The Gates of Gaza: Israel's Road to Suez and Back, 1955-57 - Hardcover

Bar-On, Mordechai

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 031210586X ISBN 13: 9780312105860

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, 1994

Synopsis

The secret alliance between Israel, Britain and France to destroy Nasser's rule in Egypt was a pivotal event in the history of the modern Middle East. The Suez crisis brought about both a humiliation for the old imperial powers and a remarkable victory for Israel. Mordechai Bar-On was General Moshe Dayan's personal assistant during the Suez campaign and has drawn on both his own diary and many years of research to produce a gripping, definitive account of the Israeli side to the war. The Gates of Gaza describes the fears, suspicions and agonizing debates that resulted in Ben-Gurion's decision to enter the clandestine pact with France and Britain, the military victory in the Sinai, and the subsequent withdrawal in the face of pressure from the United Nations. What was at the time a frustrating conflict for Israel should now be seen, in Dr Bar-On's view, as a crucial event in securing the new nation's position in the Middle East and providing a breathing space before the great Arab challenge of 1967.

About this title

Language Notes:

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Hebrew

From Kirkus Reviews:

An intimate, full, and insightful account of the Suez Crisis from the then head of the Israeli chief of staff's bureau. Mordechai Bar-On draws not only from official army sources and from a massive research effort, but from his personal diary kept while serving as General Moshe Dayan's recording secretary. The reader is therefore privy to many a tense moment shared by Israelis like Ben-Gurion, Abba Eban, Dayan, and Golda Meir, while the author fleshes out the global picture with quotes from the likes of Egypt's Nasser, England's Eden, America's Dulles and the UN's Hammarskjold. Bar-On documents the fact that Israel did contemplate a pre-emptive attack on Egypt after Soviet arms turned Nasser into the regional power. But Israel canceled those plans, insists the author, after the French sold her sufficient weapons to defend herself. Contrary to popular conceptions, Bar-On attempts to establish that it was only Nasser's nationalization of the Suez Canal and the subsequent Anglo-French decision to invade that brought Israel into the picture. The British are shown to have done Israel dirty after promising diplomatic support to cover the Jewish state's takeover of the Sinai peninsula. Bar-On sees Israel winning long-term gains while losing her claims to Sinai, Gaza (sound familiar?), and a toe-hold on the Straits of Tiran. The Eisenhower Doctrine is seen as assuring Israel's diplomatic defeat, but Bar-On looks to the period of 1957-1967 to underscore what the Sinai misadventure gained for Israel: It ``reasserted Israel's deterrent capability,'' allowed the young nation and the port of Eilat to bloom, and even gave her the right to casus belli with the renewed Red Sea blockade of 1967. A valuable, multidimensional history of a crucial period in Cold War and Mideast history. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 031210586X
• ISBN 13: 9780312105860
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 416