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الدحيح | كيف هزمت بورسعيد ثلاث دول؟ — Transcript

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0:13On Egypt's northern coast,
0:15there's a small city called Port Said,
0:18that stands at one of the most important canals in the world.
0:21The Suez Canal.
0:22"A decree from the Republic's president hereby dictates
0:25the nationalization of the Suez Canal Company."
0:29For decades, the city served as Egypt's portal.
0:32Then in 1956,
0:34that portal became a battleground.
0:38Fleets swept the sea,
0:41planes filled the sky,
0:43and soldiers stepped into the city.
0:55Destruction hit its buildings, and desolation emptied its streets,
0:59to which the people of the city found themselves
1:01in the heart of a gut-wrenching crisis
1:03amongst the worst the world had seen since World War II.
1:07But how did the war end up here?
1:09Why was this small city
1:12in the middle of warfare between Cairo,
1:15London, Paris, Washington, and Moscow?
1:20That's what we'll find out.
1:23"The Tripartite Aggression"
1:31Hello my dear viewers and welcome to a new episode of El Daheeh.
1:35Don’t wear anything ordinary. This is a dangerous mission.
1:40On October 22, 1956, a plane lands at an airport near Paris.
1:44Three men step out in disguise.
1:46The last people you’d want in one room.
1:48First, David Ben Gurion, Israel’s Prime Minister.
1:50Second, Moshe Dayan, Chief of Staff.
1:52Third, Shimon Peres, General Director of the Defense Ministry.
1:55"How did we get here? I don’t like this."
1:57The three men get into cars and head to an isolated villa.
2:02Their destination is Sèvres, a suburb of Paris.
2:04There, they meet the French prime minister, Guy Mollet.
2:08France’s foreign minister is there, along with Britain’s foreign minister.
2:13The British minister is so secretive
2:16that his secretary in London has been told to say he was sick
2:21France, Britain, and Israel are joining forces for an international plot
2:26to invade Egypt and get rid of its 38 year old leader, Gamal Abdel Nasser.
2:32The plot will spark a crisis, and that crisis will trigger an earthquake.
2:35An earthquake that will reshape the Middle East and the world.
2:38It will shake the old empires to their core, forever.
2:42But to understand how it all happened, we need to take a few steps back.
2:45In my own epic storytelling style,
2:48I’ll tell you the story of a people who fought hard and won.
2:51Ready to hear it?
2:52"Sure, but start from the beginning."
2:58Let’s go back to 1869, when the Suez Canal opened to international shipping.
3:03But its opening was far from easy,
3:05and hardly a happy occasion for Egyptians at the time.
3:08Egyptian laborers were forced to work on it without pay.
3:12The numbers are staggering.
3:13Some estimates put the death toll during the canal’s construction at 120,000.
3:18That’s 120,000 people who died of thirst and disease
3:21while digging to fulfill the dream of a French engineer
3:24named Ferdinand de Lesseps.
3:26He wanted to build a vital link between East and West.
3:29Instead of ships sailing from Europe to Asia
3:31having to go all the way around the southern tip of Africa,
3:34they could cut through the Suez Canal, saving time and distance.
3:37That’s when the Suez Canal Company was founded.
3:41Egypt owned 44% of the shares.
3:44French businessmen controlled 52%.
3:49The rest belonged to other countries.
3:51The company had control of the canal for 99 years.
3:55The deal was supposed to end in 1968!
3:59So Egypt would spend a century earning less than half the profits.
4:02And even that share would soon be gone.
4:05Seven years later, Khedive Ismail was drowning in debt.
4:10Britain seized the chance to buy Egypt’s shares.
4:14Just like that, Egypt lost its stake in the canal.
4:18Then came 1882.
4:21Britain invaded Egypt,
4:22claiming it had to protect its interests and secure the canal.
4:25For Britain, the canal was vital.
4:29It had an empire in India,
4:31so it needed to keep the London to Delhi route under its watch
4:36to protect its interests and secure the canal.
4:41Then the world discovered oil and began relying on it.
4:46By the early 20th century,
4:48over 60% of Western Europe’s oil passed through the canal.
4:54So Winston Churchill argued that Britain wasn’t protecting it for itself alone,
4:58but for all of human civilization!
5:01How kind of the colonizers!
5:03By the 1950s, a UN report estimated that…
5:0713% of global sea trade passed through the canal.
5:12A huge share of world trade was passing through Egypt.
5:15The foreign company running the canal was making a fortune yearly.
5:21But Egypt barely benefited.
5:23Egypt didn't know its own worth.
5:26British occupation continued until 1952.
5:31Then the Free Officers Movement overthrew King Farouk
5:34and declared Egypt a republic.
5:37Two years later, Egypt signed the Anglo-Egyptian agreement with Britain.
5:40British troops had to leave Egypt completely.
5:45Time to pack up and leave!
5:47By 1956, not a Brit better be left in Egypt!
5:49Over time, a young officer emerge, Gamal Abdel Nasser!
5:55The young leader who led the revolution.
5:58Soon, Nasser would become president of Egypt.
6:01He believed Egypt’s problems could be solved with two words.
6:04The High Dam!
6:05A massive project that would protect Egypt from floods,
6:08make millions of acres farmable, and generate electricity.
6:13Built by our workers, with our own money.
6:15The workers were easy to find, but the money was another story.
6:19The project was estimated to cost a billion dollars!
6:23That’s an astronomical sum today, let alone back then.
6:28Egypt simply didn’t have the budget to cover it.
6:31So Nasser turned to the World Bank.
6:35But the bank turned Egypt away.
6:36As Abdelhalim Hafez said "They went to the bank which helps and gives loans
6:38They said: watch out, So the bank told us: I have nothing for you!"
6:47Egypt approached Britain, America, and other major powers to fund the project.
6:51At first, the Americans and British saw an opportunity.
6:53They could win over this new guy and bring Egypt into their camp.
6:57After all, the world was split in two by the Cold War.
7:01It was like two skilled players competing to get Egypt on their team.
7:04Egypt was a major player on the world stage.
7:06Things seemed to be heading toward a solution.
7:07Then February 28, 1955 changed everything.
7:12Israel launched a major raid on the Gaza Strip,
7:15which was under Egyptian administration at the time.
7:17Dozens of Palestinians were killed,
7:20along with Egyptian soldiers in Gaza.
7:22Nasser grew concerned.
7:24He realized his army needed weapons and fast.
7:28Modern weapons that could fight a war.
7:30Naturally, he turned to America and Britain.
7:33They were trying to build a new alliance with him.
7:38But America and Britain rejected his request.
7:41They imposed conditions that would compromise Egypt’s sovereignty,
7:45making him the one who walked away from the deal.
7:47So in September 1955, Nasser turned to Czechoslovakia for a massive arms deal.
7:53"We’ll pay for your weapons with Egyptian cotton!"
7:56In his book Israel’s Border Wars, Israeli historian Benny Morris
8:00described the Czech arms deal as a strategic turning point.
8:04For the first time since 1948,
8:07Israel felt its military superiority might be under threat.
8:11A new force was about to acquire a stockpile of modern Soviet weapons!
8:18And it had a huge advantage in both territory and population.
8:22And when Israel panics, it goes to America.
8:26By then, the US was growing increasingly frustrated with Nasser.
8:30His policies rubbed them the wrong way.
8:33He pushed land reform, rejected Western military alliances,
8:38and refused to join the Baghdad Pact.
8:40Then he officially recognized Communist China.
8:44To the Americans, this was another red flag.
8:48They became convinced Nasser was leaning toward Communism,
8:50even though he was actually trying to remain neutral.
8:53Historical accounts suggest Nasser was willing to work with anyone.
8:56This was a classic case of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
9:03One of the first topics the show ever covered.
9:04Picture a father sitting at home.
9:07His little boy walks in, carrying a cup of tea.
9:10The father keeps repeating, "You’re going to drop it!"
9:13Until he got nervous and actually did.
9:17Then came the classic, "See? I told you so!"
9:19The warnings had caused the very thing they feared.
9:24His prophecy fulfilled itself.
9:26That’s exactly what happened to Nasser.
9:27They doubted him and refused to arm him, because they feared him.
9:32Cornered and desperate for arms, Nasser turned to their enemies instead.
9:37Then came July 19, 1956.
9:39Egypt’s ambassador in Washington arrives to finalize the High Dam funding,
9:44which America had promised to support.
9:47But America was withdrawing its funding.
9:53The official excuse was that Egypt couldn't repay the loan.
9:57The Egyptian government saw it as a slap in the face.
10:01"Didn’t we have a deal?"
10:04A week later, on July 26, 1956,
10:07Nasser gathered his ministers and top officials at a rented villa in Alexandria,
10:11just before his famous speech at Manshiya Square.
10:13What began as a routine meeting took a dramatic turn.
10:20Nasser announced that…
10:24Egypt would nationalize the Suez Canal.
10:28The shockwave would soon reach far beyond Alexandria.
10:33"But why didn't Nasser simply wait another 12 years
10:39for the canal's concession to expire in 1968?"
10:46Good question, but the story runs deeper.
10:50The official explanation was that Egypt needed the canal's revenue
10:55to fund the High Dam after America withdrew its support.
11:00But President Eisenhower and other US officials suspected the funding crisis
11:06was merely a pretext for a move Nasser had planned all along.
11:12Another self-fulfilling prophecy.
11:14Eisenhower also believed Nasser was overestimating the canal's revenue,
11:19which alone couldn't cover a big like the High Dam.
11:24So he saw the move as political revenge, first and foremost.
11:30A show of strength.
11:32Several Egyptian historians and officials shared this view,
11:36including the Minister of National Guidance,
11:38the equivalent of today's Minister of Information.
11:40Radwan wrote that he opposed nationalization
11:44and urged Nasser not to link it to funding the High Dam.
11:49As it would make Egypt look like a rogue state,
11:54using an international shipping route
12:00to punish countries it disagreed with.
12:04In the age of Trump,
12:07holding shipping routes hostage has become business as usual.
12:11Radwan also feared nationalization would give the West the excuse
12:14to paint Egypt as a threat to the world.
12:18And worse, it would hand Britain and France
12:21the perfect pretext to invade Egypt!
12:26Yet Radwan still believed nationalization was necessary.
12:29It wasn't just about funding the dam.
12:32Egypt also feared that foreign powers had no intention of leaving in 1968.
12:36Yet shortly before nationalization,
12:38it started widening and deepening the channel
12:44and installing new electric signaling equipment.
12:47"Renovating the place even though they're supposed to leave…
12:51Or maybe they plan to stay?"
12:54That's how Egypt saw it.
12:56This wasn't the work of a company leaving in 12 years.
12:58They looked like the moves of one planning to stay forever.
13:01Egypt saw the company's new projects as a bad sign.
13:05It looked like they had no intention of leaving in 1968.
13:07Sources differ on the details, but the outcome is the same.
13:10Nasser made the call himself and wouldn't back down.
13:15He began drawing up the nationalization plan
13:17and assigned the job to Mahmoud Younis,
13:20an engineer who headed the Egyptian General Petroleum Authority.
13:24He was tasked with taking over the canal and facing the world's superpowers.
13:30Nationalizing the canal took just a few words.
13:33Making it happen was a whole different story.
13:35Younis divided his men into three teams.
13:38He would lead the Ismailia team himself.
13:40The other two would head to Port Said and Suez.
13:43Each team received a sealed envelope stamped with red wax.
13:46Nobody was allowed to open it until they heard the secret password!
13:50On July 26, 1956, at 8:30 PM, Nasser stood in Manshiya Square.
13:55He passionately recounted the canal's history.
13:59How it had been stolen from Egypt.
14:00How Egyptian workers had built it.
14:03Then, suddenly, he announced the decision.
14:05"By order of the President of the Republic,
14:08the Suez Canal Company is nationalized."
14:11Nasser had just nationalized the canal.
14:13He promised compensation for the company's shareholders.
14:16As he spoke, the takeover he’d planned with…
14:19engineer Mahmoud Younis was already underway.
14:22Then, in the middle of his speech, Nasser said the code word.
14:25"De Lesseps!"
14:28To make sure everyone heard, he repeated it three times.
14:32The teams had no idea what their missions were.
14:35Now they tore open their envelopes, read their orders, and sprang into action.
14:39Each man had a job to do.
14:41By 10 PM that night,
14:43Egyptian teams had seized all the canal company's main offices.
14:48The operation went off smoothly, without a single drop of blood.
14:51A foreign employee sits at his desk. A group of Egyptians walks in.
14:54"Sorry, sir. The canal belongs to us now!"
14:57Meanwhile, in London, at 10 Downing Street,
15:00Prime Minister Anthony Eden was hosting an official dinner.
15:06Then his aide rushed in and whispered the news.
15:10Eden's face turned every color.
15:12He ended the dinner immediately.
15:13An emergency meeting followed, lasting until 4 AM.
15:17Eden was an old-school warrior,
15:19still living in the glory days of the British Empire.
15:23To him, Nasser's move was a direct insult.
15:28"How dare this Third World leader stand up to Britain?!"
15:32Eden quickly wrote to US President Eisenhower.
15:35Britain was ready to use force to bring Nasser to his senses.
15:38Paris was no calmer.
15:41French Foreign Minister Christian Pineau was furious.
15:43He compared Nasser's move to Hitler's seizure of the Rhineland.
15:47But France's feud with Nasser went back much further.
15:51The French would rather side with Marie Antoinette than Nasser!
15:54He'd been undermining French interests across Africa,
15:58wrecking their business.
16:01France treated Africa like its own backyard.
16:04As you might remember from the Che Guevara episode,
16:06Nasser backed liberation movements across Africa and beyond.
16:09He also armed and funded Algerian rebels.
16:13The French were livid.
16:15But Nasser went even further.
16:17He inspired people to rise up against their colonizers.
16:20He became a symbol of anti-colonial resistance.
16:22According to Albert Camus,
16:24the French viewed Algeria as a country with no real identity,
16:26freedom, or independence.
16:28As if those ideas only existed after Nasser came along.
16:31He said it with disdain,
16:32while defending France’s occupation of Algeria.
16:34For France, this wasn't Nasser's first offense.
16:39It was the last straw!
16:42If Britain hated Nasser one carat's worth,
16:44France hated him 24 carats' worth!
16:47"Why not team up and run to Eisenhower, who hated Nasser too,
16:51then launch a four-way attack on Egypt?"
16:53Whose side are you on?!
16:54"Sorry, I got carried away. Please, carry on."
16:56But Eisenhower's America wanted to stay calm.
17:02-"America?!" -Yes, America!
17:04The US didn't want war.
17:06The world was still healing from World War II.
17:09America had problems of its own.
17:12Eisenhower faced a November election,
17:16so he didn't need a global crisis or soaring gas prices.
17:21America had enough on its plate.
17:24He also believed Egypt had the legal right to nationalize the canal
17:28if it paid shareholders.
17:30"Eisenhower?"
17:32America stalled and held talks in London to resolve the crisis.
17:38The US wanted a deal through negotiations, not war.
17:41At these global meetings, Egypt's Foreign Minister Mahmoud Fawzi
17:44bought time to secure the canal and block foreign control.
17:50He was running down the clock until his team finished the match.
17:53But Britain and France caught on.
17:56Diplomacy wasn't working,
17:58so they teamed up behind America's back.
18:02Egypt had angered Britain and France,
18:05while Eisenhower wanted to avoid a crisis before the election.
18:08And who was watching the fight and loving every minute?
18:12Israel!
18:13And that's when Israel entered the picture.
18:15As Egyptians say, Israel was overjoyed.
18:18Israel was the happiest country after nationalization,
18:20seeing the crisis as a chance to start the war it had been waiting for.
18:24Israel was already worried about the Czech arms deal,
18:28which saw Egypt buy weapons from the Soviet bloc.
18:30Israel saw Egypt's arms buildup as a matter of life or death.
18:35Modern Egyptian weapons were a terrifying prospect,
18:38so Israel wanted to strike before Egypt mastered them.
18:43And remember that opening scene from October 1956?
18:47The three parties met in France to plot their little scheme.
18:50They agreed on a plan later known as the Sèvres Protocol.
18:53The plan was simple.
18:54Israel would attack Egypt on October 29
18:57and race across Sinai toward the Suez Canal.
19:00Of course, Egypt would fight back.
19:03The next day, Britain and France would play peacemakers.
19:09"Why are you fighting? Calm down.
19:11We just need to separate your forces!"
19:14Britain and France would then issue an ultimatum to Egypt and Israel,
19:18demanding they pull back ten miles from the canal to protect shipping.
19:23"Calm Down both of you!"
19:26Of course, the plan relied on Egypt rejecting it.
19:31Egypt wouldn't retreat or surrender its land,
19:33especially the canal it had just nationalized.
19:35Once Egypt refused, Britain and France would enter the war.
19:39They would bomb Egyptian airfields and land troops in the canal zone,
19:45claiming they were there to separate the forces.
19:48What a devious plan!
19:50Britain and France needed to look like saviors,
19:55not empires flexing their power over a sovereign nation.
19:59The French insisted that all three leaders sign the plan.
20:03They're leaving their fingerprints on the weapon before committing the crime!
20:06When Anthony Eden heard about the document,
20:08he called his foreign minister.
20:11"How can we leave proof of Britain's conspiracy?"
20:14He ordered the British copy to be burned.
20:18Then he sent his deputy foreign secretary to Paris
20:20to convince France and Israel to burn their copies too.
20:24But France refused, and Ben-Gurion wouldn't let go of his.
20:28Israel loves collecting evidence on its enemies and even its friends!
20:33Ben-Gurion hid his copy and took it back to Israel.
20:36Now the three countries were ready to launch the attack on Egypt,
20:39known as the Tripartite Aggression.
20:42On October 29, 1956, the agreed-upon act began.
20:47Israeli paratroopers landed deep in Sinai,
20:51striking suddenly at Mitla Pass.
20:53The attack became known as Operation Kadesh.
20:55Its goal was to stir chaos and threaten the Suez Canal.
20:59The operation was led by Ariel Sharon,
21:01then commander of the 202nd Paratroop Brigade.
21:04Israel also advanced along other routes across Sinai,
21:07backed by French AMX-13 tanks.
21:11These moves aimed to scatter Egyptian forces
21:13and draw them deep into the desert.
21:16France was also secretly helping Israel.
21:18French planes dropped supplies to Israeli troops in Sinai.
21:22Remember, France wasn't supposed to be involved yet.
21:25To keep up the deception, French planes even bore the Star of David.
21:32That made it look like a purely Israeli-Egyptian war,
21:36leaving neutral countries to step in later.
21:38Meanwhile, Britain played the good guy.
21:42On October 30, just a day after Israel attacked Egypt,
21:46Anthony Eden addressed the British Parliament.
21:48He condemned the fighting and issued an ultimatum to Egypt and Israel.
21:53"This chaos must stop. The fighting must end now.
21:57Both sides must withdraw ten miles from the canal.
22:02I'm neutral. I support neither side."
22:04The ultimatum was a joke.
22:07Britain and France even asked Egypt to let their troops…
22:11occupy Port Said, Ismailia, and Suez.
22:14All in the name of protecting canal traffic!
22:17Israel was waiting for this exact excuse to play its part.
22:21Israeli forces hadn't even reached that far into Sinai yet.
22:24It was a golden opportunity for Israel, but Egypt faced a grave ultimatum.
22:29Egypt was expected to abandon Sinai and give up the canal,
22:33whose sovereignty it had reclaimed just three months earlier.
22:36So, just as expected, Nasser rejected the ultimatum.
22:40Everything went exactly as the three countries had planned,
22:44triggering the next phase.
22:46On October 31, phase two began.
22:49British and French planes launched a massive assault.
22:54They bombed Egyptian airfields and bases in Cairo, Alexandria, and the Canal cities.
22:59Their goal was to ground Egypt's entire air force
23:02and destroy the weapons Egypt had bought in the Czech arms deal.
23:05They wanted total air superiority,
23:08especially with ground troops about to land.
23:11The airstrikes destroyed much of Egypt's air force.
23:15Meanwhile, Israeli forces pushed hard into Sinai from the east.
23:19But Egypt fought back.
23:21Egyptian troops resisted fiercely at Abu Ageila, southeast of El Arish.
23:27British and French forces prepared to land in the Canal Zone from the west.
23:32Egypt's army was caught in a pincer movement.
23:37The generals wanted to keep fighting in Sinai
23:40and defend every inch of Egyptian soil.
23:42But Nasser knew the airstrikes had cost Egypt its air cover.
23:47An open battle with them would expose his army to their air forces.
23:52So Nasser made a strategic decision to save the army.
23:56He ordered a retreat into the Nile Delta to defend Cairo.
23:59He left some troops in Port Said,
24:01including army units, police, and coast guards.
24:05With the way cleared, enemy planes began bombing Canal cities,
24:08especially Port Said, on November 1.
24:12Three days later, three Egyptian torpedo boats tried to…
24:18intercept the British and French fleet in the Mediterranean.
24:21The battle took place off the coast of Burullus.
24:25It was no contest, and the invaders won.
24:31Dozens of Egyptian officers and sailors were killed in action.
24:34But even in defeat, Egypt showed its resolve to sacrifice everything.
24:39Some Egyptians were ready to give their lives to stop the invasion.
24:42The Battle of Burullus, fought on November 4,
24:44is now commemorated as Kafr El Sheikh's National Day.
24:48On November 5, they launched the next phase.
24:51Big numbers of British paratroopers would land at El Gamil Airfield in Port Said.
24:58There, they faced resistance unlike anything they'd seen.
25:03Young Egyptians defending their homeland.
25:04Among them was Mohamed Mehran, one of the known resistance fighters.
25:07He was captured and interrogated for information
25:10about the resistance and its locations.
25:12When Mehran refused, they tortured him and gouged out his eyes.
25:16Meanwhile, French paratroopers landed at Port Fuad and El Raswa,
25:19preparing for the ground invasion.
25:22So what would Egypt do?
25:24Britain and France were landing, and Israel was closing in.
25:27As in the song, "He brought his weapons, his planes, submarines, and tanks…
25:31He attacked to surrender."
25:35The British and French thought this would be a military picnic.
25:41They were heading to Suez, Ismailia, and Port Said.
25:46Like every great power, they saw it as a military operation, not a war.
25:50A few shots, a show of force, and everyone would surrender.
25:53After all, who'd dare defy great empires?
25:55The people of Port Said would see their show of force and surrender.
26:01Then they'd go in, see the De Lesseps statue,
26:04eat fish at the aquarium, and enjoy drinks.
26:08After that, they'd take control of the remaining Canal cities.
26:11But historian David Charlwood explains in his book Suez Crisis 1956:
26:17Colonial arrogance blinded them to reality.
26:20Once they entered, they realized they weren't just fighting a few troops.
26:24They were fighting an entire city!
26:25It wasn't just soldiers defending it.
26:27It was the people.
26:28Port Said's residents had become a popular resistance force!
26:32Anyone who could help did whatever they could.
26:34Some took up rifles, others made Molotovs,
26:37and the rest fought with any blade they had.
26:41Those who couldn't fight helped with logistics.
26:44They moved ammunition, shared intelligence, and connected people.
26:48Men, women, and elders all defended the city.
26:53Even children took part.
26:55Some watched enemy troops,
26:57while others ran messages to alert the people.
26:59The resistance was completely disorganized.
27:02They struggled to contain the chaos,
27:04but made up for it with such courage that the enemy went mad.
27:09On the morning of November 6, the major amphibious assault began.
27:12British marines landed in Port Said,
27:14while helicopters were used for the first time in war
27:18to drop commandos into the heart of battle.
27:21Both sides suddenly faced urban warfare.
27:25No words can capture the resistance's fury.
27:28Imagine fighters with basic rifles on rooftops and leaning from windows,
27:33while others threw grenades.
27:35The soldiers had no idea where attacks came from.
27:37The British were trapped and couldn't react.
27:40It was like playing football against the pros,
27:42only to find the crowd was your opponent.
27:44You couldn't read their game, and they couldn't read yours.
27:47This was popular resistance, not military strategy.
27:50The British were bogged down in fierce battles…
27:52around the Customs House, the Naval Building, and Coast Guard barracks.
27:56The resistance defended these sites to the last.
27:59The British even tried to storm them with tanks,
28:02but failed so badly they resorted to airstrikes to destroy the buildings.
28:07That alone showed their ground assault was failing.
28:10One of the fiercest clashes was the Battle of the Cemeteries.
28:15Resistance fighters hid among the graves,
28:17waiting for the British to come within range.
28:20It was as if the dead offered shelter to the living.
28:23Every tombstone became a shield,
28:24and every inch the British advanced cost them blood.
28:27British soldiers called the battles "Dante's Hell."
28:31They said they fired at anything that moved,
28:34desperate to regain control by any means.
28:36Port Said had slipped out of their control,
28:39and its brave residents became Egypt's strongest weapon.
28:42The enemy was going mad.
28:45There was no clear front, no regular army to defeat,
28:50no headquarters to strike or command to infiltrate.
28:54They wanted to fight someone in uniform, but the whole city was fighting back!
28:57A man selling goods at the market by day could kill by night.
29:01Even a schoolboy with his backpack could be a top spy.
29:05You never knew what he carried or who it was for.
29:07Every street looked like a threat to the British,
29:10and every window could hide an ambush.
29:12Unable to break Port Said's resistance,
29:15the enemy resorted to its usual brutality.
29:20French paratroopers tried to seize the water station,
29:23then cut off the city's supply to force people to surrender.
29:30They brutally bombed the Arab Quarter and set Manakh ablaze.
29:35Thousands lost their homes and became homeless in an instant.
29:39Residents faced two terrible choices.
29:41They could hide at home amid rubble and shelling, or flee the city entirely.
29:47Some families fled to save their lives,
29:50but many drowned trying to escape by boat.
29:53Port Said was devastated.
29:56Entire streets lay in ruins, littered with bodies.
29:59British soldiers collected the dead and body parts from both sides,
30:03loading them onto trucks.
30:04They stacked the bodies and covered them with lime to mask the stench.
30:08In just 48 hours, 650 Egyptians were killed,
30:13and over 3,000 injured.
30:15Despite the death, destruction, siege, and hunger,
30:21Port Said stood firm with great honor.
30:24Its resistance stalled British and French forces,
30:27stopping their advance toward El Qantara and Ismailia.
30:34That delay became the key to wrecking the entire invasion plan.
30:39As the song says,
30:41"Who are they to take?
30:43Come and see what happens to you.
30:44We won, but their shame lives on in Port Said.
30:52Port Said's legendary resistance
30:54was about to trigger a political earthquake.
30:56One that neither Britain nor France saw coming.
30:59The British and French expected a quick victory
31:03that would leave the world with a fait accompli.
31:05The Suez Canal would be theirs.
31:06But the exact opposite happened.
31:08The first shock came from the Soviets.
31:11The Soviet Union saw a golden opportunity
31:14to establish itself as a superpower.
31:16After all, the Soviets had just emerged from a brutal war,
31:18crushed Hitler, and entered the Cold War.
31:21What better PR for a rising superpower than defending the oppressed?
31:26Meanwhile, the UN Secretary-General must have been beside himself.
31:30Three countries were attacking a sovereign nation.
31:34Who could sleep with all that condemnation?
31:36But the Soviets issued a direct threat to Britain and France.
31:41What was the threat?
31:42Nuclear strikes on London and Paris.
31:45-"Nuclear weapons?!" -Yes, actual nuclear weapons.
31:48-"The Soviets brought out the nukes?" -Every last one!
31:50Khrushchev openly declared that unless the aggression stopped,
31:53the Soviet Union would crush the aggressors by force
31:55and restore peace to the Middle East.
31:58Gone was the image of Stalin's lapdog. Nikita was a whole new man now.
32:01Many historians and politicians considered the threat an empty bluff.
32:07Because the Soviets supposedly lacked the military capabilities to carry it out.
32:11But nuclear threats are no laughing matter.
32:18The devastation in Japan had already shown what those weapons could do.
32:21Nobody would risk it without knowing if the Soviets could follow through.
32:24A 50% chance of nuclear annihilation was terrifying enough.
32:27The threat sent waves of fear through European capitals.
32:30But there was an obvious question.
32:32Hadn't the Soviet Union fought alongside Britain and France in World War II?
32:35Why were former allies threatening nukes?
32:37The fatal blow to Eden wouldn't come from the Soviets.
32:41It would come from an ally,
32:44his best buddy, America.
32:46Nine days after the invasion began, on November 6,
32:49President Eisenhower was absolutely furious.
32:52For starters, his own allies had secretly planned a war behind his back.
32:57They'd been secretly planning a whole invasion without even telling America?
33:00What kind of allies do that?!
33:01Eisenhower believed the invasion had no moral or legal justification whatsoever.
33:07Egypt hadn't done anything that could justify such an invasion.
33:09Britain and France were making a monumental mistake.
33:12Their actions risked driving the Arab world into the Soviet camp.
33:14This wasn't just about one country. An entire region was at stake.
33:18So the United States introduced a resolution at the UN General Assembly
33:21demanding an immediate ceasefire
33:24and the withdrawal of all forces.
33:26The resolution passed overwhelmingly, with 64 votes in favor
33:30and only five against: Britain, France, Israel, Australia, and New Zealand.
33:34Meanwhile, Arab countries were supporting Egypt through oil pressure.
33:38Egyptians had already been sinking ships in the Suez Canal,
33:42disrupting oil shipments to Europe.
33:45But Saudi Arabia's decision to halt oil exports to Britain and France
33:50delivered an even heavier blow.
33:51Syrian workers also blew up a pipeline carrying Iraqi oil to Europe.
33:56The Syrian government refused to fix it,
33:59the repair crew was on strike until the invasion ended.
34:01Workers in Kuwait, Bahrain, and Libya disrupted oil facilities supplying Europe.
34:05Many factories ground to a halt.
34:07As Abdel Halim Hafez sang, "The Arab world stood beside Egypt,
34:10and free nations stood against its enemies.
34:12Victory! Victory! Victory!"
34:16Combined with the enormous cost of the war,
34:18all this put tremendous pressure on the British pound.
34:20Britain's foreign currency reserves were plummeting.
34:23Things got so bad that Britain, yes, Britain,
34:25had to turn to the IMF for a payday loan.
34:29But another surprise was waiting.
34:31Eisenhower, the American president,
34:33and Britain's fellow NATO ally,
34:36refused to support the loan unless the war stopped.
34:39Britain was now facing Soviet military threats,
34:41American political pressure,
34:43an economic crisis, and an energy shortage.
34:45British public opinion had turned against the government.
34:47In an familiar scene, British citizens took to the streets to protest the war.
34:51In the end, Eden had no choice
34:54but to wave the white flag and surrender.
34:57On November 6, Britain agreed to the ceasefire,
35:00forcing France and Israel to follow suit.
35:04United Nations troops then entered the city.
35:07But the ceasefire didn't mean Port Said's suffering was over.
35:11The city remained under occupation.
35:13Its people suffered both at home and in exile.
35:15Those who fled to other regions had little or no money.
35:19That was the reality for many families from Port Said.
35:22Yet, those who stayed behind were completely isolated from the rest of Egypt.
35:25The city remained under siege.
35:26Even outside supplies had stopped arriving.
35:29Grocery shops ran out of stock.
35:30And residents survived on meager food rations.
35:33Although the official fighting had stopped,
35:36the occupation forces continued terrorizing Port Said's residents.
35:39It was retaliation for the humiliation they had suffered.
35:41With bicycles and cars banned and searches and arrests continuing,
35:46residents realized that
35:47resistance had to become an organized underground movement.
35:51And so the United Front for Popular Resistance was established.
35:54The organization united resistance fighters,
35:56making their attacks increasingly effective.
35:59They carried out kidnappings, executions,
36:01and anything else that could make life miserable for the occupying soldiers.
36:04Stories of heroic figures and daring operations began to emerge.
36:07One was the kidnapping and killing of British officer Anthony Moorhouse.
36:11Another involved resistance fighter Zeinab El-Kafrawy.
36:13who walked the streets of Port Said
36:15with nerves of steel, right past British and French patrols.
36:19She was pushing a cart full of weapons to deliver to the resistance fighters.
36:24Amid isolation, siege, and hunger,
36:26people desperately needed something to lift their spirits.
36:29And that's when a different kind of weapon emerged.
36:31One the occupiers had never expected,
36:33couldn't confiscate, and couldn't silence.
36:36That weapon was the simsimiyya.
36:38A traditional string instrument from the Suez Canal region's folklore.
36:41Simsimiyya musicians like Mohamed Abu Youssef, Kamal Azma, and many others
36:45wrote and composed songs that inspired resistance
36:48and sent morale soaring.
36:49Songs rallied people against the invasion.
36:51One song declared: "This canal and sea are ours,
36:54our pride and livelihood,
36:55and those who dug it were our own ancestors."
36:57Another was "My Homeland, Land of Resistance Fighters."
36:59The song immortalized the bravery of security officer El-Saeed Hamada,
37:02who was assigned to guard the Italian Consulate.
37:05When he refused to abandon his post, he was shot and killed.
37:08He died defending the very place he was sworn to protect.
37:11But the simsimiyya wasn't just entertainment.
37:14It wasn't simply a way to ease the suffering of siege and hunger.
37:16It had become a psychological weapon and a powerful voice for the resistance.
37:19It was almost like a living historical record,
37:22documenting every tank destroyed and every enemy soldier brought down.
37:26The simsimiyya became the people's newspaper,
37:29telling the stories of Port Said's struggle.
37:31Its songs preserved their courage, lives, and suffering.
37:39And so it continued until the day Port Said had been waiting for.
37:44After months of suffering, resistance,
37:47gunfire, and living under constant threat,
37:50December 23 finally arrived.
37:52Egypt regained Port Said after British and French troops withdrew.
37:56Egypt had reclaimed the Suez Canal.
37:58December 23 would become Port Said's annual holiday.
38:01And on December 24, crowds gathered at the canal entrance
38:04and pulled down the statue of Ferdinand de Lesseps.
38:07The pressure continued until Israel withdrew from Sinai and the Gaza Strip.
38:11By March 1957, Egypt had recovered its occupied territories.
38:16And as Abdel Halim Hafez sang:
38:17"Victory! Victory! Victory!"
38:23But the consequences of this extraordinary, reckless adventure
38:26went far beyond a military withdrawal.
38:28This was an event that helped reshape the world
38:31and redraw the balance of global power.
38:33In the struggle between world powers,
38:35the Suez Crisis was the final nail
38:38in the coffin of the old colonial empires.
38:41It was the final Jenga block that brought the whole tower down.
38:44The crisis cemented a new world order dominated by just two superpowers:
38:49the United States and the Soviet Union.
38:51The Suez Crisis also exposed a power vacuum in the Middle East
38:55as British and French influence declined.
38:57This led to the adoption of the Eisenhower Doctrine,
38:59under which America took responsibility for
39:02protecting the Middle East against communist expansion.
39:04Meanwhile, Britain's crippling economic crisis was far from over.
39:08Eden had entered the war hoping to emerge as a national hero.
39:11He thought it would be an easy fight.
39:13Instead, the immense stress further damaged his health.
39:16And amid the crisis and fuel shortages,
39:17he committed a political and moral disaster.
39:19On December 20, he stood before Parliament
39:22and falsely claimed that the British government
39:25had no prior knowledge of Israel's attack on Egypt.
39:30According to Eden, Britain knew nothing.
39:31It had simply arrived to break up a fight.
39:34That lie, combined with scenes of police brutality
39:36against protesters in London,
39:38shattered public trust in the government.
39:41Eden's popularity hit rock bottom.
39:42In January 1957, he was forced to resign, bringing his political career to an end.
39:47He was succeeded by Harold Macmillan,
39:49whose foreign policy might have been: "America knows best."
39:52His main priority was repairing relations with the United States.
39:55According to many historians,
39:57the Suez Crisis taught Britain the harshest possible lesson.
40:00It was a devastating blow to the British Empire's prestige.
40:02Britain finally realized it was no longer the mighty empire it once was.
40:08It was like looking in the mirror and realizing the glory days were long gone.
40:11Britain realized it now needed America's approval for major decisions.
40:16How the tables had turned. The world had slipped from Britain's grasp.
40:19David Charlwood summed it up in his book with a simple observation.
40:21An operation meant to restore imperial prestige had achieved the exact opposite.
40:26It had accelerated the empire's decline.
40:28France, meanwhile, felt betrayed. America had opposed the invasion,
40:32and Britain had backed down and abandoned the fight.
40:35So France decided it needed to stand on its own two feet.
40:38That decision accelerated its nuclear weapons program.
40:41And in a particularly brutal chapter,
40:43France began conducting nuclear tests in Algeria.
40:45Actual nuclear explosions on Algerian soil.
40:47By the early 1960s, France was increasingly focused on European unity.
40:50The goal was to create a powerful bloc
40:52capable of standing up not only to the Soviets, but also to America.
40:55That ambition was reflected in the 1957 Treaty of Rome,
40:58which laid the foundations for today's European Union.
41:02Former enemies were now joining forces and even sharing a currency.
41:06The crisis also contributed to the collapse of France's Fourth Republic
41:10and the return of Charles de Gaulle to power.
41:12This would later help pave the way for Algeria's independence.
41:16For Israel, however, the outcome was more mixed.
41:19Israel had achieved a military victory in Sinai,
41:21but suffered a political defeat.
41:23It lost the diplomatic battle,
41:24which, according to foreign sources, Egypt had handled with remarkable success.
41:28Eisenhower and the UN pressured Israel into withdrawing from the occupied territories.
41:33By March 1957, Israeli forces had withdrawn from every inch they had occupied.
41:36In return, the Gulf of Aqaba and
41:38the Straits of Tiran were opened to Israeli shipping.
41:40Another important consequence was the acceleration of Israel's nuclear program.
41:45France supplied Israel with a nuclear reactor and the necessary technology,
41:49with the ultimate goal of developing nuclear weapons
41:52intended to guarantee Israel's survival.
41:54But perhaps more importantly, Israel emerged from the crisis
41:56with an entirely new military doctrine.
42:00It had learned to rely on itself,
42:01even when backed by powerful allies.
42:03Israel also learned to strike first and catch everyone off guard,
42:06before its allies could pressure it to stop.
42:08A strategy it still follows today.
42:10The classic drag-your-ally-in strategy and let America sort it out.
42:13Nasser, meanwhile, emerged with a major political victory.
42:17The Suez Canal remained Egyptian.
42:18And in April 1957, he successfully reopened it to international shipping.
42:22More importantly, a year later, he secured Soviet funding
42:25to cover part of the Aswan High Dam's cost.
42:27Then there was Nasser's personal ambition, his soaring popularity across the region,
42:30and the rise of Arab nationalism.
42:31At the time, this movement was sweeping across the Middle East.
42:34One major achievement came in 1958, when Egypt and Syria united as one country.
42:40Egypt and Syria were a single state.
42:41Nasser's influence also inspired nationalist movements
42:44in countries like Libya, Algeria, and Iraq.
42:46His anti-colonial ideas spread throughout Africa, Asia, and South America.
42:51As explored in Che Guevara episode,
42:53revolutionaries in Latin America saw Nasser as a role model.
42:55But despite all this, the picture was far from entirely rosy.
42:59History is far more complicated than a neat happy ending.
43:02As I mentioned, nationalizing the canal was itself a controversial decision.
43:05Critics argued that only 12 years remained before the concession was due to expire.
43:08Egypt could have used that time to negotiate with Britain and France
43:12for an earlier end to the concession,
43:14or a larger share of the canal's profits.
43:17From that perspective, the war might have been avoided altogether.
43:20The nationalization of the canal and the people's resistance to the invasion
43:23had inspired enormous national pride.
43:27They also helped cement Nasser's position as the country's undisputed leader.
43:30A single leader making fateful decisions
43:33that could pull an entire Arab nation along with him.
43:35Some believe this led to disasters like the Yemen War and the 1967 War.
43:40In the end, the details of the secret plot at Sèvres,
43:43covered earlier in the episode,
43:45remained hidden until 1996.
43:49For decades, the truth had stayed buried.
43:52Until Israeli researcher Ilan Troen
43:54published the text of the Protocol of Sèvres for the first time.
43:57His sources included photographs of the Israeli copy.
44:01And it had been kept all along in the Ben-Gurion Archives.
44:03From then on, the Protocol of Sèvres
44:05became historical evidence of the conspiracy.
44:07The very conspiracy the invading powers had spent decades denying.
44:11And more than 40 years later, the whole world finally learned the truth.
44:14But the significance of the Suez Crisis went far beyond the document itself.
44:17The Suez Crisis, as it's known worldwide, wasn't simply a dispute over a waterway,
44:21or another military clash between opposing armies.
44:24No, it was the moment history observed
44:25a minute's silence for the old colonial empires.
44:30An entire chapter had finally closed.
44:34Once-mighty powers had sent fleets to conquer distant lands
44:37and devastated entire nations to impose their will.
44:39They were used to calling all the shots.
44:41But the Suez Crisis delivered a brutal reality check.
44:44The sun was setting on colonial rule and the time had run out.
44:48And they learned the hard way that they needed a new way to deal with the world,
44:52especially with former colonies.
44:55More importantly, the crisis proved
44:57that history isn't written by governments alone.
44:59Leaders make decisions, armies fight wars, and diplomats negotiate
45:03but ordinary people pay the price.
45:05And sometimes, ordinary people can turn the tables and change the entire equation.
45:10Just like the resistance of Port Said's residents.
45:12Residents, far removed from Ben-Gurion, Eden, Eisenhower, and Nikita Khrushchev.
45:17The only thing that mattered was defending home and land against foreign invaders.
45:21Don't forget to watch the new episodes and the old ones.
45:24Check the sources below and subscribe if you're on YouTube.
45:27"What a brilliant episode!
45:29Now Captain Boska's famous declaration of love for Port Said finally makes sense.
45:33Anything for Port Said!"
45:34All those historical twists, and Captain Boska was the main takeaway?
45:37Guess the invasion went unnoticed!

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