THE YOM KIPPUR WAR

Why in the News?

The Yom Kippur war or the Ramadan war which started 50 years and reset equations in the Middle East forever is compared to the current attack of Hamas on Israel.

Why is the current violence being compared with the Yom Kippur war?

1. The current attack by Hamas has been the deadliest attack on Israel killing 400 Israelis so far since the Yom Kippur war of 1973.
2. In the Yom Kippur war, more than 2,500 Israeli soldiers were killed.
3. The second similarity is the unpreparedness of Israel for the attack.
4. Despite Israel’s advanced intelligence and interception systems, the Hamas attack came as a surprise which was similar to Yom Kippur war where Israel was unprepared, with many soldiers on leave because of Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement, the holiest day in Judaism.

What was the Yom Kippur war?

1. The Yom Kippur war, or the October war, or the Ramadan war, was fought between Israel on one side and Egypt and Syria on the other in 1973.
2. It is also called the Fourth Arab-Israeli war, coming after three wars in 1949, 1956, and 1967.
3. Israel witnessed a decisive victory in the Six-Day War of 1967 and also captured territories from its neighbours, including the Golan Heights from Syria and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt.
4. Six years later in 1973, the two countries launched a coordinated attack on Israel which was unexpected by the latter in the Holy Islamic month of Ramadan.
5. Israel took time to mobilise its own soldiers, many of whom were on leave for Yom Kippur and so both Syria and Egypt made some gains.
6. Israel was able to stem the advance on both Syrian and Egyptian sides after three days and soon launched its own counterstrikes. 
7. The US and the Soviet Union stepped in to back Israel and Egypt-Syria respectively, and tensions between the superpowers escalated dangerously.
8. A lasting ceasefire had been arrived at by October 25, brokered by the UN.

What is the significance of the Yom Kippur war?

1. Though Israel managed to beat back both attackers in the Yom Kippur war, it also made clear that Israel could be battered, if not beaten, in battle.
2. Six months after the war, Prime Minister Golda Meir and her cabinet resigned.
3. It is believed that Egypt’s strategy behind launching the attack was not necessarily to defeat the militarily superior Israel, but to bruise it enough to bring it to the negotiating table.
4. After the ceasefire, a peace process was set in motion.
   1. Under the 1978 Camp David Accords, Israel returned the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt.
   2. The 1979 Egyptian–Israeli peace treaty was the first instance of an Arab country recognising Israel as a state.
   3.  The Israel-Egypt peace deal had nothing for Syria, and Israel in fact ended up occupying even more of the strategically important and fertile plateau of Golan Heights, which it holds to this day.