The very powerful Jewish lobby in America had ensured that Israel was supported by America and that the new state had modern American weapons to defend itself from attack. The Israelis had already beaten off one attempt by the Arab nations to crush it in 1948/49.
This is false. The Israelis had Czech weapons in 1948, plus what they could scrounge from the departing Brits, very little indeed. They were badly outgunned and would have been destroyed if the Arabs hadn't been such incompetent soldiers. In the 1950s, the Israelis got European weapons, French jets. The Americans did not begin to supply weapons until 1967, when the Soviets were openly backing Syria & Egypt; in fact the Soviets egged on the war of 1967.
This is revising the history of the 1950s with things that became true in the 1970s. In the 1940s and 1950s, Israel had support from the American Jewish community, not the government, beyond recognition. Recognition was the chief thing to stick in the craw of Egypt & the other Arabs, who thought the US should help them destroy Israel, I mean the "Zionist entity".
Ironically, the Americans did not give their support to Britain or France when these two countries invaded Egypt. This was for two reasons. First, the Americans had been kept in the dark about what Britain and France was going to do (attack Egypt) which greatly angered them. The second reason is that America realised that world sympathy was with Egypt on this issue and that both Britain and France came across as world bullies and America - having preached about democracy etc. - could not be seen to be associating herself with the two 'bullies'. America was also very wary that the whole situation could easily get out of hand
In short, Eisenhower supported Nasser in 1956. Much good it did. Nasser still ran into the arms of the Soviets & claimed he was bombed by the Americans in 1967, lol. |
