Al-Nasiriyah and Abdel Nasser! (2-3)
8. It inflicted upon the Six-Day War a greater defeat, namely the Khartoum Summit’s Three Noes, which it imposed through its usual mob rule and the slogan “what is lost by force can only be regained by force.” In doing so, it sabotaged the opportunity to recover all Arab territories in Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Palestine through peace, an option that the Israeli government at the time was willing to consider.
9. It also inflicted upon the Six-Day War an even greater defeat: the War of Attrition (1968–1970). Following the June defeat, the Egyptian army was handed over to Field Marshal Muhammad Fawzi, Chief of Staff. Fawzi then presided over a greater disaster: Israel penetrated deep into Egyptian territory, the residents of the three Canal cities were displaced, and Egypt—not Israel—was drained of its resources. This catastrophe led Nasser, who had rejected peace after the 1967 defeat, to accept Rogers’ peace initiative. He suffered his first heart attack after Operation Focus (also known as Operation Moked) on the Rafah airfield, and died two years later from a heart attack. This outcome was not caused by Field Marshal Amer, but by Fawzi, who orchestrated the most disastrous military coup of Sadat’s era, for which Amer was subsequently imprisoned.
10. Nasser fought against the Baghdad Pact, which favored the Soviet Union and was intended to include our Arab countries, Turkey, Pakistan, Iran, Britain, and behind them, the United States and the Western bloc. Had this pact succeeded, it would have prevented all regional wars from 1956 to 2026 in the Gulf, thereby averting civil wars, defeats, and setbacks, and would have made us among the wealthiest nations in the world, akin to Western Europe and East Asia. It would also have provided a final resolution to the Palestinian issue, offering displaced populations a choice between return and compensation.
11. Nasser, who raised the banner of Arab nationalism, severely damaged Egypt’s relations with all Arab countries, whether monarchist, conservative, or revolutionary. He sabotaged the tripartite unity project with Iraq and Syria in 1963, and Egypt’s relations with all Arab states remained poor until his death in 1970. Furthermore, the Egyptian curricula during and after his rule omitted reference to the most successful Arab unity projects: the unification of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia under King Abdulaziz Al Saud, and later, the unification of the United Arab Emirates under Sheikh Zayed Al Nahyan.
12. Nasser created the deepest rift that weakened the Arab nation, a division that did not exist before him: the schism between the nationalist and Islamist currents. He pursued hostility, killing, and imprisonment against Islamists following the assassination attempt on his life. In contrast, relations between the liberal and Islamist currents were not harmed after the Muslim Brotherhood assassinated two Egyptian Prime Ministers, Ahmed Maher and Nahas Pasha, because the royal regime did not act with such arbitrariness. Nasser similarly caused divisions within the Arab nationalist camp and harbored hostility toward communist currents, leading to the torture and death of their leaders in prisons.
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Final Station:
1. The worst thing one can say in evaluating Nasser’s legacy is that he was well-intentioned and clean-handed. In reality, these traits may or may not suit a marriage candidate, but states and peoples are judged by results. Hitler, for example, like Stalin, Pol Pot, and others who caused the destruction of their countries and the deaths of tens of millions, were also well-intentioned and clean-handed. Yet history did not spare them, and their nations and the nations of the earth held them accountable for results, not intentions.
2. Some portray the royal era as a means of praising Nasser, claiming that Egypt under the monarchy was an unjust country that did not allow the poor to receive education. This is a lie. Free education began under the Wafd Party during the royal era, with the significant difference being the quality of education. All of Egypt’s achievers were products of the royal era’s education system. Nasser, Heikal, and Sadat all spoke fluent English and were graduates of state schools.
3. What Nasser did to Egypt and the Arab nation could not have been accomplished by the greatest enemy of our homelands and peoples in terms of disasters, defeats, and sowing division among peoples. It should also be noted that those Nasser appointed around him, such as Ashraf Marwan, Heikal, and Sami Sharaf, as well as those he chose from the Revolutionary Command Council to succeed him, were individuals surrounded by accusations of treason, collaboration, and espionage.
