Free Custom «The October 1973 War (Yom Kippur)» Essay Paper

The Yom Kippur War was fought from 6 to 25 October, 1973. The war was between Israel and a federation of Arab countries steered by Syria and Egypt. It started on Yom Kippur, which is the most holy day in Judaism when the federation opened a united surprise attack on Israel. According to Dunstan, this day was appropriate to them because they knew that the Israel soldiers were celebrating. Egyptian and Syrian armies crossed the ceasefire line at the Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights respectively with the backing of other Arab Nations. These two territories were captured by Israel since 1967 Six-Day War. The United States started enormous resupply efforts to Israel and the Soviet Union to the federation, a process that almost led to confrontation between the two superpowers. However, the Yom Kippur was a deep blow to Israel, though; they arose from the war having protected themselves from the federation.

Cause of the Yom Kippur War

After the 1967 Six Day War, Israel captured territories from Egypt that resulted to hatred between the two nations. After President Nasser of Egypt passed on in 1970, President Sadat succeeded him. He tried to steer a peace treaty on Israel several times, but Israel seemed as if it was ignoring him. Trying to be a leader of Arab countries, he had given Israel condition on signing the treaty based on returning all the territories they had captured during 1967 the six day war. In addition, he was interested in the Sinai oil ground that he thought were significant to his deteriorating economy, but continued to be under the control of the Israel. In 1971, he began to put pressure on Israel directly by threatening war. He accepted withdrawal from the threats is Israel surrendered the Sinai Peninsula. In 1972, Sadat expanded his efforts of forcing Israel to sign the treaty by involving the United States.

Unfortunately, Sadat failed to get the support he needed from the United States. In consent with the Soviet Union, he made a sequence of moves that were meant to deceive Israel and the United States into thinking that pressures had been withdrawn and relationship of Egypt and the Soviet Union was unstable. To prove instability, Egypt excluded their Soviet military advisors and proclaimed that Soviet were unwilling to supply improved weapons, which could be used to attack Israel. With all these effort of deceiving Israel and United States, Israel did not sign treaty with the Egypt. Egyptians coordinated efforts with Syria and prepared a surprise attack on Israel in 1973 during the Yom Kippur.

Role of Egypt

Egypt being the main attacker of Israel had numerous roles in Yom Kippur war. According to Martz, the Egyptian forces were to conduct many procedures meant to condition the Israelis to organization, force buildup, and exercises along the Suez front without causing anxiety. They were supposed to recapture the Sinai Peninsula from Israel. They were to cross the Suez Canal, overrun the Israeli troops, and take control of the Sinai Peninsula. They had deployed approximately seventy thousands troops to attack the five hundred Israelis who were stationed along the Bar Lev Line. The Egyptian troops kept on trying to push through the Suez Canal but the Israeli troops had a strong defense compared to Egypt. As the fight continued, the Israeli defense became stronger and eventually destroyed the vital strategic targets of their enemy. As a result, the Egyptian military was unable to complete its mission of returning the Sinai Peninsula under their control through military deliberations.

The Role of Syria

In collaboration with Egypt, Syria was to conduct its own deception strategy before the Yom Kippur war that would make the Israeli intelligence misjudge the real build-up to the opening attacks. The Syrian army was to attack the Israeli protectors with one thousand and one hundred Syrians tanks, and rapidly spread the perimeters of the Golan Height while aiming at Hula Basin. Since they were 1,100 Syrians tanks against 157 Israeli tanks, they had an advantage of numbers over the Israeli. With the permission of the Egyptians, the Soviet soldiers that were excluded by the Egypt were transferred to Syria to assist them in the war. Even though, they had all these advantages, six Syrians were able to grab only one Israeli protection. The Syrians failed to attain any territory at the end of the war and their army suffered serious losses of labor and equipment. Syria did not achieve its aim of recapturing Golan Heights from Israel because the latter had very strong defense.

Visit of President Sadat to Israel and Camp David Accords

In 1977, the Egyptian President, Sadat visited Israel where he shared his idealism on peace in order to negotiate with the Israeli Prime Minister, Menachem Begin. Sixteen months after deep negotiations between the two principals, the Camp David accord was signed. According to Rabinovich, the Camp David peace agreements were the result of thirteen days of powerful meditations at the US presidential sanctuary of Camp David. In the accord, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, and the legislatures of the Palestinian people were supposed to work together to the resolution of their preceding issues in a tranquil manner. Secondly, Egypt, Israel, and Jordan were to agree on situations of creating an elected self- governing expert over the West Bank and Gaza. Finally, they were supposed to be dependent upon the conclusion of establishing a self- government expert.

Egypt- Israel Treaty

Egypt and Israel signed a Peace Treaty on 26 March 1979 after Camp David Accords. Israel Prime Minister, Menachem Begin, and Egyptian President, Anwar Sadat signed the treaty. The witness was Jimmy Carter, then the President of United States of America. The main agreements in the treaty were the mutual recognition of each nation by the other. Both states were required to recognize each other’s sovereignty and independence. This treaty saw the termination of a thirty-year war between Egypt and Israel. From 1948, when Israel claimed their motherland, they were involved in constant warfare and conflict with Israel. Israel agreed to withdraw its army from the Sinai Peninsula, a territory that once belonged to Egypt. Israel had taken the Sinai Peninsula after 1967’s Six Day War. Egypt also agreed to leave the Sinai Peninsula without the guard of its military. The accord also dictated that Israeli ships could be allowed to pass freely through the Suez Canal. In addition to that Israel accepted that the Strait of Tiran, Taba-Rafah and the Gulf of Aqaba as international waterways. Under the treaty, Egypt became the first Arab nation to recognize Israel as a sovereign nation. In the following years, Egypt received aid worth billions of dollars from the United States. Trade between the two nations started and Egypt started to supply Israel with crude oil. In addition to that, international flights between the nations were started and they exchanged Ambassadors by the beginning of 1980.

Failure of other parts of Camp David Accords

The Accords needed an Islamist party in Egypt to protect the agreements. If an Islamist party is not in power, the agreements may be put into trash.