THE YOM KIPPUR WAR: A TURNING POINT
Ruth King

On October 6th, 1973, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, a combined surprise assault by Egyptian and Syrian forces began the war variously known as the Yom Kippur War, the October War, and the Ramadan War.

Nine Arab states joined the assault on Israel either in direct combat or in defense of Damascus and Cairo. Iraq contributed 18,000 troops and several hundred tanks; Saudi Arabia committed a brigade of approximately 3,000 troops; Libya sent fighter craft to Egypt and contributed $1 billion to pay the Soviets for weapons; Algeria sent three aircraft squadrons of fighters and bombers, an armored brigade and 150 tanks; Tunisia sent 1,000-2,000 soldiers; Sudan stationed 3,500 troops in southern Egypt; Morocco sent three brigades including 2,500 troops; Lebanon permitted the shelling of Israeli civilian settlements from its territory; Jordan contributed its 40th and 60th Armored Brigades and three Jordanian artillery batteries as well as over 100 tanks.

The attack was a jihad meant to destroy the Jewish State. Taken by surprise, Israel suffered initial serious losses psychologically compounded by the delay of supplies from America until the seventh day of the war. As Israeli casualties mounted, President Nixon, beset by rumblings of the Watergate scandal which ultimately cost him the Presidency, finally ordered an airlift on October 14th, consisting of 815 sorties bringing Israel 56 combat aircraft and 27,900 tons of munitions and supplies. It was the largest airlift in America’s history, almost thwarted when American transport planes were denied landing rights anywhere but Portugal. By the start of the air-lift Israel had turned the tide and began a strong counteroffensive.

On October 15, General Ariel Sharon took the main Suez highway and IDF forces rebounded in the north, driving the Syrian army from the Golan.

As soon as Israel gained the upper hand, the UN demanded a cease fire. Israel, now on the western side of the Suez Canal, had encircled Egypt's vaunted Third Army and was within 42 miles of Cairo. She had pushed Syria back to within 40 miles of Damascus. Why then was the 1973 war a turning point?

The price of victory in 1973 was 2,400 lives, thousands of casualties, and a period of introspection and grief. Israelis lost confidence in the judgment of their leaders, in the invincibility of their intelligence apparatus and, because of the delay in re-supply, that their one ally could be counted on when the chips were down.

After the war, the United States embarked on a serious effort to woo Sadat. As Morris Amitay, then executive director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, put it:
"Israel lost its strategic importance to the United States as a bulwark against the Soviet Union. Because Kissinger wooed Egypt away from its alliance with the Soviet Union, the United States did not need Israel as much as before."

Even as Egypt’s star rose, Israel became more dependent on the US for military, diplomatic, and economic aid. At the same time oil producing nations in the Persian Gulf began to use production levels as a political weapon, and the arms race between Israel and the Arabs escalated. While Israel retained a qualitative edge, Arabs acquired advanced weaponry.

These were the realities that a seriously traumatized nation had to confront. Israel had won a stunning and decisive victory against overwhelming combined enemy forces--in size roughly the equivalent of NATO forces at the time--but lost the victory. Under U.S. pressure, administered by Kissinger, Israel embarked on a series of so-called disengagements, i.e. territorial retreats, in the Sinai, including from the important Abu Rodeis oil fields.

On November 19, a brief four years after the Yom Kippur War; Anwar Sadat arrived in Israel. A swooning Israeli public and international media conveniently air-brushed Sadat’s history as an ally of Hitler; as the author of a fawning letter of praise for Hitler as late as 1953; as one of the perpetrators of Jihad against Israel. His opening offer to end all wars and accept Israel’s legitimacy dazzled everyone. His kiss to Golda on both cheeks and his statement “For years I longed to meet you under different circumstances” obscured his hard line speech to the Knesset:

“There are Arab territories which Israel has occupied and still occupies by force. We insist on complete withdrawal from these territories, including Arab Jerusalem”. The newly anointed “Prince of Peace” added a thinly veiled threat: “The Palestine problem is the cause and essence of the conflict and so long as it continues to be unresolved, the conflict will continue to aggravate, reaching new dimensions.” He demanded achievement of the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people and their right to self-determination, including their right to establish their own state. One can only liken this to Admiral Tojo, architect of Pearl Harbor, setting the terms for America’s withdrawal from Hawaii.

But after two years of determined pressure by then President Jimmy Carter and internal pressures from huge "peace" demonstrations, Menachem Begin acceded to the total return of the Sinai including the settlement of Yamit and two state of the art airfields. In the ensuing memorandum, Israel pledged a five year period of “autonomy” for the Arabs of Judea, Samaria and Gaza. Only a fool could not see that this was, as Kissinger finally admitted in 1990, the embryo of statehood, and the final disengagement of the Yom Kippur War.

The rest is tragedy. Israel has lost its moral bearings, its belief in its own historical and religious rights. Each successive Israeli administration, hectored by an increasingly shrill international community, has embarked on a series of concessions as the Arabs ratcheted up their demands.

The disengagement from Gaza is the latest victory for those who attacked Israel in 1973 and another step in the dismemberment of Israel. One can only weep for what is likely to follow.