YOM KIPPUR, OR THE DAY OF ATONEMENT for previous sins, is the holiest day in the Jewish religious calendar; and it was on this day in 1973, that the Arab world decided to strike without warning at Israel’s defences; and very nearly accomplished their ambition of overpowering the Jewish state; and it was this very element of surprise that so nearly reaped such rich rewards for the Arab coalition of Egypt and Syria.
On the day of Yom Kippur, all Jews including those in the military, observe the rituals that includes prayer. So on October 6th 1973, the synagogues were full of members of the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) when Egypt and Syria launched their offensive.
The population of Israel is now some seven million people; back then it was less and the IDF was literally a citizens’ army of factory workers, teachers, farmers and small businessmen, with a small professional backbone overseeing the whole military apparatus.
Because, in Israel, military service will always remove people from the country’s manufacturing base; the economy was bound to suffer if Israel had to fight a prolonged engagement: and in 1973 such a prospect threatened. For those who see Israel as the Goliath in that part of the world threatening her much weaker neighbours - as I believe many young people on the Left do; should consider Israel’s real position.
What saved Israel then was the determination of a much vilified President Nixon who was prepared to match the Soviet Union’s ambitious resupplying of the Arab armies, by ordering a commensurate response from America to that of the Soviets.
The Soviet Union was keeping up a round the clock rearmament of Arab forces. As the Israelis swatted tank after tank and destroyed countless pieces of hardware, the Soviet Union continued to fly in replacements and this continued 24/7 from October 6th- 25th when, by the 24th, the Israelis had managed to completely surround the Egyptian Third Army, when a second, and this time successful ceasefire was arranged.
What has become known as the Yom Kippur War amounted to a wakeup call for Israel. She needed America’s help to ward off what would have meant the certain destruction of the state of Israel had her enemies won. But Israel cannot, and know they cannot, rely upon the American cavalry to continue come to their rescue – especially President Obama.
THIS IS THE MONTH during which the Day of Atonement takes place and serves not only as a reminder to do penitence, but also serves as an aide memoire of that fateful day when the state of Israel was confronted with its own demise. For the Jews of Israel, Yom Kippur now has two equally important meanings. The first is of course the traditional meaning. But the second, is always to be on your guard at your most vulnerable time or face extinction as a nation.
While Israel has few friends among the political elite and literati in Europe; she enjoys more support than she realises among the ordinary people who have been ignored by their politicians. In the UK for instance, there are many who admire Israel and her fight for the survival of her nation state. The UK now faces the prospect of being deprived of her nationhood by being reduced to nothing more than a canton within Europe; and such an outrage has occurred without the British people being given any kind of voice on the subject.
I admire Israel because she still holds the defence of nationhood close to her breast. In her short history, she has sacrificed many of her citizens lives to keep a Jewish state in being, and it will require many more before the state of Israel can rest easily. Her citizens have, up until now, appreciated the sacrifices they must make in order to solidify their nationhood. Israel’s founding fathers had the Holocaust to inspire their scarifies in the creation of the first Jewish state for nearly 2,000 years. Today’s generation of Israeli Jews must be prepared to sacrifice themselves to hold onto what their grandparents and great grandparents’ achieved.
The 1973 Yom Kippur War taught a bitter lesson to the Israeli state. The Arab world would never give up in its attempt to drive the Jews from the Middle East. The so-called two state solution whereby the West hopes that an Israeli state can coexist alongside a Palestinian state, depends upon the acceptance of the right for a an Israeli state to exist among the Palestinians of both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
Such a right has never been sanctioned, either by Hamas or Abass; yet daily, pressure is being put upon the Israelis by her so-called allies to come to an accommodation with the Palestinians.
Never in its short history has Israeli faced such uncertain times. Once the Arab Spring has settled into some kind civil society in those countries that have been part of it; will Israel then become their main focus? Already Egypt has shown its hostility, by suggesting that the Camp David Accords are not written in stone, suggesting in effect, that they can be rescinded by a new democratic government not bound by any decision made on the Egyptian people’s behave, by what was, after all, a dictatorship.
Israel needs the support of its closest ally more than ever. A possible resurgent and belligerent Arab world that could be spiced with Islamism, should cause President Obama to publicly reassert its unequivocal allegiance to the Jewish state.
If every Palestinian faction in Gaza and the West Bank gave Israel what it wants more than anything else, then a two state solution would be possible. But until the Palestinians acknowledges the right of the state of Israel to exist as a Jewish homeland, and negotiate accordingly; why should Israel enter any arrangement that does not include its own right to exist? In this month of Atonement, president Obama would be well advised to study the events surrounding this same month in 1973, and how unreliable any agreement can be that is made without the legitimacy of the Israeli state at the centre of it.
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