The Yom Kippur War: Forty Years Later

Using overwhelming Syrian superiority in the Golan Heights, a total of 1,200 tanks and 600 artillery[20]  pieces along a 55 mile front struck against just 280 Israeli tanks[21]. By nightfall on the 7^th they had advanced 12 miles beyond the ceasefire line. In the Canal Zone over 10,500 shells fell on the Israeli positions at a rate of 175 per second, which was followed by the crossing of the Suez Canal by 8,000 Egyptian commandos within 25 minutes of the first shells landing and establishing a bridgehead 10km east of the Canal[22]. The situation became so dire that Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Dayan attempted to persuade Prime Minister Golda Meir to authorise the preparations needed to allow a rapid use of Israel’s 10-20 nuclear weapons[23].

Yet, against all odds, the war swung violently back in the Israeli’s favour. Tactical mistakes in the initial advance on the 6^th prevented the Syrian High Command from advancing to capture all of the Golan Heights and push into the heart of the undefended Israeli mainland. As such the IDF exploited the haphazard halt in Syrian armour and within the next 24 hours, restored its authority over the Golan Heights. By Wednesday 10^th October, the Egyptian 1^st Infantry Brigade advanced for the first time outside the protective umbrella of surface to air missiles. Without firing a single shot in anger in its advance, the 1^st Infantry Brigade lost 90% of its men and equipment to sustained and punishing Israeli airstrikes[24]. The disastrous Egyptian attack on the 13^th October, aiming to advance unnecessarily into the Sinai, had failed and the Arab armies began the long retreat which only ended 100km from Cairo[25].

The Legacy

The war had an untold effect on the policymakers and elites of many countries. In Egypt today, the October War has left a profound legacy on the historical narrative of the state. After the complete and total victory in the 1967 Six Day War, Israel felt secure within its new borders, it had destroyed a superior multinational Arab attack and American support seemed assured, complacency and conceit dominated the political system. There was no desire to listen to Sadat’s 1971 and 1973 calls for negotiations[26]. President Anwar Sadat understood that Egypt lacked the capability to re-establish control over the Sinai and that the Year of Decision brinkmanship had gone unanswered, as such he gambled that the crossing of the Canal would restart the stalled peace negotiations. Sadat would say ‘Let me get just five centimetres from Sinai, and I’m ready to negotiate anything’[27]. The conclusion of the conflict may have ended with Israeli triumph and the encircling of the Egyptian Third Army but the humbling of the unbeatable enemy for just a week was enough[28]. By 1978, the accords had been signed between Israel and Egypt, the Sinai was returned, peace would hold to this day and America gained another Arab ally.

The 1971 War of Attrition protests which engulfed Tahrir Square in Cairo condemning the Sadat government had been replaced by jubilation and pride. Even today the October War is viewed as one of the greatest Egyptian national achievements since the construction of the Pyramids. Commemorations are celebrated annually as Armed Forces Day, a day in which the military are praised and remembered, four cities carry the operations names, the longest bridge in Cairo was built in its honour and so sensitive is that narrative that foreign documentary makers are repeatedly denied entry to the country[29].

Today the Muslim Brotherhood is planning to launch a “Great Counter-Coup” utilising the spirit of war and the turning in Egypt’s fortunes as a metaphor for its own predicament[30]. With others like the National Alliance to Support Legitimacy, they will descend upon Tahrir to honour the memory of the heroes of the October 1973 Army and protest the ‘bloody perpetrators’ in today’s Army and their disrespect for their legacy[31].

In Israel, the legacy of the war exists in all branches of society, Golda Meir resigned and politics changed forever with Labor losing power for the first time and the newly established Likud gaining power[32]. Society transitioned from secular socialists to the diverse Israeli culture and politics which exist now, making the war a landmark in national history. The IDF vowed never to be caught unaware as they did in 1973 and has so far succeeded. But most crucially Jerusalem learnt that supremacy is never assured and whilst the threat of another Arab-Israeli war is almost unthinkable, there are new threats to the state. This brought about the doctrine of pre-empting all threats to the nation, whether that is terrorism in Lebanon or Palestine, chemical weapons in Syria or nuclear weapons in Iraq and Iran.

Benjamin Netanyahu, a veteran of the conflict himself, is the voice of the fundamental conclusion of the war; ‘it seemed as if we were fighting for the very existence of the Third Temple… [but] within three weeks, we were at the gates of Cairo and Damascus… The strategic situation has changed a great deal since the Yom Kippur War: we signed peace accords with Egypt and Jordan and we are trying to reach an agreement with the Palestinians. None of this would have happened without our neighbours’ understanding that we cannot be defeated on the battlefield’[33]. This legacy, that Israel was ready and willing to defend itself against overwhelming unforeseen superior odds and with elites like Hosni Mubarak[34], the Assad family and the Hashemite monarchy in Jordan, all veterans of the conflict has kept that fragile peace.

Although Israel has ascended to technological, democratic and economic hegemony as compared to its neighbours, as Shlomo Ben-Ami sadly proclaims ‘every major peace breakthrough has come only as a consequence of war’[35]. In its 40^th anniversary editorial Haaretz concluded that ‘now as then, 40 years later, Israel continued on its own way. It leans only on its military power and the support of United States. It continues to ignore its isolation and the limitation of power’[36]. The conflict in Syria and troubles in Egypt, the dangers of the Sinai and Golan Heights and unexpected threats continue to demonstrate that the danger that hit on October 6^th 1973 still exists to this day.

By Sgt. David S. Nolan

Please cite this article as:

Cane, P. (2013). ‘The Yom Kippur War: Forty Years Later’

Human Security Centre, Defence and Security, Issue 4, No. 2.