Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar starts at sunset tonight.
I remember Yom Kippur 1973, I was but a child and did not stay at
synagogue all day with my father. Rather naughtily, I was at home sitting in front of the
television when I saw the reports of war in the Middle East. For some
reason I didn't say anything to my mum. Shortly thereafter we were all
back at synagogue for the Neilah service. The congregation was shocked
from its prayer by the phone in the rabbi's office ringing. Someone ran
to answer it and admonish the caller for daring to call a synagogue on
Yom Kippur. A minute or so later the news was broken to the congregation
that Israel had been attacked on the holiest day in the Jewish
calendar. My claims that I had heard this on the news earlier that day went unbelieved.
The Yom Kippur war was deliberately timed for when the Jewish state
would be at its least prepared for an attack, with many soldiers praying
rather than on guard. The combined forces of Egypt and Syria totalled
the same number of men as NATO had in Western Europe. On the Golan
Heights alone, 150 Israeli tanks faced 1,400 Syria tanks and in the Suez
region just 500 Israeli soldiers faced 80,000 Egyptian soldiers.
There are many places you can read a history of this war, including the
run up to it. But what must be borne in mind at all times is that the
Israeli armed forces and nation had to work to one simple equation: if
they lost, the state of Israel would cease to exist. Thus, for Israel,
it was a fight to the finish as to lose would mean death.
Contrastingly, if the various Arab nations lost, they could survive for
another day.
I find the Israeli tactics pre the war interesting, this passage from
Wikipedia gives you a flavour:
'The Israeli strategy was, for the most part, based on the precept that
if war was imminent, Israel would launch a pre-emptive strike. It was
assumed that Israel's intelligence services would give, in the worst
case, about 48 hours notice prior to an Arab attack.
Golda Meir, Moshe Dayan, and General David Elazar met at 8:05 am the
morning of Yom Kippur, six hours before the war began. Dayan opened the
meeting by arguing that war was not a certainty. Elazar then presented
his argument in favor of a pre-emptive attack against Syrian airfields
at noon, Syrian missiles at 3:00 pm, and Syrian ground forces at 5:00 pm
"When the presentations were done, the prime minister hemmed
uncertainly for a few moments but then came to a clear decision. There
would be no preemptive strike. Israel might be needing American
assistance soon and it was imperative that it would not be blamed for
starting the war. 'If we strike first, we won't get help from anybody',
she said."
Other developed nations, being more dependent on OPEC oil, took more
seriously the threat of an Arab oil embargo and trade boycott, and had
stopped supplying Israel with munitions. As a result, Israel was totally
dependent on the United States for military resupply, and particularly
sensitive to anything that might endanger that relationship. After Meir
made her decision, at 10:15 am she met with US ambassador Kenneth
Keating in order to inform the United States that Israel did not intend
to preemptively start a war, and asked that US efforts be directed at
preventing war. An electronic telegram with Keating's report on the
meeting was sent to the US at 16:33 GMT (6:33 pm local time).
A message arrived later from United States Secretary of State Henry
Kissinger saying, "Don't preempt." At the same time, Kissinger also
urged the Soviets to use their influence to prevent war, contacted Egypt
with Israel's message of non-preemption, and sent messages to other
Arab governments to enlist their help on the side of moderation. These
late efforts were futile. According to Henry Kissinger, had Israel
struck first, it would not have received "so much as a nail."'
It is fascinating that even in 1973 Israel had to wait to be attacked
for fear of losing American support.
In 1973 the United Nations kept very quiet when the Arabs armies, supported by
the Soviet Union invaded Israel. In fact the UN kept quiet right up until
when Israel turned the war around, pushed Syria & Egypt back and had
isolated the Egyptian Third Army and were in a position to advance on
Damascus and maybe even Cairo. Then the UN called for a ceasefire.
You may find it interesting that October 6 is a national holiday in Egypt called Armed
Forces Day, it is a national holiday in Syria as well. There is also a
6th October Bridge in Cairo and the cities 6th of October City and 10th
of Ramadan City.
There is not a word about the 40th anniversary of the Yom
Kippur war on the BBC news website, maybe they will commemorate it with
some more anti-Israel articles on 6 October.
