The Reaction of British Jewry to Suez, 1956 / by Raphael Langham

King Solomon built a canal from Suez to Cairo, but I have not found any evidence of this. It's just a legend.
Let us now move fast forward to the 16^th Century.
France was always interested in a canal as it would shorten the voyage from her Mediterranean ports to the East and it seems that Cardinal Richelieu broached the idea of a canal from Suez to Cairo following the lines of the ancient Egyptian canal, but nothing came of this.
Following the French revolution Talleyrand instructed a young general, Napoleon Bonaparte, to invade Egypt and cut through the Isthmus to Suez. Napoleon quickly occupied Egypt and set his surveyors to work. Unfortunately Napoleon did not employ very good surveyors as they reported that it was an impossible undertaking as the Red Sea was more than 32 feet higher than the Mediterranean and any connection would have disastrous consequences. About thirty years later a new survey showed that the two seas were at almost the same level.
Then in the 1850's there appeared on the scene Ferdinand de Lesseps, a retired French diplomat who had always had a vision of a canal. He obtained a concession to survey, build and operate a canal from Mohammed Said the new viceroy in Egypt; who was a protégé of his. To cut a long story short, it took five years of study by surveyors and engineers before the work started in 1859 and another 10 years of hard work beset with financial and political problems before the canal was finally opened on 17 November 1869.
The next event of importance for our story occurred in 1875. The Khedive of Egypt was in severe financial straights and by a well-known coup de theatre his shares in the Suez Canal Company were purchased for Britain for £4 million by Benjamin Disraeli, then British Prime Minister, with the help of a loan from Rothschild's bank. Britain thus became a 44% shareholder in the company, the other shares being held fairly widely.
There was still concern that the canal wasn't fully under British control and plans were mooted for a 100% British canal. One such scheme was to dig a canal from Haifa to Aquaba, allowing the waters of the Mediterranean to flood the Dead Sea Valley thus raising its level by about 1500 feet and enabling ships to sail over the mountains into the Gulf.
My notes suggest that I should pause here to give you the opportunity to consider what the history of the Middle East would have been had such a canal been dug,
In 1882 British troops invaded Egypt. The pretext was unrest, riots and attacks on foreign held assets. The object was to maintain British influence in the region and to protect the canal. Much the same reasons for the invasion about 75 years later in November 1956. In 1882 though Britain was one of the great powers and there was no pressure to withdraw.
Following the First World War great pressure was put on Britain to withdraw from Egypt. This was resisted at first, but in 1936 Britain agreed to withdraw its troops and a Treaty of Alliance was signed between Britain and Egypt that provided for Britain to maintain limited forces in the Canal Zone for twenty years. This treaty was negotiated by the then British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden. Mark that name, he will play a major role in this drama.
In 1952 there was a revolution in Egypt led by General Neguib. Following this revolution great pressure began to be put on Britain to withdraw its troops from the Suez Canal zone. When this didn't have any effect terrorist activity against the |British troops started. Britain at first reacted by sending more forces to Suez and the garrison