The War of Attrition (Hebrew: מלחמת
ההתשה, Arabic: حرب الاستنزاف) was a
limited war fought between the Israeli military
and forces of the Egyptian Republic, the USSR and the
Palestine Liberation Organization from 1967 to 1970. It was initiated by the Egyptians as a way of recapturing the
Sinai from the Israelis, who had been in control of the territory since the
mid-1967 "Six-Day War". The hostilities ended with a ceasefire
signed between the countries in 1970 with frontiers remaining in the same place as when the war
began.
Egyptian Front
The Israel Defense Force's (IDF) unanticipated victory and the Egyptian army's
rout during the "Six-Day War" put the Sinai peninsula, up to the eastern bank of the
Suez Canal, in Israeli hands. Egypt's humiliated army, the
most powerful in the Arab world, yearned for retaliation. Sporadic clashes were taking place along
the cease-fire line, and Egyptian missile boats sank the Israeli destroyer Eilat on October 21st of the same year. Egypt began shelling Israeli positions
along the Bar Lev Line, making use of heavy artillery, MiG
aircraft and various other forms of assistance from the Soviets with the hope of forcing a war-weary Israeli government into
making concessions.[4] Israel responded
with bombardment and ground raids on Egyptian military positions, aerial raids on strategic facilities in Egypt itself, and the
complete razing of Egyptian cities on the west bank of the Suez Canal, sending hundreds of thousands of refugees in full flight
to Cairo and other Egyptian cities, further burdening the Egyptian economy and thereby, exhausting
the Egyptian government.
The rationale of the Egyptian President, Gamal Abdel Nasser, was explained by
journalist Mohamed Hassanein Heikal:
"If the enemy succeeds in inflicting fifty-thousand casualties in this campaign, we can go on fighting nevertheless, because
we have manpower reserves. If we succeed in inflicting ten-thousand casualties, he will unavoidably find himself compelled to
stop fighting, because he has no manpower reserves."
The international community and both countries attempted to find a diplomatic solution to the conflict. The Jarring Mission of the United Nations was supposed to ensure
that the terms of UN Security Council Resolution 242
would be observed, but by late 1970, it was clear that this mission had been a failure. Fearing the
escalation of the conflict into an "East vs. West"
confrontation during the tensions of the mid-Cold War, the American President, Richard Nixon, sent his
Secretary of State, William
Rogers, to formulate the Rogers Plan in view of obtaining a ceasefire. In August of
1970, Israel, Jordan, and Egypt agreed to a ceasefire under the terms proposed by the Rogers
Plan. The plan contained restrictions on missile deployment by both sides, and required the cessation of raids as a precondition
for peace. The Egyptians and their Soviet allies rekindled the conflict by violating the agreement shortly thereafter, moving
their missiles near to the Suez Canal, and constructing the largest anti-aircraft system yet implemented at that point in
history.[4][1]
The Israelis responded with a policy which their Prime Minister, Golda Meir, dubbed “asymmetrical response,” wherein Israeli retaliation was disproportionately large in
comparison to any Egyptian attacks. Strategically, this was a necessary policy for her government, as the Israeli military was
significantly numerically smaller than the Egyptian.[4] The strategy worked, as it showed Israel's willingness to sustain losses, and its ability to
inflict greater casualties, proportionally, against Egypt and its Soviet allies. Israel received further aid from the United
States, and led some Egyptians to lose their taste for conflict. Following Nasser’s death in September of 1970, his successor,
Anwar al-Sadat, ceased open hostilities with Israel, focusing instead on the prospect of
a partial Israeli pull-out from the Sinai, a prospect not realized for many years.[4]
Jordan and the PLO
Following the Six-Day War of 1967, a wave of Palestinian refugees entered Jordan, further
strengthening the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) which was already powerful in Jordan at the time. King Hussein’s agreement to the Rogers Plan upset the PLO, as it constituted official recognition of
the State of Israel, in breach of the terms of a prior arrangement, the Khartoum
Resolution. Consequently, the PLO began fighting against the Jordanian government, and engaged in a series of terrorist
attacks against Israel, including plane hijackings and the infamous "Munich Massacre"
during the 1972 Summer Olympics. The Syrian Arab
Republic provided aid to the PLO against the Jordanian government, but Israel, by positioning troops along the
Jordan River, appeared to preempt a Syrian incursion into Jordanian territory by
threatening a retaliatory invasion. This is believed by many to have averted direct Syrian involvement in the conflict.[4][2] With American and Israeli assistance, the Jordanian King expelled the PLO from
Jordan during 1970, in what would become known as "Black September". With the
PLO expelled to Lebanon, the Jordanian front of the War of Attrition was closed. [4]
Timeline
July 1, 1967: Egyptian
Army artillery fires on an Israeli armored infantry company near the Suez Canal. The Israeli unit commander is killed and
thirteen Israeli troops are wounded [5].
October 21, 1967: Egyptian
naval forces sink the Israeli “The Eilat,” killing forty-seven.[1]
June of 1968: The war "officially" begins, with sparse
Egyptian artillery bombardment of the Israeli front line on the east bank of the Suez Canal. More artillery bombardments in the
following months kill Israeli soldiers.[4]
October 30, 1968: Israeli heli-borne commandos
("Sayeret Matkal") destroy Egypt's main electricity supply. The blackout causes Nasser to
cease hostilities for a few months while fortifications around hundreds of important targets are built. Simultaneously, Israel
re-enforces its position on the east bank of the Suez Canal by construction of "the Bar Lev Line".[6]
March 3, 1969: Nasser officially voids the ceasefire of June
1967.[7]
March 8, 1969: Egyptian artillery begins massive shelling of
the Bar Lev Line resulting in many Israeli casualties. Soviet MiG-21 fighters
are employed in the attack. The IDF retaliates with deep raids into Egyptian territory, causing severe damage.[4]
May-July of 1969: Forty-seven IDF soldiers are killed and
one-hundred and fifty-seven wounded. Although Egypt suffers many times more casualties than Israel, it continues its aggressive
stance. Israel manages to sustain the high casualty rate but is hard-pressed to find a definite solution to the conflict.
July 20, 1969 and July 24, 1969: Nearly the entire
Israeli Air Force (IAF) bombs the northern Canal sector, destroying anti-aircraft
positions, tanks and artillery. The aerial offensive continues until December and reduces the Egyptian anti-aircraft defense to
almost nothing. It also manages to reduce the artillery bombardment somewhat. However, shelling with lighter weapons,
particularly mortars, continues.
October 17, 1969: The USA and USSR begin diplomatic talks to end the conflict.
December 9, 1969: The Rogers Plan is publicized. It calls for Egyptian "commitment to
peace" in exchange for the Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai. Both parties strongly reject the plan. President Nasser instead
opts to plead for more sophisticated weaponry from the Soviet Union to withstand the IAF bombings. The Soviets initially refuse
to deliver the requested weapons.[8]
January 22, 1970: President Nasser secretly flies to
Moscow to discuss the situation. His request for new SAM batteries (including the 3M9 Kub and Strela-2) is approved. Their deployment requires qualified personnel along with squadrons of aircraft to
protect them. In effect, he needs Soviet troops in large numbers, something the
Kremlin did not want to provide. Nasser then threatens to resign, implying that Egypt might turn
to Washington for help in the future. The Soviets had Invested heavily in President
Nasser's regime, and so, the Soviet leader, General Secretary Brezhnev, finally obliged. The Soviet presence was to increase from 2,500–4,000 in January to
10,600–12,150 (plus 100–150 Soviet pilots) by June 30.
March 15, 1970: The first fully-operational Soviet SAM site in Egypt is completed. It is
part of three brigades which the USSR sends to Egypt.[3]
June 30, 1970: Following the Soviets' direct intervention, known as "Operation Kavkaz"[3],
Washington fears an escalation and redoubles efforts toward a peaceful resolution to the conflict.
April 8, 1970: Israeli bombardment kills forty-seven Egyptian schoolchildren at an elementary
school inside a military compound, putting a definite end to the campaign, the Israelis instead then concentrate upon Canal-side
installations. The respite gives the Egyptians time to reconstruct its SAM batteries closer to the canal. Soviet flown
MiG-fighters provide the necessary air cover. Soviet pilots also begin approaching IAF aircraft during April of 1970, but Israeli
pilots have orders not to engage these aircraft, and break off whenever Soviet-piloted MiGs appear.
June 25, 1970: An Israeli A-4 "Skyhawk", in an attack
sortie against Egyptian forces on the Canal, is pursued by a pair of Soviet-piloted MiG-21s into the Sinai. The "Skyhawk" is shot down or, according to the Israelis, hit and forced
to land at a nearby air base. In response, Israel plans and executes an ambush of Soviet-piloted MiGs.[3]
July 30, 1970: A large-scale dogfight, involving eight to twenty MiG-21s (besides the initial
eight, other MiGs are "scrambled", but it is unclear if they reach the battle in time), eight Mirage III and eight F-4 Phantom II jets takes place, west
of the Suez Canal. Ambushing their opponents, the Israelis down four Soviet-piloted MiGs, and, according to some sources, a fifth
is hit and crashes en route back to its base. Three Soviet pilots are killed, while the IAF suffers no casualties except a
damaged Mirage.[3]
Early August, 1970: Despite these losses the Soviets and Egyptians manage to press the air
defenses closer and closer to the canal. The Soviet operated SAMs shoot down a number of Israeli aircraft. Israelis do not
respond effectively. The SAM batteries allow the Egyptians to move in artillery which in turn threatens the Bar Lev Line.
August 7, 1970: A cease-fire agreement is reached, forbidding either side from changing "the
military status quo within zones extending 50 kilometers to the east and west of the cease-fire line." Minutes after the
cease-fire, Egypt begins moving SAM batteries into the zone even though the agreement explicitly forbids new military
installations. By October there are approximately one-hundred SAM sites in the zone.
September 28, 1970: President Nasser dies of a heart attack, and his Vice President, Anwar al-Sadat,
takes the reins. Sadat agrees to end the War of Attrition and almost immediately begins planning for the Yom Kippur War which would take place three years later.
Bibliography
- Benny Morris. (1999). Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab
Conflict, 1881–1999. Knopf. ISBN 0-679-42120-3.
- Bar-Simon Tov, Yaacov. The Israeli-Egyptian War of Attrition, 1969–70. New York: Columbia University Press, 1980.
- Chaim Herzog and Shlomo Gazit. The Arab-Israeli Wars: War and Peace in the Middle East. New York: Vintage Books,
2004.
- Whetten, Lawrence L. (1974). The Canal War: Four-Power Conflict in the Middle
East. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-23069-0.
See also
People
References
External links
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