By Alexander Ward. This was originally written for a school history journal. Unfortunately, I missed the deadline, so I will post it here. It is perhaps not the most exciting of pieces, but I hope you will find it interesting anyway. Bare in mind it was written for a school aged audience, so perhaps may appear a little simple in parts. It was originally written in October and November.
Some, though not many will have heard of the October War, the Yom Kippur War (מלחמת יום הכיפורים)or Ramadan war (حرب أكتوبر). It is known as the most recent proper war between Israel and Arab nations. It was fought between October 6 and October 261973, 36 years ago. I thought this would be fitting as many people (including myself) have just observed the holidays of Ramadan or Yom Kippur. This article will not contain a detailed account of what happened, simply the after effects.
First, I will give a little background information. At the time, Golda Meir was the fourth and first woman to be prime minister of Israel, and she was known of her Jewish socialist politics. Anwar Sadat was the third president of Egypt, and was, at the time, associated with Arab socialist politics. Israel was formed in 1948, from the British Mandate of Palestine and has caused controversy ever since it’s formation. Great opposition from the rest of the Middle East, some still do not consider it as a state, support from America and the UK including the supply of nuclear weapons have caused considerable condemnation from many people from around the world and on the political spectrum. Egypt had a revolution in 1952 to overthrow the monarchy and to become a republic. It is a member of the Arab league and has close ties to other middle eastern countries, in particular Syria.
Before the war, there had been talks of an agreement with Israel in 1971, in return all land occupied would have to be returned. President Sadat in 1972, said that a war would eventually happen and that he was prepared to fight it. However, before the middle of 1973 no war occurred, despite further threats from Sadat to the USA, to force Israel to agree to his terms. During this period, Sadat tried to win support with other nations to help him to win the war. Such countries included the USSR, though they rejected the offer due to a period of détente (the easing of relations) with the USA. In response, 20000 Soviet diplomats were expelled from Egypt. In April 1973, Sadat reenforced the threat of war, but many people remained sceptical and doubted him.
The attack itself was carefully planned so that it would fall on the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur in Judaism. During this period Israel had let it’s defences down due to the fact that Yom Kippur is the holiest of Jewish high holidays and much of Israel is Jewish. With support from Syria, Egypt launched it’s attack. In the Golan Heights region, Israeli soldiers were outnumbered, with around 180 tanks compared to 1400 Syrian tanks. Despite it’s previous doubts, the USSR supplied Syria with aid. Other countries that supplied Egypt and Syria were: Jordan; Iraq; Algeria; Libya; Morocco; Palestine; Saudi Arabia; Kuwait; Pakistan; Cuba and even North Korea. Israel had relatively little support, it was heavily aided by the USA. At first the Egyptians were successful, but the Israelis counterattacked after four days. A ceasefire was proposed at this point but due to the fact that the USSR had resupplied Egypt, which rejected the proposal. In response, the USA resupplied Israel.
On October 22 the United Nations Security Council passed “Resolution 338” which called for an immediate ceasefire. This was good for Egypt as Israeli soldiers had cut off supplies from Egypt’s Third Army. While ultimately it was a success for Israel, many lives were lost. In just three weeks, Israel had lost around 2688 soldiers which was contrary to other Israeli wars both past and present where relatively few soldiers have died. 8258 died from the Arab nations, and many wounded.
Now, the main point of this essay the after effects. In an angry response to the war, Arab countries decided to put oil prices high to all countries that had supported Israel. This lasted until March 1974, and had caused many difficulties including the 1973 energy crisis. In the period between 1974 and 1975, the USA and Syria came to an agreement. Syria is given a small part of the Golan Heights, where much of the fighting occurred and this was monitored by the UN. Sadat himself had gained popularity despite the overall loss, the initial success won the Egyptian people and he used this as an opportunity to introduce new reforms. The Israeli government, somewhat surprisingly fell in popularity. A man named Motti Ashkenazi led the protests. The president of the Israeli supreme court, Shimon Agranat lead an inquiry into the war, specifically to the beginnings of the war. He concluded that six people were responsible for Israel’s shortcomings: David Elazar of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF); Aluf Eli Zeira, the chief of intelligence and Aryeh Shalev, his deputy; Lieutenant Colonel Bandman, head of the Aman desk for Egypt, and Lieutenant Colonel Gedelia, intelligence chief and Shmuel Gonen, commander of the Southern front. Meir was not mentioned in the report, although she was called to resign and subsequently did in 1974 and was replaced by Yitzhak Rabin, another Jewish socialist. Rabin had suffered a number of scandals and therefore resigned in 1977. In the elections soon after, Menachem Begin was the next prime minister of Israel, but he was a member of Likud, the leading right wing party of Israel, for the first time since the foundation of Israel in 1948. Meanwhile, Sadat was growing tired of the slow process of the peace movement in the Middle East. So, Sadat visited Israel and therefore had recognised Israel. US president Jimmy Carter started talks between Sadat and Begin and eventually the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty was signed in 1979. This would be a step forward for peace in the Middle East. But, it wasn’t. Egypt was expelled from the Arab league and many Arab nations were outraged. It even caused a war between Libya and Egypt. Sadat was assassinated in 1981, for his peace agreement with Israel by Islamist Army members.
So what did ultimately achieve? A right wing government, further tension, one peace agreement, assassination, resignation and death.
