Yom Kippur Research Paper

The surprise Arab attack on Israel from two fronts launched by Syrian and Egyptian forces commenced October 6, 1973. On this day every year the Jewish participate in the religious celebrations of Yom Kippur, also known as the Day of Atonement and the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. The Arabian forces intended to win back territory from Israel they had previously lost during the Arab-Israeli War of 1967 (History.com, 2009). Why did such a hostile attack from the Arabs occur and what was their incentive to seize the tiny nation of Israel? It can be debated that unresolved territorial conflict that arose from the previous Arab-Israeli war in 1967 was a catalyst for the fourth major military confrontation of Arabs and Israeli’s in the Yom Kippur

War of 1973, and was a demonstration of their ongoing religious hostility towards each other.
Religious intolerance and hostilities between the Jewish communities in Israel and the Arabs of Palestine unfolded aggressively with a failure to resolve territorial disputes after the outcome of the Six Day War.

Israel had become incredibly disconsolate after the elation of their victory in this war in 1967, due to the increasing rate of terrorism along with portentous threats from Egypt. Eleven Israeli athletes were murdered by Palestinian terrorists during the Munich Olympics in the summer of 1972 (American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, n.d.). Prayers were often recited by members of parliament, thousands of graves were dug, and even gas masks were distributed, all in fear of an Arab invasion (The Israeli Network, n.d.). Israel’s surrounding Arab states decided that rather than tolerating their loss, they would concoct a strategy to equalise the degradation of their defeat. In 1970, Anwar el-Sadat was elected president of Egypt where he found himself front-runner of a nation in the midst of an economically distressed period (History.com, 2009). Sadat initiated the opportunity to sign a peace agreement with Israel in 1971, on condition that that all of Israel’s newly-claimed territories were recovered. After declining the offer, Israel was thought to have “missed an opportunity to avoid war,” when in actual fact Sadat anticipated the ignored compromise and was prepared to “capitulate to Egyptian demands without any guarantee of peace” (American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, n.d.). No progress towards peace meant that Sadat would initiate a brutal war with narrow objectives, with the support from Syria, in order to “gain legitimacy” (Trautman,

1999).
“We are not against the Jews. On the contrary, we are all Semites and we have been living with each other in peace and fraternity, Muslims, Jews and Christians, for many centuries.” – Yasser Arafat, head of the PLO [Palestine Liberation Organisation] (Katz, n.d.).
This is a fraudulent statement made by the chairman of the PLO who spent much of his life fighting against Israel through means of terror in the name of Palestinian self-determination. Jews were never regarded as truly equal under any circumstance, and any personal successes or intermittent fortune was persecuted under Arab rule for the most part of Jewish history (Katz, n.d.). This information is credible however, in light of Joseph E. Katz and his profession as a Middle Eastern Political and Religious History Analyst.
A complete sequence of events surrounded The Yom Kippur War, making it a major military confrontation between Arabs and Israeli’s. When the sirens started blaring at 2 p.m. on the day of Yom Kippur – the holiest annual date for Jews – most of the nation were fasting in the comfort of their homes and the soldiers off their guards observing the Day of Atonement. The Suez Canal was crossed by the Egyptians as they later advanced through the Sinai Peninsula, and the Syrian military’s point of attack was the Golan Heights before entering deeper into Israel territory (The Israel Network, n.d.). With the objective of winning back lost territory in mind, this strategic attack was purposefully planned so as to have Israel unprepared and disadvantaged. With the aid of surrounding Arab nations (Iraq, Kuwait, Jordan, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Tunisia and Morocco), Egypt and Syria were confident in having the upper-hand (Trueman, 2005). The Arab troops did make extraordinary advances with their modernised weaponry brought about by the Soviets (History.com, 2009). Israel was entirely mobilised after several days, and at a heavy price of equipment and soldiers, the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) started to overtake the Arab movement. With this enormous loss of equipment and soldiers, the Israeli’s judged the government’s lack of preparation.
“The news of the imminent attack on Israel took us completely by surprise.”
“As recently as the day before, the CIA had reported that war in the Middle East was unlikely.” – U.S.A President Nixon (American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, n.d.). Nixon may have been capable of preventing, or at least reducing the impact of the war, through negotiation or even threats had the U.S. intelligence been notified of the Arab attack sooner. This perspective presents a strong demonstration towards the events that shaped this major military confrontation. A peace arrangement between Israel and Egypt was instigated by Dr. Henry Kissenger, the American Secretary of State. Both nations agreed to sign the interim treaty, settling and affirming the hostility in a peaceful method, putting an end to the further spill of blood. In 1981, Egypt’s leader, Sadat, was thought to have betrayed the Arab’s cause with this peace arrangement and was consequently assassinated by Muslim fundamentalists (Trueman, 2005). This war was faced with one traumatic event after another, producing a major encounter of armed forces.
The Yom Kippur War was a demonstration of religious hostility between the Israeli’s and Arab communities, and it impacted immensely on their relationship. When the war ended, somehow both Israel and Egypt declared a victory. The Arabs’ reliance on the Soviet Union exceeded after the war and their confidence was increased, whereas Israel became much more dependent on the U.S. for diplomatic, military and economic aid (Trautman, 1999). The actual war itself did not solve a thing, and only left behind a trail of consequences. The Israeli government fell, with many leaders having to resign including Golda Meir and Moshe Dayan, and there was well-over 2000 dead, with many thousands more wounded. For the first time in the political history of Israel, the Labour Party was forced to step down after three sequential decades of control, and Menachem Begin became the new leader. This war caused tremendous turmoil and according to Berel Wein and Yaakov Astor, co-authors of the Jewish history website, was the “darkest era for the Jewish people since the Holocaust.” (Wein and Astor, n.d.). The extensive qualifications of these authors’ deliver proof of reliability, as does the corroboration with a few other sources. “Israel has yet to fully understand the spiritual effects of the war that began on the Day of Atonement,” (The Israel Network, n.d.). This perspective was a media representation of the aftermath and impact that the Yom Kippur War has had on Israel and its people. To the secular and the religious, the war of Yom Kippur transformed Israel in countless conflicting ways.
Although the devastating effects of the Yom Kippur war and the prior torment before it have already been endured, the conflict still resonates today, forty years later, in the affairs of politics and religion. Previous conflict that occurred before the war of Yom Kippur was severely unresolved, which led to this aggressive uprise of Arabs against Israeli’s. The key events that surrounded the war shaped this overwhelming, major military confrontation. The 1973 war was a demonstration of the currently progressing religious hostility between the Jews of Israel and the Arabs of Palestine, which prompted the corrupt relationship between these two nations.