7 "Key Questions", pages 36-44 of "Crisis in the Middle East". March 29, 2010.

1. There were several causes for the tension along Israel's borders. The first is that after the Arabs had been defeated by the Israelis, the Israelis had militarized their border with Syria. The Syrian side was also militarized and there were other sources of tension as well, including an Israeli attempt to push Arabs across the border in order to create more Jewish settlements, and there were frequent incidents of shelling from both the Israeli and the Syrian sides. There were Israeli reprisals every time Jordanians crossed the border into Israel, where the Israelis targeted Arab villages. Many more killings occurred along Israel's border with Egypt than anywhere else, with raids and reprisals accompanying the killings.

2. Many Egyptians resented the British presence in their country because they felt they could only be truly independent after the British left, and they saw the British presence as imperialism. The Egyptians didn't like that the British had so many troops stationed along the Suez Canal and that the canal was so vital to the British, especially given that so many Egyptians had died in the process of its construction in the 1880s. They also saw their government as inefficient and they blamed its weakness on British influence, where they felt that King Farouk had been manipulated by the British. They accused their government of supplying them with limited and weak weapons, leading to their defeat by the Israelis.

3. The Egyptian monarchy was overthrown by a group of young officers, known as the Free Officers, who secretly plotted to overthrow the government and eventually succeeded. They built support within the army, taking their time while simultaneously avoiding being uncovered by the security police. In July of 1952 they took over key government buildings and announced the revolution's success by way of radio, and after allowing the king to flee the country, General Neguib was appointed head of the new government. When Egypt became a republic in 1953 he became president.

4. The Israelis attacked Gaza because they wanted to teach Nasser a lesson because Egypt encouraged Palestinian raids into Israel. They hoped to remove Nasser from power and wanted to expose him as militarily weak in the process. Israeli troops attacked the Egyptian army headquarters in Gaza and killed 35 Egyptian soldiers.

5. Britain, France, and Israel decided to attack Egypt because Nasser decided that he would nationalise the Suez Canal and that Egyptians would run it themselves. He said Britain and France could 'choke on their rage'. Britain and France were determined to stop this, and they were determined not to appease Nasser as they had Hitler in the 1930s, and one person even referred to Nasser as "Hitler on the Nile". The French also wanted to topple Nasser because they believed he had given aid to the Algerians in their fight for independence against the French themselves. Israel, a country with a close relationship to Britain, of course would share a similar viewpoint.

6. In the Suez War, Israeli forces invaded Egypt in October of 1956. The next day, the British and French ordered Egypt and Israel to each withdraw 10 miles from the canal and if either side refused, the British and French would use force. The Israelis agreed, the Egyptians refused. The British and French then destroyed most of the Egyptian air force, and bombed Port Said. Egypt responded by sinking their ships. The Arab states condemned this Anglo-French action and ceased sale of oil to the West, and the UN ordered the British and French to withdraw.

7. The Egyptians and the Israelis were winners of the war each in different ways. The Egyptians now had complete control of the Suez Canal, and Nasser now had the respect and admiration of many Arab states, because he had finally stood up to Britain and France, who had controlled the region for far too long. Nasser also could claim that the Egyptian army was only defeated by the Israelis due to British and French support. The Israelis' victory over Egyptian forces in the Sinai and in Gaza proved their Israeli Defense Forces to be the strongest in the Middle East, and UN forces now prevented further raids on Israel.

The losers of the war were Britain and France. They failed to overthrow Nasser and failed to regain control of the Canal. The Anglo-French domination of the Middle East was ending.