Allah is great! Nasser will never die! Allah is great! Nasser will never die! Nasser will never die,
chanted crowds of Arabs after the death
of their leader in September 1970. For more than a decade,
Gamal Abdel Nasser was the spokesman for every cause of the Arab peoples. From Cairo to Beirut,
Damascus to Jerusalem, they felt orphaned
and wept as much for Nasser, as for their own fate during that period
of disarray in the Arab world. [Arabic spoken audio] I'm very nostalgic about that period because it was such
a wonderful period of hope. At the time, excuse me for this,
Nasser was the God of the Arab world. He was the true leader,
the only leader of the Arab world. [Arabic spoken audio] On the streets of Cairo, several million Egyptians
surrounded their hero's coffin. With Nasser,
pride and dreams had also passed away. All that remained
were illusions and cruel deceptions. For some, Nasser was the leader
who had defied the Western powers. For others,
he was the hero of Arab nationalism. For a long time,
a rampart against Islamism. He was a hero, a man who,
at a certain moment in history, was the flag-bearer of the Arab world. There was no better leader than Nasser. However, his dictatorial regime
led us into a series of disasters. Nassar came to power
in 1952 following a coup d'etat. He was the leader
of a group of nationalist officers who ousted King Farouk, a corrupt monarch, an heir of a dynasty
first protected by the Ottoman Empire, then by the British Empire. The Free Officers movement brought an end
to several centuries of foreign domination and instituted a republic. These officers were unknown
to the Egyptian public. Their standard bearer
was General Mohammed Naguib, a popular and highly respected man. There was a power struggle between him
and Nasser and the Free Officers over what kind of political regime
should be established. Whether it should be a multi-party regime. Or a regime that Nasser wanted,
which was a single-party regime. Naguib wanted to establish
a parliamentary democracy, but Nasser was against it. To counter his opponent's plans, Nasser
strengthened his hold over the military. He encouraged the forming
of new organizations for the youth and for women
who gave him their allegiance. The confrontation between General Naguib,
now president of the fledgling republic, and Colonel Nasser, his vice president,
would continue until autumn, 1954. On October the 19th, Nasser negotiated the withdrawal
of the last British soldiers from the Suez Canal
with the government in London. It earned him the reputation of being
the guardian of Egyptian sovereignty. A few days after the signing
of the agreement, Nasser chose Alexandria
to deliver one of his lengthy speeches, the secret of which only he knew. Nasser began by reminding
the crowd of the origins of his commitment to the freedom
and dignity of the Egyptian people. When a man stepped out
of the crowd and fired a gun at him, Gamal Abdel Nasser was unharmed. Eight bullets were fired,
none of them hit him. Here is Gamal Abdel Nasser talking to you,
with the help of God, after some hate-driven men
have tried to murder him, I will sacrifice my life for you. On his return to Cairo, Nasser
was greeted as a miraculous survivor, the protege of Allah, an untouchable. He became the hero of an Egypt
in search of a leader, a rais. From then on, Nasser stopped
treating those who crossed his path with kid gloves. The Muslim Brotherhood was the largest
and most structured opposition party. This religious,
political, and social movement, which wanted to establish
an Islamic government was an ally of Nasser
before the coup d'etat. The perpetrator of the failed
assassination attempt on Nasser, Mohammed Abdul Latif,
was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. He was sentenced to death and executed. The lack of an independent inquiry
left doubts about the circumstances of this attempted assassination,
which still exists today. Historically speaking,
as someone who looks into history, I cannot find conclusive evidence
as to what actually happened. According to Nasser,
the Muslim Brotherhood, after thinking of the 1952 coup as a coup that would create
the kind of state they had in mind, felt betrayed by Nasser and decided to take
decisive action against him. The Brotherhood
have a different narrative, which is that
it was Nasser that originated or fabricated this assassination attempt in order to profit
from it by detaining them. Nasser had over 1,000 Muslim brothers
arrested, including their leader. Six of them would be executed. He proceeded with a cleansing
of the Egyptian political class. He imprisoned
all of his opponents that he could, communists and supporters
of General Naguib, and sent them to detention camps. Accused of being behind
the assassination attempt in Alexandria, Naguib was ousted
and confined to house arrest. He acted as an absolute dictator. He wiped out all forms of opposition and created the first camps. I wouldn't call them
concentration camps but prison camps. The problem when you have a leader
who believes that he knows what's best for his country and he believes that
the advocates of any other views must be either traitors or public enemies, he would naturally believe that
he needs a series of security organs, a long chain of security agencies
to keep all of these opponents in check under surveillance or in detention camps. As the absolute master of Egypt,
Nasser set out to establish social justice throughout the land,
his only declared political program. From a humble background,
he had first-hand knowledge of the terrible poverty
suffered by the peasants who made up
the majority of the population. He confiscated land from big landowners
and redistributed it to the fellahs, the peasants of the Nile. He imposed reforms on his country
that weren't always in line with Islam, like birth control
and the prohibition of polygamy. He didn't want to look
as a communist or an atheist in the eyes of a deeply religious people, so he openly carried out religious duties
and made several pilgrimages to Mecca. Nasser's main preoccupation
was the development of his country until neighboring Israel
attacked in February 1955. Following a series of Palestinian
Fedayeen raids from the Gaza Strip, then under Egypt's control, reprisals by the Israeli Army
left dozens of Egyptians dead. Israel's doctrine at that time
was that nothing went unanswered. It had riposte to dissuade
others away from Israel because it's a small country
surrounded by enemies. That's why after the Fedayeen incursions
there was such a violent reaction. The Israel issue
wasn't an important factor in Egypt's internal policies. However, when Israel attacked Gaza,
which was under Egyptian control, it was very difficult
for the military regime to accept such a humiliating defeat. Nasser had hoped
to avoid a conflict with Israel, but he had to prepare
himself for the possibility of war and began to better equip his army. During the Bandung conference
in Indonesia for non-aligned countries, he sought the advice
of Chinese Prime Minister, Zhou Enlai, who recommended he talk to the Soviets. During this Cold War period, Nasser knew the Middle East was
in the United States' sphere of influence. So he first held talks with the Americans. In exchange for any help,
they wanted him to sign the Baghdad Pact, a cooperation and defense agreement
formed jointly by the United Kingdom, Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Pakistan. Nasser refused to sign the pact. Because, remember, Nasser
was a fierce advocate of non-alignment. Neither East nor West. They tried to impose this pact
on him and he refused to sign it. Next, they tried to force him
to make peace with Israel. An agreement was made
between the UK and US ambassadors that the US wouldn't supply arms to Cairo if there wasn't peace
between Israel and Egypt. Nasser refused to sign
any peace agreement with Israel. He had no other choice
than to turn to the Soviet Union. Moscow agreed with no conditions as it was an opportunity
to gain a foothold in the Middle East, until then, the preserve of the West. Not to anger the Americans,
Egypt officially brought arms via Czechoslovakia, but the real supplier
was the Soviet Union. Nasser could at last provide
modern equipment to his army at the head of which he appointed
his loyal friend, Abdul Hakim Amer, who thus held both positions
of Chief of Staff and Minister of Defence. Nasser, the military man, wanted to give his regime
a civilian appearance. In 1956,
he had himself elected as president with almost 100 percent of the vote. To regulate the flooding of the Nile
and form a reservoir to irrigate farmland which fed the vast majority of Egyptians,
Nasser dreamt of a huge dam at Aswan. Egypt needed water and Nile wasn't enough
to irrigate a farmland, a dam was needed. This was crucial
to the country's survival. Once again, he turned to the US. He tried to obtain American aid. Several talks were held because he knew
he was in dire need of the Aswan dam. He needed money
to re-boost the Egyptian economy. The Americans tricked him. At first, they had him
believe they would help. The US thought it over
and decided not to lend to Egypt. That humiliation
was a very bad experience for him. Egypt was struggling,
where would he find money? The Suez Canal. He only thought of Suez
when all doors were closed to him. Today, I signed it, and the government
gave its approval on the following decree. The president of the Republic has decided to nationalize
the Suez Maritime Canal Company. During his speech, he told the crowd
exactly why he was nationalizing, how he'd been humiliated, how he had knocked at America door,
how he had begged Britain, and how he had been sent
packing like a good-for-nothing. It was the first time
in the history of the Arab world that a political leader
had stamped his foot and said: "You won't help me?
Never mind, I'll get by alone." Imagine the rest
of the Arab world when it heard that. We were proud. We were very proud and thought
here's a man who can say no to them. We'll take our fate into our own hands. I was at the Party leader's home. He was the only person
in the neighborhood with a radio. We were actually against Nasser. We considered him to be an American spy. Nasser started his speech. We continued insulting him,
calling him a US agent, and so on. When he said: "The president of the Republic
has decided to nationalize" "the Suez Canal." I became so emotional. My tears sprang from my eyes and covered the radio. Tears of joy. By nationalizing the Suez Canal,
Nasser went from being a rais, a leader, to a zaim, a chief, traveling
on the magic carpet of huge popularity throughout the Arab world. His defiance of the Western world
was lauded by the majority of countries in the Third World. In the UK and France,
the owners of the Suez Canal Company, the reaction toward Nasser,
was without nuance. If the Egyptian dictator
were to enjoy success at Suez Canal, a large number of other
Arab nations could start following suit. We are right to say no to Nasser. If we had said no to Hitler in 1936,
we might have avoided World War II. The British and French press
supported its political leaders as hysterically
as the propaganda in the Egyptian press. Don't be fooled, it isn't a reincarnation,
but a poor imitation. They were convinced
he was a raging madman. Remember the mindset of that colonial age, how dare a slave
rebel against this master. They were shocked. Nasser's action itself
wasn't particularly shocking. It wasn't a hold-up. He nationalized an Egyptian asset which would have returned
to Egyptian hands ten years later. There was a 100-year lease. In 1968,
the canal was due to be returned to Egypt. De Gaulle had nationalized
the French coal mining industry. The UK had nationalized things too. It wasn't an absurd act because he planned
to compensate shareholders. For British and French,
it was a chance not to be missed to curb the rise of an enemy who was interfering
with their interests in the Arab world. The UK was yet to accept
its own departure from Egypt and also fear the expansion
of Nasser's influence in the Gulf states where it still maintained a foothold. In the same year of 1956,
France faced Algerian rebels who were supported by Egypt. Paris thought that by eliminating Nasser, it could bring an end
to the war of decolonization. The French and British
put together a secret plan with the Israeli Prime Minister,
David Ben-Gurion, to attack Egypt. Israel's plan was to crush
Egyptian military power in the Sinai. It was just after Nasser
had signed a huge armaments deal with Czechoslovakia,
the USSR, the Eastern Bloc. Ben Gurion was extremely afraid that Egypt could become
a strong military power which would be difficult to match once it had been supplied
with its huge amounts of armaments. On October the 29th 1956,
troops under General Moshe Dayan crossed the Sinai
heading for the Suez Canal, secretly backed up by French aviation. The Israelis met with little resistance
from the Egyptian army. In line with the plan
formulated before the operation, London and Paris
sent an ultimatum to Egypt and Israel to withdraw from the canal. Nasser refused. The British and French then
officially joined the conflict to stand between Egypt and Israel. On November the 5th,
French paratroopers from Algeria landed near the canal. Then Royal Marine commandos
landed on the beaches and headed to Port Said. Both canal's banks were occupied and the three allied armies
were only two hours from Cairo. With his army facing defeat, Nasser
sought to organize popular resistance. He addressed his people
from the famous religious institution, Al-Azhar, to mobilize them. We will fight
till the last drop of our blood. We will never surrender. If Great Britain
considers itself a great power, if France considers itself a great power, we are people with faith. Our motto is and always will be,
Allah is the greatest. I only began to realize that my father was president when the 1956 war started. The outbreak of war
caught us all by surprise, and my father
asked his family not to leave Cairo. During the offensive,
lots of people left the capital for the provinces
to flee the bombardments. At the time of national crisis,
he fell back on the very traditional way that Egyptians
had been kind of mobilized before. The way the monarch
before him would have gone, which is using
the very traditional religious discourse. Nasser's religious-based call wasn't
enough to prevent an Egyptian defeat. Popular resistance was insufficient, and the army under
Abdul Hakim Amer was crushed. Nassar was threatened. An ultimatum from the Soviet Union
and the United States saved Egypt. The two superpowers forced
the three allied armies to withdraw. The Americans wished to demonstrate
their superiority in the Middle East, just as the Soviets were threatening an action to support Egypt,
its sole protege in the region. The Soviet threat
to launch missiles at London and Paris wasn't taken seriously. However, what was taken seriously,
was the possibility of Soviet troops entering the Middle East. The United States didn't want
the possibility to become reality. The only country with a clear interest
and which stood to gain was Israel. The others would go home
with their tails between their legs having reinforced Nasser. Paradoxically, he was very good at turning
military defeat into political victory. As compensation
for its withdrawal from the Sinai, Israel was granted
authorization for its ships to take the Straits of Tehran
in Egyptian waters and its only access to the Red Sea. UN troops would guarantee
Egyptian compliance in maintaining freedom of navigation,
as well as guarding international borders by standing
between the armies of Israel and Egypt. The Egyptian people weren't informed
of the concession made to Israel. France, Great Britain and Israel's
withdrawal was presented to them as a victory
due to Nasser's political nous. Long-term residents
who were French and British nationals were expelled from Egypt. The country's existing Jewish community
present for several centuries was accused
of being Israel's Fifth Column. Thousands of Jews left Egypt
for France, the US, and Israel, which welcomed almost half of them. All those with French
or British passports were expelled. Diplomatic relations were cut off. Plus a whole series of people considered foreigners
as they had no passports. Many of them were Jewish
but it wasn't the expulsion of Jews but it did mark
the start of Jewish emigration which basically ended in the early 1960s. It's very true that Egypt lost a lot both culturally
and economically after the foreigners left, because the balance
which had existed in Egypt had been upset. As our saying goes, all who live in Egypt
must be treated like Egyptians. Egypt, which for centuries had integrated numerous
cultural and religious diversities, changed under Nasser's impetus. The country's Arab identity was glorified. Nasser presented himself
as the leader of Pan-Arabism, an ideology that advocated
the union of all Arabs. He, who promised the Arab peoples
an end to past humiliations, appeared as the heir to Saladin,
the Arab Muslim hero, victor of the Christians
during the Crusades. His discourse spoke to the masses,
they wanted to hear that. They had dreamed
of hearing a man say to them, the Arabs world
will raise its head and become a power. Nasser's discourse made him a myth in the Arab world because he advocated Arab unity and Arab nationalism. Every citizen in Arab countries
could consider him as their own leader. He didn't want to be the leader
of Egyptians alone, but of all Arabs. The pan-Arab myth existed before Nasser. In Syria, the main proponent
of this ideology was a Christian, Michele Affleck, who called for a union
of his country with Egypt. Political leaders in Damascus believed
such a union would provide stability for their fledging nation whose borders had been traced by
the former French and British colonialists To them, pan-Arabism
would cement Syria's various religious and cultural communities. It did make sense that Syria, very close to Egypt
historically and culturally and really the cradle
of Arab nationalism as an ideology, would be the first state in that union. Nasser had the general idea
that if the Arab world united, this would make them
a strong block in international politics. The union between Egypt and Syria
was sealed in Cairo early in 1958 by Gamal Abdel Nasser
and Shukri al-Quwatli the Syrian president, to form a single nation,
the United Arab Republic. The event caused euphoria
among other Arab peoples who longed to join the union. In Damascus, a human tide greeted Nasser. Syrians came from every region
of the country to welcome him. Arabs in neighboring countries
joined the Syrians in saluting the hero of the great Arab nation. The greatest welcome
for my father was by the Lebanese, who had crossed the border to Damascus and waited all night in the streets. Over 300, 000 Lebanese
made the trek from Beirut, from Lebanon
to Damascus to acclaim the union. Muslims in Lebanon
immediately wanted to join this union. They believed that Lebanon
could also be part of this community. The agitation of Lebanese Muslims
caused fear among Maronite Christians who rejected close ties
with the new United Arab Republic. Already weakened
by an institutional crisis, Lebanon witnessed
the outbreak of civil war. President Camille Chamoun
asked the United States to intervene. American marines landed in Beirut and occupied the country
for several months, the time to dampen any hopes
of joining the United Arab Republic. Meanwhile,
Great Britain sent in paratroopers to protect King Hussein of Jordan,
who feared a Nasser-inspired coup d'etat. He didn't want to suffer the same fate
as his cousin, the King of Iraq, who had been assassinated
by the Free Officers' Movement. Calls by Nasser
for a great Arab nation spread fear among the monarchies of the region. Saudi Arabia, a close ally of the US, was intent on curbing
Nasser's growing influence. It was a historical battle
between modern Arabism and an ideology, a government that was traditional,
conservative, and Islamists. There was a worldwide Cold War, but also a small cold war
in the Arab world between so-called progressive regimes
and so-called reactionary regimes. Nasser, the leader of the Arab world,
was feted by people in all Arab countries and feared by their leaders. He exercised unmitigated power as leader
of this new United Arab Republic. Just like he had done in Egypt,
he banned all political parties in Syria, now known as the Northern Province. Nasser appointed
his Minister of Defense, Abdul Hakim Amer, as his representative in the province,
which is now under the authority of Cairo. His big error in Syria
was not understanding that Syrian society was middle class. It was an open cultivate society,
not an impoverished society. He applied the same political rules
in Syria that he had applied in Egypt. It wasn't a union,
it was Egypt annexing Syria, with the importation into Syria
of Nasser-type policing methods with the arrest of opponents,
torture, etcetera, along with a kind of pillage
of the country which would create
the conditions for a coup in 1961 resulting in the separation
of Syria and Egypt. The experimental United Arab Republic
came to an end in late September 1961. A coup d'etat by the Syrian army
returned power to the bourgeoisie which had been ousted
by Nasser two years previously. The Syrian crowds
which had greeted Nasser in 1958, now greeted their new leaders. The symbols of the former
United Arab Republic were destroyed. Egyptians living in Syria
were considered undesirable. Many of them
were forced to flee to avoid reprisals from an ill-treated population. They flocked to Beirut
before sailing for Egypt, taking the pan-Arab dream
with them in their baggage. In my opinion, Arab nationalism
wasn't a political project. The problem was, it was presented as such. We can see throughout history that projects which are built
on an identity, on nationalism, are always bound to fail. After this failure,
he went full steam ahead with more radical methods,
a second phase of agrarian reforms, the nationalization of industry and great number
of foreign and Egyptian companies. The madness of this mass nationalization, where he gave people
24 hours to pack up and get out, was a colossal mistake. He totally decapitated
the Egyptian intelligentsia. He destroyed the cultural mix
which was Egypt's lifeblood. This madness was born,
paranoiac madness is the only word for it, following the break with Syria. He was scared
that the great Egyptian families would try the same thing
in Egypt as in Syria. The Syrian bourgeoisie
having chased him out of Damascus, the traditional Egyptian bourgeoisie
would pay the price. At the head of nationalized companies, Nasser placed military men
who would soon form the dominant class, thanks to their income
from widespread corruption. With an agricultural reform
and the nationalization of all sectors, the economic model of Egypt
resembled that of the Soviet Bloc. The Soviet Union
was Egypt's principal ally and supplier of various types
of machinery and equipment. For Nasser,
social justice meant Arab socialism. A socialism compatible with Islam. Not to sink
into a king of atheist socialism, which he refused, he spoke of Arab socialism. Egyptians could have
their own way of seeing things, of imposing certain economic
and cultural conditions, all the while maintaining
our Arab-Muslim culture. Islam never left Nasser's mind. Nasser knew that
the majority of the Egyptians were attached
to the traditional values of Islam. However, society was also subject
to other influences, that of the Soviet Union,
on a financial and cultural level, and that of the West,
which attracted part of the urban youth. Nasser was caught between two stools. He encouraged a modern lifestyle
due to his own beliefs, but in a calculated way, also made
concessions to traditional Islam. He authorized finance for the expansion
of the Great Mosque, Al-Azhar, in return for its submission. The result,
Al-Azhar lost all religious credibility in the eyes of the public. Egyptians began to turn
to a stricter form of Islam, as advocated by the Muslim Brotherhood, which continued
to spread its ideas underground. Nasser sought to counter
this growing influence, often mocking them in his speeches. In 1965,
he told of a meeting 12 years earlier with the supreme guide
of the Muslim Brotherhood, who wanted to impose the veil
on all Egyptian women. I told him, sir, you have a daughter
who is a student at the medical school, and she's not wearing the veil. Why didn't you impose the veil on her? If you're not able
to impose the veil on just one girl, moreover when she is yours, how do you think
I can do it on ten million women throughout the country? I entered university in 1962, '63. Not a single girl wore the veil. Even those from the provinces
didn't cover their heads. Absolutely not. Egypt was modern and so were we. Nasser's home movies resemble
those of many families in the West. His wife and daughters were never veiled. When he wasn't playing chess
with his eldest son or a friend, he watched American movies
in his home cinema. Nasser never hid his admiration
for a certain kind of Western lifestyle. Young Egyptians
who got good grades at the university were sent for post-graduate studies to the US, Britain, France. He had no problem with Western culture. Nasser was rejected
towards the Eastern Bloc. He detested communists,
he was a renowned anti-communist. However,
he found himself in their embrace. Nasser's fate
lay in the hands of the Soviets, who had halted
the tripartite offensive of 1956 following the nationalization
of the Suez Canal. Since then, the Soviet Union
had become a major ally of Egypt. When the Soviet leader,
Nikita Khrushchev, visited Egypt, Nasser welcomed him with open arms. For two weeks, he was greeted
in triumph wherever he went. Egyptians were indebted to him
for the construction of the Aswan Dam, inaugurated in great pomp. A dam that would improve the lives of
millions of peasants in the Nile Valley. Khrushchev didn't approve of Nasser, who had imprisoned
thousands of communists. At the height of the Cold War,
Egypt was the Soviet Union's only chance of gaining a foothold in the Middle East. Nasser's feelings
towards Khrushchev were no warmer, but Soviet financial
and military aid were vital to Egypt, especially at a time
when the country found itself involved in a civil war in Yemen. A civil war into which two major
Middle Eastern countries had been drawn, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Egypt backed the Republican officers
who had overturned the King of Yemen, who was supported by his Saudi neighbor. Nasser who wanted to become
the dominant figure in the Arab world, saw an opportunity to weaken Saudi Arabia, which was disputing
his pan-Arab leadership. Nasser believed that the Republican force
was gaining momentum on its way to consolidate victory. He also believed that
he would be required to send a few instructors, very minor military aid
to push them to the final victory. Nasser had considered
Saudi Arabia as his counterweight. He always believed that
if he could get over the Saudi hurdle, the Arab world would fall into his hands. The monarchists prove
to be stronger than he expected. The Saudis saw Yemen,
which was directly on their borders as a threat they could not live with,
and they devoted substantial sums of money to hiring European mercenaries
and other factions to support the monarchist camp. Yemen would very soon
become Egypt's Vietnam. Thousands of young men
were sent there to fight. It really can be compared
to the Vietnam War. It was the beginning
of Nasser's descent into hell. Egypt became involved in Yemen's civil war
taking place some 2,000 kilometers away. The Egyptian army deployed massive means and sent elite troops
to fight alongside Republican forces. In a Middle East,
coveted by the superpowers, Yemen had become
a theater of the Cold War. The Soviets backed Egypt
and the Yemenite Republicans, whereas the royalists in Saudi Arabia
were aided by the United States and the UK. The British military presence,
still considerable in the region, would be directly threatened if such a war should spread
to other Emirates in the Gulf. This far-off civil war weighed heavily
on the already fragile Egyptian economy. When I left Egypt in 1965,
it was on its knees. There was nothing throughout the country. All basic foodstuffs had to be rationed. Egypt was a ruined country in 1965. Despite the economic difficulties
in his own country, Nasser remained
the leader of the Arab world, and the Arab peoples turned to him
to find a solution to the Palestine issue. The Palestine Liberation Organization,
the PLO, headed by Ahmad Shukeiri, established itself in Cairo. In its heated meetings,
calls were made for war on Israel. Shukeiri stated that Jews
who came on ships to settle in Palestine
should leave on ships. [Arabic spoken audio] Israel was involved
in constant skirmishes with its neighbor. Attacks by Palestinian Fedayeens
were reposted with fierce reprisals. Israel's redirection
of the Jordan River's waters created new tensions
with three affected countries, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. Once again, the Arab world
looked to Nasser to counter Israel. To force him into action,
the press of several Arab nations treated him as a coward
and a puppet of the West. Jordan and Syria followed by other Arab nations, said to Nasser:
"How can you let them do it?" "How can you let them kill
Palestinians and Jordanians?" "You're the champion
of the Palestinians' cause," "of the world,
you can't sit and do nothing." The pressure got stronger and stronger. As the so-called leader of the Arab world, he had to find a solution
to the Palestine issue. He was trapped by his own discourse, by his Arab nationalist rhetoric of defending the Arab world
from Israel and imperialism. The difference between a politician
and a great statesman is that a great statesman
resists pressure. He doesn't get lured in like Nasser did. Nasser consulted his friend,
the Minister of Defense, Abdul Hakim Amer. He guaranteed victory
should Egypt engage in war with Israel. Nasser then asked
the UN to withdraw its troops, which stood between
the Egyptian and Israel armies on the border between the two countries. He also decided to ban
access to the straits of Tehran to Israel vessels,
thus reneging on the concession made to the Hebrew state in 1956. Abdul Hakim Amer,
who needed to re-boost his image after the bloody defeat at Suez, deployed his troops
in the Sinai to impress the enemy. Amer never intended for the escalation
to actually lead to war with Israel. However, he thought that
this show of force will intimidate Israel enough to present concessions. Although Nasser himself
probably didn't want to go to war, he had forced Israel into a corner
where the only possibility was war. Israel realized it had no choice
but to go to war. What we didn't realize was how badly the Egyptian military
was prepared for such a war. On June the 5th, 1967,
at dawn, Israel attacked Egypt, but also Syria and Jordan. In a matter of hours,
Arab aviation was destroyed on the ground before it had even taken off. Without air cover, the Egyptian troops
deployed in the Sinai were annihilated. In six days, the armies of Egypt,
Syria and Jordan were defeated. Israel had conquered all
of historical Palestine, the West Bank,
including East Jerusalem from Jordan, the Golan Heights from Syria
and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt. The defeat was both total and humiliating. Thousands of Egyptian soldiers
abandoned by their officers were left wandering at the Sinai desert. Meanwhile, Egyptian TV and radio
were broadcasting claims of victory. The radio was announcing
we'd shot down 50 Israeli planes, that the Israeli army was fleeing, that we were 200 kilometers
from Jerusalem, that the war was all but won. News bulletins of victory round the clock. I was a university student, and during the war, I saw Egyptian troops
returning from the front. I was astonished. I asked my friends,
what are we seeing here? We couldn't imagine that
Egyptian troops had retreated. It was until June the 9th
that the Egyptian people learned of the defeat. When their great guide
addressed them on TV, Egyptians were hoping to hear
that a reversal of the situation would save their country. Having denounced a colonialist plot
and accused the US and UK of aiding Israel Nasser accepted
responsibility for the defeat and announced his resignation. The zaim, brave and strong
in the eyes of his people ended his speech fighting back tears. May the peace and grace of God be upon us. When my father came home,
we were with some close relatives. Then we started to hear voices of lots of people. Suddenly, the streets around
the house were invaded by the crowd, which started singing patriotic songs. These people spent
the whole night outside the house, and didn't leave until dawn. [Arabic spoken audio] Hundreds of thousands
of Egyptians descended on Cairo in support of their rais. For almost 48 hours all over the country, there were the same
scenes of anger and grief. Men and women of all ages pleaded
with Nasser to go back on his decision. Despite the disastrous defeat,
the people acclaimed him like no other leader
had ever been acclaimed before. Nasser had managed
to turn failure into triumph. Nasser's admission of defeat
in a very emotional address on national television was whether
he intended or not, a stroke of genius, because the image he presented
was an embodiment of Egypt, strong, optimistic, powerful that was defeated
by an overwhelmingly global conspiracy supported by the US,
supported by many world powers that did not wish to see
Egypt strong once more. Egypt found itself with its army in ruins, with the Sinai totally occupied and the Suez Canal closed. Everyone realized this was a crisis which in some way
or another needed to be resolved. Egyptians believed that Nasser
was the only man capable of trying to rebuild
what had been destroyed. They saw that by sticking with Nasser, by allowing Nasser
to raise his head up again would be a symbolic act of defiance, saying that we have not been defeated. We are still standing. There were huge protests in Beruit. "No, we refuse to let you resign!" What did Lebanon have to do with Egypt? He wasn't their president. I demonstrated for him to stay,
I was extremely happy when he said: "I will stay for a while." 'Only until we have erased
all trace of the aggression" "against Egypt and the Arab world." [Arabic spoken audio] Nasser's return
was announced by Anwar Sadat, the speaker of the National Assembly. The next day,
Nasser dismissed Abdul Hakim Amer, held responsible for the defeat,
and placed him under house arrest. A few weeks later,
the government would announce his suicide. To maintain his power, Nasser embarked on a widespread purge
of the army and the state apparatus. Pressurized by other Arab nations, he refused all peace treaties with Israel
and launched a war of attrition. From then on,
the object of confrontation with Israel was the recovery of the Sinai
and no longer the Palestinian cause. [Arabic spoken audio] The 1967 war worsened
the fate of the Palestinians, who were forced into a new exodus. Tens of thousands of them
crossed the Jordan River, swelling refugee camps set up in Jordan. The fate of the Palestinians
gave rise to a feeling of humiliation throughout the Arab world. It was an opportunity
for fundamental Islamists who saw the defeat
of the Arab armies as divine punishment. They accused Arab leaders
of distancing their nations from Islam, the only true source of power. The defeat of 1967 had consequences. It was one of the factors
in the growth of Islamism. and Islamism is by nature fascism, because it refuses all contradiction. It's an ideology that refers to God. If you're against Islamism,
they think you're against God. That gives them the right
to do what they want with you. The Muslim Brothers, as the most prominent group
within the Islamist camp, saw '67 as the vindication
of their ideology, as a proof of the failure
of Arab nationalism and Nasser's own leadership, and saw this as time
for them to come back. Nasser's regime was discredited. The Islamist movement,
developed underground before 1967, came out into the open. Weakened by his failures, Nassar was forced into making
numerous concessions to conservative Islam backed by Saudi Arabia. Nasser, the leader of modern pan-Arabism, laid down his arms to the advocate
of traditional pan-Islamism, King Faisal. Nasser needed
Saudi petrodollars to rebuild his country. The adversaries of the past
had become allies. They put an end to the conflict
that Yemen had been fighting since 1962. Together in Cairo, they also reconciled
the new PLO president, Yasser Arafat, and King Hussein of Jordan, following a bloody clash
between Palestinians and Jordanians in September 1970. It was Nasser's final political act, that very night,
after the signature of the peace treaty, he died of a heart attack. [Arabic spoken audio] Millions of Egyptians
followed his funeral procession through the streets of Cairo chanting there is no God but Allah
and Nasser is His beloved. Allah is the only God
and Nasser is His beloved. He was buried in the Nasra mosque,
later named after him. With Nasser dead, no leader
capable of addressing the Arab world. Since Nasser,
there hasn't been a single leader the Western world has listened to. Nasser was not only an Arab tragedy, but an Israeli one too. His failure, which he was accountable for, signified the failure
of secular Pan-Arab nationalism which was responsible
for where we are today. If the Nasser regime
had played the democratic game, he'd have been even greater
because he was truly popular. The trouble was Nasser, who was
the most loyal and honest of leaders, had created a machine for repression. The leaders who succeeded him found this machine
for repression all ready for use. Despite Nasser's death,
the dictatorial regime continued. His old brother-in-arms, Anwar Sadat,
gladly took on the role of dictator backed by the police state
established by Nasser. Sadat set about ridding
Egypt of all trace of Nasserism, with the help of circumstantial allies, the Islamists, who once again
had become the dominant political force. It was the end of the dream
of a modern Egypt, symbolized for a short time
by this peasant woman with one hand unveiled, the other
resting on the Sphinx of eternal Egypt. Nasser's Pan-Arabism was a distant memory. Throughout the Arab Muslim world, Islamism, in all its forms
would continue to increase its influence. [Arabic spoken audio]
