Posted on 10/27/2006 6:23:22 AM PDT by Nextrush
On October 27th, 1956 world leaders were aware of the Israeli mobilization but many thought it was for an attack on Jordan, not Egypt.
Terror attacks from Jordan against Israel were common in recent months and nations like the United States assumed Israel was planning a full military attack in response.
Historical accounts say Israeli intelligence (Mossad) was trying to mislead foreign governments by leaking information about an attack on Jordan that foreign intelligence agencies would pick up.
In London Prime Minister Eden brought in a group of ministers to form a "war" cabinet. His supporters in the group fully approved of the Anglo-French ultimatum that would follow the Israeli attack. It would demand that both sides withdrawl from the canal area or it would be occupied by Britain and France.
A French official, Abel Thomas, was dispatched to London to ask for a speedup in the sailing date for the invasion fleet, but Eden only said that slower ships could get an early start.
October 27th was the departure date for the French fleet which sailed from Algeria and included two aircraft carriers and a battleship.
The British fleet, which included three aircraft carriers and two helicopter carriers, would sail from Malta on October 30th.
Even though France had provided dozens of jet aircraft to Israel, there weren't enough pilots or planes to provide an adequate defense against Egypt's largely Soviet-supplied air force. It was decided that two squadrons of the French Air Force, including one with American F-84 aircraft would be based in Israel. The planes would be repainted with Israeli markings and flown by their French pilots as the 200th Squadron of the Israeli Air Force.
Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion telephoned Paris on October 28th to ask Prime Minister Mollet if the "treaty" they had signed a few days earlier was valid. Ben-Gurion was holding two letters from President Eisenhower calling on him to "cease and desist" from military action. Mollet reassured him and all was set for the Israeli attack to begin the next day.........
Suez: the crisis which showed the UK and France to no longer be world powers. The British accepted this and saved face, the French still insist that they are a global power, though no sane country would consider them as such. Relations with France would probably be a lot closer if they could simply accept reality over some things.
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