Arab - Israel War (1973)
War in October 1973 between Israel and Egypt and Syria; the fourth major military confrontation between Israel and the Arab states.
The 1973 Arab - Israel War resulted from failure to resolve the territorial disputes arising from the Arab - Israel War of 1967. Despite UN Resolution 242, which called for Israel to withdraw from territories occupied in June 1967, little progress was made in its implementation. President Anwar alSadat of Egypt sought to obtain the return of Sinai through diplomacy, and offered to reopen the Suez Canal if Israel would withdraw to the Mitla and Gidi passes in the Sinai Peninsula. He also offered to resume diplomatic relations with the United States and sign a peace pact with Israel, but Israel refused to withdraw to the armistice lines established before 5 June 1967.
While making diplomatic approaches to the conflict, Sadat was preparing for war. He contacted President Hafiz al-Asad of Syria to plan a two-front attack on Israel. Egypt, however, still depended on the Soviet Union for modern weapons. Angered by the Soviet Union's failure to respond to his demands for an assured supply, Sadat surprised the international community in July 1972 by expelling all 21,000 Soviet military advisers and personnel in Egypt. Although many in the West believed that the gesture would delay moves toward war, the Soviet Union responded by stepping up arms deliveries to both Egypt and Syria in an attempt to regain Sadat's favor.
In Israel, the governing Labor Party generally accepted the principle of "territory in exchange for peace," but it adamantly opposed return of all the occupied lands, asserting that for security reasons, Israel would have to continue occupation of substantial areas. Sadat's failure to follow through after his proclamations about the "year of decision" in 1971, and again in 1972, led Israel's general staff to conclude that the country was safe from an attack for the indefinite future and that the Bar-Lev line along the Suez Canal was impenetrable. Thus Israel's army commanders were unprepared for the October attack by Egypt and Syria. Israel's intelligence misinterpreted the buildup of Egyptian forces along the canal before the war as military exercises unlikely to escalate into a full-fledged attack.
The Two-Front War
The war began on two fronts on 6 October 1973, the Jewish Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur); hence, in Israel it was called the Yom Kippur War. It also was the Muslim month of fasting, Ramadan; thus, the conflict was called the Ramadan War by the Arabs. Egypt's forces quickly crossed the Suez Canal and overran the Bar-Lev line. In the north, Syria moved into the Golan Heights, nearly reaching the 1967 border with Israel. Because Israel had not fully mobilized, it was outnumbered almost twelve to one when the fighting began. Within the next few days, however, rapid mobilization of reserves redressed the balance.
The fighting was the heaviest since 1948, with major losses of manpower and material on both sides. The numbers of tanks, planes, and artillery pieces destroyed was larger than in any battle fought since World War II. Each side had to be rearmed in the midst of the fighting, Egypt and Syria by the Soviet Union, and Israel by the United States.
During the first days of the war, there was great consternation in Israel and fear that Arab forces, especially those of Syria in the north, might succeed in penetrating the pre-June 1967 borders. Within a week, however, Israel's counteroffensives turned the tide of battle. Syria was beaten back on the Golan Heights, and Israel's forces crossed the Suez Canal and began to push toward Cairo. The war precipitated an international crisis when the Soviet Union responded to an urgent appeal from Egypt to save its Third Army, which was surrounded by Israeli forces in Sinai. Despite the UN Security Council cease-fire orders, Israel's troops continued to attack. When the Soviet Union threatened to send troops to assist Egypt, the United States called a worldwide military alert. The crisis ended when all parties agreed to negotiate a safe retreat for the Egyptians.
When the combatants accepted a cease-fire on 22 October, Israel's forces had regained control of Sinai and crossed to the west side of the Suez Canal. Most of the Golan was recaptured, and the IDF occupied some 240 square miles of Syrian territory beyond the Golan Heights. Both Egypt and Israel claimed victory: Egypt, because it drove Israel's forces back into Sinai; and Israel, because it defeated the Arab forces. However, the price of victory was steep. Nearly 3,000 of Israel's soldiers and more than 8,500 Arab soldiers were killed. Wounded numbered 8,800 for Israel and almost 20,000 for the Arabs. Israel lost 840 tanks; the Arabs, 2,550. The cost of the war equaled approximately one year's GNP for each combatant. Israel became more dependent on the United States for military and economic aid, and the Arabs turned to the Soviet Union to restock their arsenals.
The October War also emboldened the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to double prices for its oil, and the Arab members to insist on tieing the sale of oil to support from consuming nations in the war against Israel. Saudi Arabia placed an embargo on shipments to the United States in retaliation for U.S. arms supplied to Israel. Gasoline shortages in the United States resulted, and the rise in oil prices began a spiral of worldwide inflation and a recession in 1974 and 1975.
Peace Negotiations
Attempts to resume the peace process began with Security Council Resolution 338, passed at the same time as the cease-fire ordered on 22 October 1973. It called for immediate termination of all military activity, implementation of Resolution 242, and the start of negotiations "aimed at establishing a just and durable peace." Resolution 338 subsequently became a companion piece to Resolution 242 as the basis for a peace settlement. In December a Middle East peace conference was convened in Geneva under the cochairmanship of the Soviet Union's foreign minister, the U.S. secretary of state, and the UN secretary-general. Egypt, Jordan, and Israel attended, but Syria refused to participate. After two days of wrangling over procedure, meetings were suspended; the conference failed to reconvene.
Its collapse provided U.S. secretary of state Henry Kissinger with the opportunity to bypass the United Nations and the Soviet Union in striving for
a settlement. The first step was a cease-fire agreement providing for relief of Egypt's besieged Third Army and return to the lines of 22 October. This was the first bilateral accord signed between Israel and Egypt since the 1949 armistice. In January 1974 Kissinger began another round of shuttle diplomacy, persuading Egypt and Israel to sign a disengagement agreement calling for Israel to withdraw its forces back across the Suez Canal. It was much more difficult to attain the disengagement agreement between Syria and Israel. After several trips between Damascus and Jerusalem, Kissinger finally persuaded Israel to withdraw from territory seized from Syria during October 1973 and from the town of Quneitra in the Golan region. A buffer zone patrolled by United Nations Deployment of Forces was established between forces of Israel and Syria in the Golan Heights, and Syria's President Asad agreed to prevent Palestinian guerrillas from using Syria as a base from which to attack Israel.
The 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 Kissinger's diplomatic approaches, and they were a prelude to Sadat's startling peace initiative in 1977.
Israel's setback broke through a psychological barrier to territorial concessions and the belief in Israel's invincibility against any combination of Arab forces. While it enhanced Arab self-confidence, it shook Israel's belief that no concessions were necessary. But some of the long-term consequences of the war were disastrous for Israel. Israel's casualties exceeded those of the two previous wars, and military intelligence was discredited for not having predicted the attack. The Agranat Commission, established in November 1973 to probe the reasons for the setback, blamed the mistaken IDF assessment of Egypt's war prowess for Israel's failures and recommended removal of the chief of staff and other high-ranking officers. Its report led to a major shake-up of the Labor government, the resignation of Prime Minister Golda Meir, and a new cabinet led by Yitzhak Rabin in June 1974. The 1973 setback and the Agranat Report were among the major factors leading to Labor's defeat in the 1977 Knesset election.
Bibliography
Amos, John W., II. Arab Israeli Military/Political Relations: ArabPerceptions and the Politics of Escalation. New York: Pergamon Press, 1979.
Aruri, Nasser H., ed. Middle East Crucible: Studies on theArab - Israeli War of October 1973. Wilmette, IL: Medina University Press, 1975.
El-Badri, Hazzan, Taha El-Magdoub, and Mohammed Dia El-Din Zhody. The Ramadan War: The Egyptian View. Dunn Loring, VA: Dupuy Institute, 1978.
Gawrych, George W. The Albatross of Decisive Victory: War andPolicy Between Egypt and Israel in the 1967 and 1973 Arab - Israeli Wars. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000.
Herzog, Chaim. The War of Atonement, October 1973. Boston: Little, Brown, 1975.
Parker, Richard B., ed. The October War: A Retrospecitve. Gainsville: University Press of Florida, 2001.
Raswamy, P. R. Kuma, ed. Revisiting the Yom Kippur War. London and Portland, OR: Frank Cass, 2000.
— DON PERETZ
