We’re talking about Israel’s least-known war – the 1956 Sinai Campaign. Lasting just over a week-and-a-half, this blink-and-you’ll-miss-it conflict changed the fortunes of Israel on the world stage and was so important it’s been called Israel’s Second War of Independence.
To understand this short skirmish, we’ll be talking about mandates, pan-Arabism, Gamal Abdel Nasser, the Cold War, Moshe Dayan, anti-semitism, colonialism, Ariel Sharon, the Suez Canal and a whole lot more.
It may have been a short war, but it had huge ramifications.
After almost a decade of infiltrations and terror attacks, Israel’s success in the Sinai Campaign left the country with a restored sense of security and pride in its military. It also paved the way for Israel to defend itself in the years to come.
