million francs a year in assistance from Saudi Arabia. Hosni and Tariq Ramadan are his grandsons.
Less than a year after the withdrawal of Tsahal’s armed forces from Sinai, the latter was remilitarized by the Egyptian army. UN observers are ignored, and attacks on Israeli towns and kibbutzes resume. The Israelis have been taken for a ride by the UN, and their trust in the world’s leaders has been sorely tested.
UN Headquarters
From then on, mistrust of the international organization only increased. This vast, nebulous alliance of countries was no longer taken seriously. For the young state of Holocaust survivors, the UN nations do not take a stand based on justice, truth and fairness – values that cannot be changed. UN ministers merely observe, and their bias is blatant.
The UN headquarters in Jerusalem is located on the hill where King Solomon had his harem, his many wives and concubines. These had turned the king’s heart away from obedience to God. For this reason, the hill has been known since time immemorial as the Hill of Evil Counsel. The UN’s reputation is well established.
Dissatisfaction
1960 | The Muslim Brotherhood became increasingly active in Israel, especially in the disputed territories. They invited young people to consider their living situation in opposition to that of the Jews, responsible for the theft of their territories and all their misfortunes. Dissatisfaction becomes globalized, and hatred does the rest.
Eichmann Adolf
1961 | During the Second World War, SS Adolf Eichmann was responsible for transporting Jews to the extermination camps. He was arrested in Argentina and brought back to Israel to stand trial. Israel relives its years of extermination camp horror through thousands of testimonies. Every day of the trial, faced with the unbearable description of what happened, one or more people lost consciousness. Younger generations learn about the horrific experiences of their parents.
Many questions are also raised. Why didn’t they revolt? Why didn’t they flee? Why did the elderly let themselves be led like lambs to the slaughter? Why were the Allied nations so lenient in arresting and hunting down war criminals? Why didn’t the churches, supposed to be our friends, react? If we knew what the Displaced Persons had suffered, why put them back in camps in Cyprus or the south of France? Where was the initial humanism that some advanced nations pride themselves on being the repository of? Too many questions, distilling a powerful taste of bitterness and incomprehension.
Sephardim, or Jews born in Israel, are beginning to understand their Ashkenazi brothers, the Jews of Europe. It’s a national psychotherapy.
The response of the younger generation can be summed up in a reflex of unconditional patriotism – this will never happen again – which is concretely expressed in the swearing-in of the military: Masada will fall no more. Masada is the desert fortress near the Dead Sea where, on May 2, 73 AD, the Jews committed suicide the night before the assault by Roman troops.
Palestinian National Movement
1962 | On the Arab side, the front hardens. Haj Amin Al-Hussaini, former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, lives in Egypt. A close friend of the SS Johann von Leers, whom he met regularly on Voice of Arabia broadcasts, he renounced the presidency of the World Islamic Congress. He wanted to found and chair the Palestinian National Movement. At his side was the president of the Palestinian students, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, an intrepid Egyptian non-commissioned officer, disappointed by the various defeats of Arab armies unable to unite to liberate Palestine: Yasser Arafat.
The Palestinian Charter
1964 | Palestinian refugee students, dissatisfied with their life in camps in Arab territories, organize themselves into a movement. The Palestinian Charter was adopted. According to them, Israel is the cause of their misfortune; the Jews, with the help of Western countries, have stolen their land. It is the document of struggle that justifies all means, including terrorism, hostage-taking and assassination, to achieve their goal of exterminating the Jews of the Middle East: The Palestinian people possess a genuine and fundamental legal right to liberate their homeland … The Palestinian people determine their attitude towards all states and powers on the basis of their position towards the Palestinian revolution aimed at achieving the goals of the Palestinian people.78
The fédayins
Armed jihadist groups known as fédayins sow terror in Israel. Violence, kidnappings, hostage-taking and assassinations are their preferred means of making demands. Israeli politicians don’t believe in talking to terrorists, or their relatives. This is a fatal blow to communication.
1965 | Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser did not mince his words on the radio: We will not enter Palestine by walking on sand-covered ground, we will enter by walking on blood-soaked ground.79 Imagine, feel the tensions that the citizens of Israel have to deal with on a daily basis!
The role of the1st President of the PLO raises questions. Ahmed Choukeiry, Syria’s representative at the UN and former Saudi ambassador, has very close ties with the KGB. He is the Arab intermediary with Moscow.
Pope Paul VI affirms that the Jews are not responsible for the death and crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The Catholic catechism is corrected and Pope Paul IV goes to Jerusalem to announce it. After visiting the holy places, he had talks with the Orthodox Patriarch. No meetings with the Israeli government or rabbis.
1966 | Palestinian attacks from Gaza are a weekly occurrence, and the situation is becoming increasingly difficult for Israel. From the Golan Heights, snipers frequently kill halutzim or kibbutz members working in the fields.
Canal to Yarmouk
In the Golan Heights, work is underway to divert the Banias stream, one of the sources of the Jordan River. The aim is to prevent the water from flowing into the Jordan valley and irrigating it. The Syrians want to divert the water from the Yarmouk river and make it flow directly into the Dead Sea. The same goes for the Hasbani, which flows down from Mount Hermon, which they want to divert into the Litani River and discharge into the Mediterranean. Deprived of the precious waters of Mount Hermon – approximately seventy million cubic meters of fresh water per year – the people of Israel would be cruelly short of water.
Closure of the Straits of Tiran
Egypt once again blocks the Straits of Tiran, preventing trade with Japan and other Asian countries. Once again, the one-kilometer-wide Tiran channel is closed off by a cannon capable of sinking any ship entering the passage. Protests at the UN make no difference. Conventions are reinterpreted. The diplomatic world turned a deaf ear to the young state’s oral interventions. Once again, the Israelis feel cheated. The contempt and disrespect of nations reminds them of their solitude in the world.