Wednesday, October 6, 2010

The Yom Kippur War 37 years later

Thirty seven years ago today a coalition of Arab armies invaded Israel during the holy day of Yom Kippur. Egypt and Syria, supplied with new Soviet armaments, crossed the 1967 ceasefire lines into the Israeli held Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights with the goal of recapturing territory lost in the Six Day War. Egyptian President Sadat showed his hand as early as 1972 when he announced that Egypt was committed to going to war with Israel and was prepared to "sacrifice" one million Muslims soldiers to that end. After early successes by the Egyptian military, Israel recovered and once again took the fight to the enemy. Many people do not realize how close the United States and the Soviet Union came to going to war with each other during this time of conflict in the Middle East. The Soviets threatened to go to war on the side of Egypt if the United States didn't compel the Israelis to adhere to the ceasefire. In the end Israel suffered about 2800 KIA and almost 9000 wounded. Although Egypt and Syria never released causality figures, it is thought that they lost a combined 15,000 KIA and some 35,000 wounded. Thirty seven years later, Muslim leaders are still willing to "sacrifice" millions of their own just to eliminate the state of Israel. Don't be surprised if we see another provocation soon, only this time the characters will be Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas. The Muslims will never learn their lesson up and until they are finally defeated in toto. Golda Meir was right when she said, "If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more violence. If the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel."







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