The Third Kingdom of Israel/Image Adaptation, Hans Finn, GPO, Davar, Paul Goldman, GPO
"Solo, solo track, renew homeland routes," read a poster hung at the Yad Mordechai train station. Hundreds of people welcomed the train, which came from the center of the country and continued south to "liberated Gaza," the Spectator newspaper announced. Only nine days earlier, on November 5, 1956, the eight-day Lightning War called Operation Kadesh ended, at the end of which the small State of Israel found itself in control of the entire Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip.
At the end of the war, Israel Railways renewed the eight-kilometer-long railway that connected Yad Mordechai to the Gaza Strip, which had been destroyed eight years earlier in the War of Independence. After the song of hope, the train left Yad Mordechai and at six o'clock in the evening entered the Gaza station.
Israel Railways arrived in Gaza, Davar, 28/11/1956/official website, National Library of Israel
Israel was euphoric; A country of ten that only eight years ago fought for its existence, a large part of its citizens survived the horrors of the Holocaust and lost their families, the country absorbed large waves of immigration and its economic situation was dire. Austerity was imposed on the citizens. The immigrants living along the borders were threatened by terrorist attacks, mainly residents of moshavim and kibbutzim in the south into which Fedayeen, encouraged by Egypt, infiltrated and murdered residents. Egypt and Syria, which had difficulty digesting the humiliation of '48, began to grow stronger and arm themselves with the weapons supplied to them by the Soviet Union, and the balance of power between Israel and its neighbors was facing a dramatic change.
A sense of tangible threat hovered over the young state as Nasser, the ruler of Egypt, rallied the Arab states. Added to all this was the Egyptian president's decision to block the Strait of Tiran to Israeli vessels.
Little Israel signed an alliance with the British and French powers, and on October 29, 1956, embarked on the Sinai War, which ended in an impressive military victory. The day after the end of the war, IDF forces held a festive ceremony at the southern tip of occupied Sinai, in Sharm el-Sheikh, opposite Tiran Island and the Red Sea Strait, which had been opened for Israeli navigation.
The soldiers stood in the shape of a rectangle, bearded, tired but in high spirits. Opposite they improvised a stage from two commandos, one of which had a flagpole topped by an Israeli flag. At one o'clock in the afternoon, IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Dayan took the same stage and read a letter sent by Prime Minister and Defense Minister David Ben-Gurion: "You have had the fate of a unique historical privilege – bringing to a successful conclusion the largest and most glorious operation in the history of our people and one of the most wonderful operations in the history of all peoples. With a tremendous and combined momentum of all the IDF forces, you extended a hand to King Solomon, who developed Eilat as the first Israeli port 3,000 years ago - and Yotvet, known as Tiran, which until 1,400 years ago was an independent Hebrew state, will once again be part of the Third Kingdom of Israel."
Notice of trips to the Gaza Strip, "Davar" 25/12/1956/official website, National Library of Israel
Under the same messianic atmosphere, Ben-Gurion took the podium at the Knesset plenum a day later and said: "The status of Mount Sinai, which is being renewed today with the IDF's heroic momentum, is the focal point of our fortifications, security and well-being, as well as of our external relations in the world arena and in the Middle East." Later, he turned to an IDF soldier and said: "You may have done something great and mighty, higher than any political or security significance: You brought us closer to the sublime and decisive moment in the history of our ancient times, to the place of giving the Torah, when our people were demanded to be a people of virtue."
Ben-Gurion's enthusiasm for Sinai weakened when he spoke in the Gaza Strip. His attitude towards this region changed from time to time. During the War of Independence he avoided the occupation of Gaza, and in the armistice agreement Israel signed with Egypt in 1949, the Gaza Strip remained in Egyptian hands. The question of Palestinian refugees who moved to the Gaza Strip was significant; About three hundred thousand people lived in the Gaza Strip at the time, about two hundred and ten thousand of whom were refugees. The occupation of the Gaza Strip required the absorption of these residents. Historian Tom Segev quotes Ben-Gurion in his book on this issue: "We will have to treat the Arabs as if they were Jews," he said.
David Ben-Gurion in a hammer seat after the 1955 bombing./Government Press Office, Paul Goldman
A few years after the War of Independence, he already saw differently the question of the occupation of the Gaza Strip. The change stemmed from the wave of terrorist attacks emanating from within the Gaza Strip, encouraged by Egypt. On March 24, 1955, terrorists from the Gaza Strip infiltrated a hammer moshav, twenty kilometers from the Gaza Strip, while a wedding was being celebrated there. The attack killed Varda Friedman, 22, from Kfar Vitkin, who volunteered to be an agricultural instructor with a hammer. Nineteen of the revellers were injured. Shortly before that, Ben-Gurion returned from two years of retirement during which he had lived in Sde Boker. He hurried to a moshav where immigrants from Kurdistan lived, and then summoned IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Dayan to a meeting.
"He expressed his opinion that the Gaza Strip should be occupied and handed over to Israeli rule," Dayan said. "I was surprised by his words. His firm and consistent position has always been that despite acts of sabotage and terror, Israel must not occupy the Gaza Strip. It would be better for us to stay outside the State of Israel. This time he explained to me that while all previous considerations remain, there is a human reality. The Jews who came from North Africa to the Negev, the boys who leave their established farms in the north and come to the aid of the new settlers, the State of Israel taking its first steps, all these require sheltering the young villages, letting their people take root, instilling faith and confidence in our power in their hearts, and expelling the Egyptians from Gaza so that the new immigrants can build their new homes."
Beit Hanoun, 1/2/1957/Government Press Office, Moshe Friedan
International pressure
But the defense minister's wishes were not fulfilled and the attacks continued. In August of that year, a wave of fedayeen attacks hit many communities and the terrorists reached nearby streets and towns. At the same time, elections were held for the third Knesset, with Ben-Gurion again at the helm of Mapai. In November he formed a government and eleven months later Ben-Gurion carried out his wishes. On October 21, 1956, a delegation headed by Ben-Gurion secretly left Israel, accompanied by IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Dayan, Defense Ministry Director General Shimon Peres and a number of aides. The senior delegation went to France to participate in a secret meeting with representatives of France and Britain, with the aim of leading a joint campaign against Egypt. Every country and its causes are with it. Ben-Gurion and his men were taken to a villa in the town of Sevres, near Paris. The talks began a day later and lasted two days, at the end of which a treaty was signed between the three countries discussing launching a coordinated military operation against Egypt. Eight days later, Operation Musketeer, known as the Sinai War or Operation Kadesh, was launched.
Inauguration of the Israel Post office in Gaza, 10/12/1956/Government Press Office, Hans Finn
The festive envelope in honor of the inauguration of a post office in Gaza, 10/12/1956/Government Press Office, Hans Finn
Ben-Gurion's speeches about the "Kingdom of the Third Temple" and "extending a hand to King Solomon" were delivered against the backdrop of enormous pressure on the Israeli government to withdraw from Sinai and the Gaza Strip. Soviet Prime Minister Mikhail Bulganin ordered the ambassador in Tel Aviv to return to Moscow and sent threatening letters to France, Britain and Israel. "The Israeli government is criminally playing with the fate of its country and its people," he wrote. At the same time, it was reported that Soviet and Chinese "volunteers" intended to come to Egypt's aid. The UN General Assembly demanded that the three armies immediately evacuate the territory of Egypt it occupied, and American President Eisenhower wrote to Ben-Gurion demanding that he respect the UN resolution.
In the meantime, martial law began, and in addition to a train that arrived in Gaza, a Gaza Post branch was inaugurated in the city, a city council was appointed, and trips by Israeli citizens began to arrive in the city.
IDF soldiers and a Yugoslav soldier from UNEF mark the new withdrawal line, 25 km from the city of El Arish, 15 January 1957/Government Press Office, National Photograph Collection
But international pressure on Israel was increasing. Israel still insisted on maintaining control over Gaza, claiming that only it could ensure its security. However, in January 1957 it agreed to withdraw the army, leaving only police forces and an administrative system. Cars with loudspeakers drove through the streets of Gaza and played Ben-Gurion's speech in the Knesset. At the same time as the nations demanded an Israeli withdrawal, the refugee problem in the Gaza Strip also became clearer. The heads of UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency) have made it clear to Israel that as time passes, "the refugees will cause more and more trouble for Israel." The UNRWA director said that "the most worrying thing is that a new generation is growing up without memories of normal life, who see the destruction of Israel as a destiny and a key to their future."
American pressure on Israel was increasing, and the Israeli government had no choice but to announce a phased withdrawal. Four months later, on March 8, 1957, Israeli forces finally withdrew from Gaza. Ten years would pass before it was conquered again, in the Six-Day War.
- More on the subject:
- Gaza Strip
- David Ben-Gurion
- Operation Kadesh
- Moshe Dayan
- Gaza War
- Iron Sword War