Maadi from the Egyptian army, future president Anwar Sadat. Following the 1952 Revolution, after which the British colonial occupation ended, and the 1956 Suez Crisis, or Tripartite Aggression, in which Britain, France and Israel attacked Egypt to regain control of the Suez Canal, British and French expatriates living in Maadi and elsewhere were forced to leave Egypt. As a result, some of their institutions, such as St.John's Anglican Church, were taken over and run temporarily by other nationalities. The oldest area in Maadi is El Sarayat, composed mostly of villas and low rise buildings. It is the most affluent part of
Suez Crisis 1888 Suez Canal Convention), increased following the coup. In late 1954, Nasser began a policy of sponsoring raids into Israel by the "fedayeen", who almost always attacked civilians. The raids triggered a series of Israeli reprisal operations. The raids were targeted as much politically as against Israel militarily. It was Nasser's intention to win himself the laurels of the foremost anti-Zionist state as a way of establishing his leadership over the Arab world. Before 1954, the principal target of Nasser's speeches had been Britain. Only after the Anglo-Egyptian agreement on evacuating the canal zone did Israel emerge as one of