As we remember the 6th of October war in Egypt , Israel remembers the Yom Kippur too and strangely every year new Israeli documents and records come out showing another image for this war which they claim that thanks to the gap in the Egyptian front .
This year Israel released the records of that secret cabinet meeting held on the 7th of October. That meeting makes you wonder what if the United States did not interfere with supplies to save both Israel and the its reputation as arms maker , for those who do not know the 1973 war was more than a war between Arab states and Israel , it was a war between Soviet arms and American arms.
If you check the cabinet meeting records you will find that the Israelis put the gap plan as their 3rd option despite it was suicidal by all measures and if it were not for the mistakes that we have done which led to it , it would have caused more damages and losses in the IDF.
Dayan’s daughter is furious from these records that give a bad impression about her father , strangely that lady published a book that showed Dayan as a sick man , real sick man so I do no know what is the big fuss here.
The Israelis also released documents about the intelligence failure ,it is not about Ashraf Marwan or King Hussein , it is about one of the greatest strategic plan implemented in history to deceive not only Israel but the whole world too.
The problem of the Israeli war machine is that it thinks that the Arabs are too damn stupid to conquer the greatest army in the region and may be in the world and this is why their intelligence fiascos have not stopped since the 1973 and are repeated in Lebanon , for God sake Israel could not get rid from Hezbollah with all its intelligence powers and those spies who were working in Lebanon for 30 years !! By the way some Israelis know that arrogance is not in their sake , this op-ed by Eitan Haber in Yediot Ahronot English edition says so but the arrogance continues as long as you treat your opponent as inferior creature compared to you.
I know that I will receive comments suspecting in the victory of 1973 but all what I can said is that in battles or anything in life you put certain target and you try to achieve it , if you achieve that target ,then this is a victory for you and so you can apply this to the 1973 6th of October /Yom Kippur war. We achieve what we want from the war and even more regardless of how you see this achievement.
By the way we got tons and tons of testimonies ,records and documents about the war still the language barrier stands between them and the world that did not hear our version from the story , that barrier is just the dust wall in Bar Lev line , it can be broken easily if we want too.
I am reading about the Yom Kippur War in Wikipedia, not done yet. Egypt was brilliant in misleading Israeli intelligence beforehand and in several tactical maneuvers against the Bar-Lev line. Frogmen plugging the oil pipes the night before; use of decoy bridges; use of pumps to wash away the sand wall. Destroyed a crap-load of Israeli tanks. Israel got in some good hits too though. Very interesting.
ReplyDelete@Zeinobia, I wish you mentioned something about Lt General Saad El Shazly and his superb planning for October war. We ought to give this man some credit.
ReplyDeleteIsrael had least casualties, and most destruction of enemy tanks and planes. At the cease fire, the Israelis held more territory than before the war, and were only fifty miles from Cairo and thirty miles from Damascus.
ReplyDeleteNegotiations in the aftermath returned Sinai and the Suez Canal to Egypt, which was Sadat's strategic goal.
Syria was pathetic. Worse than useless. The Egyptian forces left the safety of their air defenses in Sinai to help the Syrians, and got pummelled.
I have to give the victory to Israel, and it looks like most but not all experts agree with that.
@ Hazem, By the way, Saad El Shazly's website is down for some reason: http://www.el-shazly.com/. There is a copy in Google's cache.
In 1973 Israel not only stopped but even successfully countered nations with 20 times higher population.
ReplyDeleteIsrael was attacked by bigger armies than was an active NATO contingent serving in Europe against Soviet invasion. It is kind of miracle what that 3 million nation did then.
In technical military terms, Israel came out as a 'victor' though it paid a very heavy price. From a 'morale' point of view, Egypt came out victorious as it regained back it's self esteem it had lost in 1967.
ReplyDeleteThe disengagement agreements, which represented the diplomatic climax of the 1973 war, were the major accomplishment in Israel - Arab relations for the next several years. Egypt's military "accomplishments" opened the way for receptivity to US diplomatic approaches, and they were a prelude to Sadat's peace initiative in 1977 and thus the regaining of Sainai.
The Canadian.
@John: aint a miracle when Israel was handed all the new weapons toys by the so-called Western peace loving countries. Israel is all about lies no miracles, loads of blood, deception and nastiness that is appreciated only by the low lives like you John. Point is, Israel was defeated in Sinai and again in Lebanon thats the only reason they gave back lands and thats Im afraid the only way theyll ever reach out for peace.
ReplyDelete@The Canadian, I agree, for once.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous 01:03:00 AM "aint a miracle when Israel was handed all the new weapons toys by the so-called Western peace loving countries"
That's why it's good to have good allies. In a war it's better to have USA than Syria as an ally. Not sure why you're sneering.
Also, the US influence was not as one-sided as you portray. In the last hours before the Egyptian assault, when their plans became clear, Henry Kissinger forbade the Israelis from launching a preemptive strike saying they would not receive "so much as a nail" in aid if they did. He also forbade them from destroying the Egyptian Third Army which was surrounded and completely at Israel's mercy at the time of the cease fire.
@John, Good point about Israel's comparatively tiny population. Israel's casualties were fewer in number but much greater per capita.
'Israel had least casualties, and most destruction of enemy tanks and planes. At the cease fire, the Israelis held more territory than before the war, and were only fifty miles from Cairo and thirty miles from Damascus.'
ReplyDeleteJason,
I thought you were smarter than that! Wikipedia as an evidenciary academic source!?!?!?!
Read the accounts oF Golda Mayer Begging 'Henry' to send help as his duty as a jew! Yes Nixon was drunk in florida and 'Henry' was running our foreign policy; while Dicky was waiting for his impending doom!
Although Henry replied Madam I am an American Official there is only so much I can do! And much he did, he sent tanks and planes to aid the Israelis and If it were not for said armaments the Egyptians would have taken Sinai or most of it!
Not my opinion but the accounts of many Israeli soldiers and officials on the ground!
Hi Sayed Kotb, I wish I could read Arabic. I'd like to compare the Arabic Wikipedia version. Wikipedia sources both Henry Kissinger assertions to Rabinovich, The Yom Kippur War, Schocken Books, 2004 whose veracity I cannot attest to, but anyway it is sourced, not made up.
ReplyDelete"If it were not for said armaments the Egyptians would have taken Sinai or most of it!"
That I think is not true because it was not Egypt's, or rather Sadat's, objective to do that, but only to take the canal and its fortified strong points, stopping about 15 kilometers east of the Bar Lev line. That was a defensible position with the SAMs they had, and would have left them in a strong negotiating position. No doubt getting arms from the US was very helpful to Israel; that's what friends are for. Egypt should have seen it coming. But going to the aid of the useless Syrians was Egypt's own misjudgment.
I am a wikiphobe by nature, but tx for the sourcing! I never make bombastic statements I am a natural skeptic. But a slew of docs produced by the bbc and israeli film makers (sadly none by egyptians) celebrating the 30th aniversery of the yom kippur war proved that uncle henry was piviotal in tipping the scale in israels favor, interviews with numerous IDF officials attested to how caught off gaurd they were and the outcome could have been different if it were not for uncle henrys care package. Up until then everyone around the world beleived in the egyptian paper tiger myth including myself. BUT PAPER THEY WERE NOT!
ReplyDeleteI also need to address the HK holding the israelis at bay, it wasn't out of the kindness of his heart. The russians threatened nuclear retaliation on behalf of their proxystate ie Egypt! That's what stopped the war from escalating.
Forgive my smartphone typoladen response.
I would like to make some thing clear here , the gap between Egyptian forces which IDF used to penetrate the Egyptian lines and surround some of Egy. troops , is not as the Israeli media describes. IN fact , it was like this : Egy. troops surrounded by Israelis , and both are surrounded by Egyptian troops. i.e. the Israeli forces could not go any further because their supply lines were cut off and they were very far away from their logistics.
ReplyDeleteAnyway , through the history , we have never saw an army leaves the land it occupied unless it was forced to, specially Israel. What I want to say here , is that Israel would never ever give up any land unless it was very sure that it has bean defeated.
Bottom line is : Israel gave up the land , this is the clear proof that they know for sure that Egypt defeated them