Editing Shimon Peres (section)

=== 1956 Suez Crisis ===
{{main|Suez Crisis}}
[[File:King of Nepal, Shimon Peres and Ezer Weizman 1963.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Peres (center) with [[Ezer Weizman]] (right) and [[Mahendra of Nepal|King Mahendra]] of [[Kingdom of Nepal|Nepal]] in 1958]]
From 1954, as director general of the Ministry of Defense, Peres was involved in the planning of the [[1956 Suez War]], in partnership with France and Britain. Peres was sent by David Ben-Gurion to Paris, where he held secret meetings with the French government.<ref>The Economic Diplomacy of the Suez Crisis, By Diane B. Kunz, Univ of North Carolina Press, 1991, page 108</ref> Peres was instrumental in negotiating the Franco-Israeli agreement for a military offensive.<ref>''Suez: Britain's End of Empire in the Middle East'', Keith Kyle, I.B.Tauris, 15 February 2011</ref> In November 1954, Peres visited Paris, where he was received by the French Defense Minister [[Marie-Pierre Kœnig]], who told him that France would sell Israel any weapons it wanted to buy.<ref name="Neff, Donald pp. 162">Neff, Donald ''Warriors at Suez'', pp. 162–163.</ref> By early 1955, France was shipping large amounts of weapons to Israel.<ref name="Neff, Donald pp. 162"/> In April 1956, following another visit to Paris by Peres, France agreed to disregard the [[Tripartite Declaration of 1950|Tripartite Declaration]], and supply more weapons to Israel.<ref>Neff, Donald ''Warriors at Suez'', pp. 234–236.</ref> During the same visit, Peres informed the French that Israel had decided upon war with Egypt in 1956.<ref name="Neff, Donald p. 235">Neff, Donald ''Warriors at Suez'', p. 235.</ref>  Throughout the 1950s, an extraordinarily close relationship existed between France and Israel, characterised by unprecedented cooperation in the fields of defense and diplomacy. For his work as the architect of this relationship, Peres was awarded the highest order of the French, the [[Legion of Honor]], as Commander.<ref name = CV>{{cite web|url = http://www.president.gov.il/English/ThePresident/Pages/CV.aspx|title = President Shimon Peres &ndash; Seventy years of public service|year = 2010|access-date = 28 September 2016|publisher = Office of the President of Israel|archive-date = 1 October 2016|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20161001102734/http://www.president.gov.il/english/thepresident/pages/cv.aspx|url-status = dead}}</ref><ref name="books.google.es">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AVp4c6tp-DcC&q=shimon+peres+legion+d%27honneur&pg=PA137|title=Shimon Peres et l'histoire secrète d'Israël|first=Michael|last=Bar-Zohar|date=22 April 2019|publisher=Odile Jacob|isbn=978-2-7381-1995-7|via=Google Books|access-date=31 October 2020|archive-date=1 May 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240501071842/https://books.google.com/books?id=AVp4c6tp-DcC&q=shimon+peres+legion+d%27honneur&pg=PA137#v=snippet&q=shimon%20peres%20legion%20d'honneur&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref>

At [[Sèvres]], Peres took part in planning alongside [[Maurice Bourgès-Maunoury]], [[Christian Pineau]] and Chief of Staff of the French Armed Forces General [[Maurice Challe]], and British [[Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs|Foreign Secretary]] [[Selwyn Lloyd]] and his assistant Sir [[Patrick Dean (diplomat)|Patrick Dean]].<ref name="auto"/> Britain and France enlisted Israeli support for an alliance against Egypt. The parties agreed that Israel would invade the Sinai. Britain and France would then intervene, purportedly to separate the warring Israeli and Egyptian forces, instructing both to withdraw to a distance of 16 kilometres from either side of the canal.<ref name="users.ox.ac.uk">[http://users.ox.ac.uk/~ssfc0005/The%20Protocol%20of%20Sevres%201956%20Anatomy%20of%20a%20War%20Plot.html The Protocol of Sevres 1956 Anatomy of a War Plot] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180405191936/http://users.ox.ac.uk/~ssfc0005/The%20Protocol%20of%20Sevres%201956%20Anatomy%20of%20a%20War%20Plot.html |date=5 April 2018 }}. University of Oxford. Retrieved 8 September 2011.</ref> The British and French would then argue, according to the plan, that Egypt's control of such an important route was too tenuous, and that it needed be placed under Anglo-French management. The agreement at Sèvres was initially described by British Prime Minister [[Anthony Eden]] as the "highest form of statesmanship".<ref name="auto1"/> The three allies, especially Israel, were mainly successful in attaining their immediate military objectives. However, the extremely hostile reaction to the [[Suez Crisis]] from both the United States and the [[USSR]] forced them to withdraw, resulting in a failure of Britain and France's political and strategic aims of controlling the Suez Canal.