The Yom Kippur War: Where Men Became Beasts

Recent events have shown us how much a few days can change things in the Middle East. Just 19 days in 1973 saw a massive conflict between Israel, Egypt, Syria, and a scattering of Arab allies that still shapes the region to this day.

The Yom Kippur War as the Israelis call it, also known as the October War, the Ramadan War, or the Fourth Arab-Israeli War saw both sides endure devastating defeats and miraculous victories in one of the bloodiest chapters in the history of the modern Middle East.

Today on A Day In History, we look at how Egypt and Syria launched a sudden invasion that ended up with Israeli troops threatening both their capital cities and reshaping the landscape of Middle Eastern politics. If you appreciate videos about challenging topics like this, consider leaving a like and subscribing for more engaging videos like this one.

Origins of the War

The immediate root of the war was Israel’s success in the Six-Day War of 1967. Israel had fended off a coalition of Arab states and massively expanded its own territory, taking control of the Golan Heights from Syria, the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan, and both the Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula from Egypt.

The conflict only hardened existing animosity between Israel and the Arab states and led a coalition of countries including Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Iraq to declare the “three no’s” in their dealings with Israel: no permanent peace, no recognition of Israel’s legitimacy, and no negotiations with its government.

Egypt, who had lost the most territory to Israel, continued to engage in skirmishes along the border throughout the late 1960s until President Anwar Sadat agreed to a ceasefire in 1970. Sadat’s government signaled its willingness to break the “three no’s” by recognising the State of Israel in exchange for them returning the Sinai Peninsula and other Arab territories, but Israel turned down the terms. Sadat’s concerns were shared by his Syrian counterpart Hafiz al-Assad who made recovery of the Golan Heights a top foreign-policy priority. Under the guise of diplomatic summits, Assad and Sadat began planning an attack on Israel and both ramped up military training and recruitment.

As always, the Cold War loomed in the background. The United States backed Israel and feared that rising Arab power would increase Soviet influence in the region. Meanwhile, Egypt and Syria were in the Soviet orbit, although not nearly as closely tied to it as Israel was to its own superpower ally. Both Moscow and Washington were in a period of thawing relations after the brinkmanship of the 1960s and neither superpower was eager to see war break out in the region again. However, that did not prevent either superpower funneling arms, armor, and aircraft into their respective allies in anticipation of a potential conflict.

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Sources:
Abraham Rabinovich, The Yom Kippur War: The Epic Encounter that Transformed the Middle East, (2013)
Audrey Schul, The Yom Kippur War: The Arab-Israeli Conflict of 1973, (2015)
Daniel Gordis, Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn, (2016)
Mitch Ginsburg, ‘Prisoners, Still: The Ongoing Trauma of Yom Kippur War POWs’, The Times of Israel 25th September 2012, https://www.timesofisrael.com/prisone...
Treatment of Israeli POW’s in Syria and Their Status Under the Geneva Conventions, United States Congress House Committee on Foreign Affairs, (1974)
‘Israeli Documentary: Egyptians Killed Israeli POWs in 1973 War’, YT News, 19th March 2007, https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7...

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