Home Page: OCIN INITIATIVE
By Areha Kazuya
E-mail: areha_kazuya@jcom.home.ne.jp
Chapter 1 Wave of nationalism and socialism (1945-1956)
1-8(14) Nasser mystifies the east and west
Speaking of heroes everyone acknowledges in the Arab world, it will be Saladin (Salah Ad - Din) born in Tikrit of Iraq in the 12th century. He conquered Egypt, and founded the Ayyubid Dynasty. He was a warrior who fought against the Third Crusade by British King Richard I. Saladin did not kill the war prisoners, while the crusaders killed all of the war prisoners. Because of this fact, he was loved by both his ally and enemy. And he had a name in history as a hero.
Gamal Abdul Nasser who had shown up in Egypt in the 20th century, 800 years after Saladin was also praised as hero of the Arab world. Whereas Saladin was a hero who fought against the Christian Crusaders from medieval Europe, Nasser overthrew the Egyptian monarchy of a British protectorate by the coup d'etat in 1952. He also fought against UK and French of imperialist states and has won resulting nationalization of the Suez Canal in 1956.
Born in Alexandria, a city on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt, in 1918, Nasser was transferred to Sudan after graduating from the military academy and served as a major in the Arab Israeli War triggered by the Declaration of Israeli independence in 1948. When Arab suffered a fatal defeat in this war, of which Arabs called as Nakba(catastrophe), he formed the organization of the anti-British patriotism "Association of Free Officers" and exiled King Faruq I in 1952. Egypt shifted from the tyrannical system to the Republic.
Nasser, who was 34 years old at the time, gave the post of President and Prime Minister to his boss Major General Mohammed Naguib. In 1954, however, he took office as president himself through power struggle. Advocating Pan-Arabism, Nasser became at the helm and made Egypt to the leader of the Arab world. Pan-Arabism is a combination of socialism and Arab nationalism, whose origin is in the Ba’ath Party in Syria. Because of its character, Pan-Arabism was hostile to British and French colonial imperialism or US capitalism, but had a sense of affinity to the Soviet socialism.
Nasser who grabbed power burning the ideal aimed the nationalization of the Suez Canal. The Suez Canal opened in the middle of the 19th century by Ferdinand de Lesseps of France. Later the UK has acquired 44% of the Canal’s equity from Egypt who suffered debt due to lack of fiscal discipline. Same as before, the sponsor of the funding was Jewish Lord Rothschild same as before. Until the end of World War II, UK and France kept control of the Suez Canal.
Nasser made Nikita Khrushchev of Soviet Union to ally, and constructed Aswan High Dam. Then he declared the nationalization of the Suez Canal. Britain and France fiercely rebounded against him, In 1956 they jointly with Israel opened the fire against Egypt. It was the outbreak of the Suez War. The battle itself was favorable for British-France-Israeli Joint Forces due to their state-of-the-art armaments. Israel occupied the Sinai peninsula, and the Suez Canal was closed. Eilat, a town on the tip of the Aqaba bay, was involved in the battle again after the First Arab Israeli War in 1948. When the war was over, the Egyptians disappeared from Eilat and only the Jews remained. The Palestinian peasant family, Zahara in the suburbs of Eilat became a refugee and Zahara family escaped to adjacent port town Aqaba in Jordan with eight-year-old son
International public opinion including the United States was critical all over Britain, France and Israel. As a result, Nasser lost the battle but won the diplomacy, which raised Nasser's fame in the Arab world. He was raised to one of the prominent leaders in the third world belonging neither the East nor the West. In addition to Nasser, the leaders of the Third World at that time were Indian Prime Minister, Jawaharial Nehru, Chinese Prime Minister, Zhou Enlai, President of Yugoslavia, Josip Broz Tito and Indonesian President, Sukarno. Nasser, Nehru, Zhou Enlai and Sukarno jointly held the first Asia-Africa Conference (so-called Bandung Conference) in 1955. It was the heyday of Nasser.
(To be continued ----)
