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This week we come to our last episode on Egypt, focusing on Sadat and Mubarak, both, like Nasser, members of the Free Officers group that had overthrown King Farouq in the coup of 1952. They would both reject Nasser’s Arab socialism but would follow his lead in continuing to enforce an authoritarian government on the Egyptian people, and while Sadat would take-on Israel again, both reached an accommodation with the Israelis. But it wouldn't end well for either of them.
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This week we are going to consider Nasser's legacy. The scourge of Britain, they (along with the French) saw him as something of a Hitler or a Mussolini, but to this day he is still seen by many Egyptians, maybe most, as a hero; and he was, for a time, the leader of the Arab world and a big figure in the Third World and the non-aligned movement. But did that much change for Egyptians? And was his overriding legacy that of authoritarian government?
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The Suez Crisis left Britain humiliated and as far as the Middle East as a whole was concerned, the spectacular failure of British power meant that, in fact, Britain was no longer seen as a major player. America had made it clear that oil and the Cold War came way up their list of priorities before the so-called “special relationship”. And the Soviet Union was emboldened. But we shouldn't forget - Nasser was very much still in power.
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What we are going to look at this week really did shake everything up. It is a remarkable story showing the arrogant and downright immoral side of British imperialism. And it ends in humiliation.
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In this episode, I’m turning to Egypt because something really, really important happens in 1956. Something that changes the whole game in the Middle East and beyond, and we need to understand it.
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We have reached the point in the Middle East at which British rivalry with France is largely superseded by British rivalry with America. BIG SPOLIER – America is going to win this one. Britain’s days as a major power were numbered, they just didn’t see it just yet.
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Before Britain (and France) had relinquished their mandates in the Middle East, Britain and America were already manoeuvring to put one over one another and ensure predominance in the region. Before it was even over, the Anglo-French rivalry was being replaced by an Anglo-American rivalry, again whilst the two countries were allies fighting the Axis powers.
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This episode looks at the very bitter end of the British mandate and the immediate Arab response to the Israeli state. And it ends with some revelations that will probably surprise you, even shock you, but that are actually understandable.
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We are now in 1946 and a combination of diplomatic pressure from the Jewish Agency and continued paramilitary activity, as well as propaganda applied in America which led to increased American pressure, and French manoeuvrings too as they sought revenge, all combined to bring about an end to the British mandate in Palestine. In truth, Britain didn’t stand a chance of maintaining its mandate.
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I’m returning to the Middle East and to the last years of the British mandate in Palestine. With the defeat of Germany, the full revelations of the Holocaust and the refugee crisis in Europe (there were a quarter of a million refugees of whom more than half were Jewish survivors of the Holocaust; and they were living in awful conditions with winter on its way), the momentum was with the Zionist cause.
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In this episode I'm going to take a little look at the Special Relationship the British and Americans like to talk about and that has worried the French and other Europeans in the post-war world. It was Churchill who actually coined the phrase, referring to a “fraternal association of the English-speaking peoples …. a special relationship between the British Commonwealth and Empire and the United States.”
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What happened in Berlin in 1948 and 1949 can be seen in a number of ways. It is the last factor in explaining the cause of the Cold War; and at the same time, it is the first act of the Cold War, the first clash between the two superpowers. It also demonstrates just how Berlin was at the centre of those rings I described in the introduction to this little series.
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Mistrust is an interesting word and its worth reflecting on just what it might mean. It could be seen as entirely rational. Based on reason and looking at the Cold War, it would focus on the ideological divide, a divide that appeared to allow for no compromise. Democracy and self-determination versus dictatorship and empire-building. Free trade versus protectionism too. As it might also look to past deeds, for example appeasement of Hitler or the Nazi-Soviet Pact. But it might also be based on emotion, on prejudice amongst the leaders, in a nutshell, on personal dislike.
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Though there was a clear ideological divide, this hadn’t prevented the Soviet Union and the West uniting to defeat Hitler. So how was it that allies became enemies, and so quickly? How did Europe come to be divided by, in Churchill’s famous phrase, an ‘iron curtain’? Can we attach blame? Or was it mostly a terrible misunderstanding from both sides? This episode provides the context to this epoch-making momemt in history.
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I'm breaking away from my history of the Middle East though not entirely. Because it just so happens that while reading a book by a super, super historian Margaret MacMillan; the book: History’s People, I came across two incredible women, one kicking around in the Middle East, the other in the Balkans, around the time of WW1 and I really wanted to share what I learned about them with you. So, a slight diversion to take a look at Gertrude Bell and Edith Durham, two truly incredible women.
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In this episode we look at the end of the French mandates and take a brief look at what, having been given their independence, Syria and Lebanon were able to do with it.
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In 1943, we come to a point where the story of the French and British mandates intertwines again, or at least more visibly intertwines for wasn’t it always so. And with victory in Europe looking increasingly likely, the waters, far from becoming clearer, only get more muddied as France and Britain lose control of events.
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So far, the history of the Middle East has been a complicated story of Britain and France trying to out-manoeuvre each other whilst at the same time out-manoeuvring the Arabs and, in Britain’s case, the Jews too. Couldn’t get more complicated? Of course it could. In WW2, the same complications are there to be seen but now Britain is dealing with two Frances: Vichy France, the third of France that had some autonomy from the Germans so long as they collaborated with them; and Free France led by General Charles de Gaulle, from London mostly. And Free France, desperate though its position was, was as much at odds with the British as pre-war France had been. And the war, the need for oil, what Germany might or might not do and what a post-war world would look like needs to be added to the mix. A complicated story is going to get much more complicated.
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Everything goes from bad to worse for Britain in Palestine: the Arab Revolt and Zionist terrorism as Hitler's attacks on the Jewish community in Nazi Germany worsens and a second world war looks increasingly likely.
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