In 1963, the United States developed a plan to build a canal from the Mediterranean to the Gulf of Aqaba through Israel.
It would become an alternative to the Suez Canal. A series of nuclear explosions were planned in the Negev desert to dig the canal, writes Trud.
The project was not implemented due to fears of a negative reaction from neighboring Arab countries. But the story of half a century ago, after the Suez Canal was blocked by a container ship stranded on a shoal, was reminded to us by historian Alex Wellerstein.
In the 1960s, the United States considered creating an artificial waterway to serve as an alternative to the Suez Canal. The waterway was supposed to pass through Israeli territory.
The 1963 US memorandum with the project was declassified in 1996. Now historian Alex Wellerstein has remembered it by posting it on Twitter.
The scientist notes that to implement this plan it was necessary to use 520 atomic bombs. The memorandum was prepared by the National Laboratory “E. Lawrence ” in Livermore (a laboratory of the US Department of Energy) and planned to use nuclear warheads to create the channel.
Explosives were preferred to the traditional method of digging, which was considered too expensive. According to the project, for each mile (1.6 km) of the trench will need 4 charges with a capacity of 2 megatons.
The length of the canal through Israel was to be over 250 km. “Such a canal will become a valuable alternative to the Suez Canal and is likely to contribute significantly to economic development,” the memorandum said.
The document provided for several route options. One of them connected the Mediterranean Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba through the Negev Desert in Israel, and then the ships landed in the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean.
According to experts from the laboratory in Livermore, the canal will pass through an almost uninhabited desert area. This, according to their conclusion, will make it possible to build the canal with the help of nuclear explosions.
The technological parameters of that time provided such an opportunity for the implementation of this plan. The main obstacle to launching the project lay in the political arena.
The drafters of the memorandum expressed their fears that “the Arab countries around Israel will strongly oppose the construction of such a channel.”
According to Forbes, a similar method of digging canals was intended to be used in Central America.
Wellerstein recalled these US plans from almost 60 years ago in connection with the new emergency situation in the Suez Canal. On March 23, 2021, the huge container ship Ever Given got stuck and completely blocked traffic on it.
According to initial assessments of the situation, the work to unblock the shipping channel should have taken no more than 2 to 3 days. However, the problem turned out to be more serious.
Most likely, the ship will be pulled out of the shallows within a few weeks, which will lead to economic damage as the ships will have to bypass Africa.
Work is currently underway on a container ship to deepen the bottom. Special tugs tried unsuccessfully to pull the stranded vessel out of the shallows.
“A modest proposal to rectify the situation with the Suez Canal,” Wellerstein commented in a tweet outlining the main provisions of the memorandum. “If I were Elon Musk, I would be applauded by legions of fans right now.”
The 160 km long Suez Canal was opened to shipping in 1869. During the First and Second World Wars, traffic on it was regulated by the British. In 1956, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser announced the nationalization of the canal.
In response, the United States, Britain and France tried to impose international control over the Suez Canal over Cairo, remove it from Egyptian jurisdiction and thus ensure that the canal would be operated in the interests of major foreign monopolies.
This led to the Suez Crisis, as a result of which the canal was destroyed and therefore closed for a year.
The Suez Canal was closed again in 1967 after the Arab-Israeli War, known as the Six Day War (fought between Israel and its Arab neighbors Egypt, Jordan and Syria – from June 5 to June 10, 1967).
It was demined after the 1973 Yom Kippur war with the help of Soviet specialists. (The Yom Kippur War, also known as the October War, was fought by a coalition of Arab countries led by Egypt and Syria against Israel between October 6 and 25, 1973.) The canal was opened to shipping in 1975.
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