The Yom Kippur War Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

The Yom Kippur War - Essay Example The decision of Israel was to be handed over by the U.S, government to the Arab states. The U.S. was informed about the decision but not to hand it over to the Arabs. There was no evidence of receipt neither Egypt nor Syria, who in fact never received the offer. It was kept closely guarded within the government of Israel, which was withdrawn in October 1967. Like anyone who lost a property, Egypt and Syria craved to regain the land they lost during the Six-Day War. Nevertheless, a summit issued the â€Å"three no’s† resolving there will be â€Å"NO peace, NO recognition and NO negotiation with Israel.† This is the Khartoum Arab Summit. (2) Convincing allies and non-allies to join you in war is not an easy thing to do not to mention the consequences these entail. The Iraqis turned down the idea of joining the preliminary attack. Syria had a tensed relationship with Iraq, so getting Iraq’s aid was unsuccessful. Lebanon was not expected to join the war since they share a border with Israel, not to mention the small army they had. (3) But nevertheless, Sadat did not lose hopes in getting aid from other countries. A few months before the war, Sadat was engaged in a tactful, diplomatic, and suave offensive to try to win support for war. He claimed the support of more than a hundred states. These countries were mostly of the Arab League, Non-Aligned Movement, and Organization of African Unity. He also got the support of Europe and for the first time, Britain and France sided with the Arabs against Israel on the UN Security Council. II. Pre-Event Actions The suave offensive of Sadat, which won the aid of other countries, materialized. Long before the war broke out, the Iraqis transferred a squadron of hunter jets to Egypt. A division of 18,000 men and hundreds of tanks were deployed in the central Golan. Their MiGs began operating on the third day of the war. (4) Kuwait and Saudi Arabia committed their men to battle aside from serving as financial underwriters. A brigade from Saudi of approximately 3000 troops was sent off to Syria where it engaged in fighting to Damascus. Libya sent Egypt a number of Mirage fighters and from 1971-1973, President Muammar Qadaffi gave Cairo more than $1 billion to support their thirst for regaining Egypt and for payment to the weapons delivered by the Soviets. (5) Support came so overwhelmingly. North African countries responded to the thirst of Egypt. Soviet commanded an aid for the frontline states. An armored brigade and 150 tanks were sent by Algeria together with three aircraft squadrons of bombers and fighters. Almost 2000 Tunisian soldiers were deployed along the Nile Delta, 3500 troops from Sudan in southern Egypt and 3 brigades to the front lines from Morocco including 2500 men to Syria. III. The Event On the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, October 6, 1973, Egypt and Syria opened a coordinated surprise attack against Israel, which was named "The Yom Kippur War." The warships at par with those of NATO's in Europe were mobilized on the borders of Israel. Israel with approximately 180 tanks surprisingly faced an onslaught of 1400 tanks from Syria and their almost 500 defenders were attacked by 80,000 Egyptians. (6) The Israeli Intelligence, known as one of the most aggressive and successful intelligence networks in history seemed to fail this time. The Arabs had more time in planning the war against Israel. They incorporated a fine use of deception and disinformation to disguise their furiously deadly intent. On the other hand, Israel had been