Business Innovation from Israel's Masters of Espionage

Chapter 9. Battle Tested

The Suez Canal, circa 1968…

Since ancient times, the Suez Canal has served as one of the world's most vital water passageways. Situated at the mouth of three continents, it has been an enduring symbol of the ever-shifting balance of the Middle East, and its strategic importance has not gone unnoticed. The pharaohs were said to be the first to try to build a canal by connecting the Red Sea to the Nile. With varying degrees of success, later regimes that conquered Egypt would make more ambitious attempts to link the Red Sea to the Mediterranean and shorten the lucrative trading routes among Europe, Asia, and Africa. Around 1798, Napoleon's engineers wrestled with constructing a large-scale canal, but they came up empty. ...