The Suez Canal War Essay Example

On his 40th birth birthday while in the studio talking to his 21 yea-old-friend (Sean Lennon) Joel tries to demonstrate how this wasn't good either when he was of his age. Sean Lennon was complaining about the events that have happened in his lifespan of 21 years saying that "it's terrible to be 21," but Billy Joel replied to him that he too used to think that thing was awful when he was 21 because of a series of events that used to happen at that time. He recalled the Vietnam War, the drug problem they used to face, the Korean War, the Suez Canal crisis and many other events that passed. The events he recalled were the basic framework of the song "We Didn't Start the Fire" that has been celebrated by the Americans and many people around the world for close to three decades now (Joel, 1989).

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For instance, let's talk about what we sometimes refer to as the Tripartite Aggression that was witnessed in the Arab world (the Suez Canal war or simply the second Arab- War Israel in 1956). The war was also referred to as the Sinai war or the Operation Kadesh war. It was the inversion of Egypt back in 1956 by Israel the United Kingdom and France (WAR). The aim of this war was to regain the western control of the Suez Canal and to overthrow the sitting president of Egypt Gamel Abdel Nasser who had in his part nationalized the Suez Canal. The Soviet Union, the United States, and the United Nation chipped in and led the withdrawal of these nations. The withdrawal humiliated France and the United Kingdom, on the other hand, strengthening Nasser.

The whole thing started when Israel invaded the Egyptian Sinai on 29, October 1956. Later on, France and the United Kingdom gave a joined ultimatum to size the fire but this was ignored. On 5th, November 1956, France and Britain landed their troops in the Canal hence defeating the Egyptian forces. Nevertheless, the Egyptian forces blocked the Canal for all shipping. It was then later discovered that the inversion was planned before it started by the three countries.

It was discovered that the three countries had attained a number of their own military objectives to be gain when they are in total control of the canal. This failed and become useless after the heavy political pressure that was put by the United States and the USSR who later went own leading the withdrawal (Fromkin, 2006). For instance, the warning by then U.S President Dwight D. Eisenhower had strongly given warning to the British government not to invade threatening to their financial systems by selling their U.S government's pound sterling bonds. This event has been claimed by the historians to be the one that signified the end era of Great Britain among the superpower nations in the world. The Suez Canal remained closed for a period close to seven months, which was from October 1956 to March 1957. However, Israel was the only invader country that attained some of its objectives("Israel Invades Egypt; Suez Crisis Begins"). They attained the freedom of navigation along the Straits of Tiran which had initially been blocked against Israel shipping in 1950 when the Egyptian nationalized Suez Canal (Canal).

When the event of War ended, it resulted in a series of events which followed up. UNEF peacekeeper police unit was created by the United Nation so as to help patrol the Egyptian Israel border. Anthony Aden who was then British Prime minister resigned from his duties. The Canadian Minister of External Affairs was awarded the Nobel peace prize. It is also claimed that the elapse event gave the USSR the courage to invade Hungary.

Conclusion

Billy Joel was a historian who understood the series of all the events that happened in his lifetime at the fingertips. Suez Canal war is one out of many histories that had happened in his 40 years of existence and the lyrics in his song demonstrated our conversant he was. He, therefore, tells his audience that the folding series of events that they are witnessing are not new but have been in existence for centuries and that they have just to learn to live with them. He demonstrates that we are always naive thinking that we are the one who started this series of events but we should know that we only tried to light the fire when it was already burning.

Work Cited

"Israel Invades Egypt; Suez Crisis Begins". History TV, 2018, https://www.history.co.uk/this-day-in-history/29-October/Israel-invades-Egypt-Suez-crisis-begins. Accessed 6 Sept 2018.

Canal, Egypt. "Egypt Nationalizes The Suez Canal - Jul 26, 1956 - HISTORY.Com". HISTORY.Com, 2018, https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/egypt-nationalizes-the-Suez-canal. Accessed 6 Sept 2018.

Fromkin, David. "Opinion | Stuck In The Canal". Nytimes.Com, 2006, https://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/28/opinion/28fromkin.html. Accessed 6 Sept 2018.

Joel, Billy. 1989, http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?lyrics=1581. Accessed 6 Sept 2018.

War, Here's. "Suez Crisis - Cold War - HISTORY.Com". HISTORY.Com, 2018, https://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/suez-crisis. Accessed 6 Sept 2018.