Lesson 6: The Crossing Epic of the October 1973 War and the Recovery of National Sovereignty

• After the June 1967 war Israel occupied Egyptian, Syrian and Jordanian territory.
• The Arab states realised that the Israeli threat menaced them all, and held the Khartoum Summit (August 1967).
• The summit resolved that the Arabs must unite to repel aggression and that the wealthy Arab states must finance the confrontation states — Egypt, Syria and Jordan.

UN Security Council Resolution 242

• Issued in November 1967: it requires Israel's withdrawal from Arab territory occupied in the 1967 war.
• It also requires ending the state of war, respecting the sovereignty of every state in the region and its right to live in peace.
• The UN appointed a special envoy to contact the parties and reach a peaceful settlement.
• Egypt accepted the resolution, but Israel worked to thwart the international effort and pressed on with settlements in the occupied territory.

• Egypt did not lose its resolve; it moved in two complementary directions:
  • intensifying diplomacy to convince the world of the Arabs' right to liberate their land and of the Palestinian people's right to self-determination;
  • preparing the state for war.

Preparing for war

• The armed forces were supported with funds, modern weapons and manpower.
• President Anwar El-Sadat — in office after the death of Gamal Abdel Nasser in September 1970 — worked to unify the home front and enacted the permanent constitution of 1971.
• Arab relations were cleared of distrust, disputes settled, ranks closed, and the military plan coordinated between Egypt and Syria.

• War of Attrition: the name given by President Nasser to the military operations between the Egyptian forces and the Israeli enemy east of the Suez Canal; it lasted three years.
• Definition: an intermittent war designed to exhaust the enemy and drain his resources.

The political leadership's aims after 1967

• rebuilding the armed forces;
• restoring the soldiers' confidence in themselves and in their commanders;
• retraining the troops and reorganising the units.
• Then came the phase of steadfastness, followed by the War of Attrition.

Its results

• It inflicted heavy losses on the Israeli fortifications, weapons and personnel.
• Military experts hold that it paved the way for the October victory: between June 1967 and October 1973 the Egyptian command rebuilt the army on scientific foundations and erected the missile wall.
• Among its most famous martyrs is Field Marshal Abdel Monem Riad.

• After every political effort failed, and because Israel remained obstinate and insisted on keeping all the territory occupied in June 1967, Egypt decided to go to war to liberate the land.
• It was done with tight organisation together with the Syrian forces under the Unified Command, whose overall commander was Field Marshal Ahmed Ismail Ali.
• Coordination between the Egyptian and Syrian fronts was planned with complete precision and skill.
• The deception plan succeeded so well that Israel's attention was turned away from the offensive preparations; the surprise was total and what happened was described as "an earthquake in Israel".

The leadership

• Operations began at 2 p.m. on 6 October 1973 (10 Ramadan 1393 AH) at the same hour on both the Egyptian and Syrian fronts, in four main stages.

Stage 1 — achieving the armed forces' basic mission

• 1. The comprehensive air strike: at 2 o'clock Egyptian aircraft crossed the Canal eastward to hit targets deep in Sinai — the enemy's command centre, airfields and air bases, anti-aircraft missile sites, long-range artillery, administrative areas and Fort Budapest, one of the Bar Lev forts east of Port Said. The strike, led by the Air Force commander, destroyed the enemy's main command centre and paralysed his capabilities.
• 2. The artillery preparation: at 2:05 one of the largest artillery preparations in history began along the whole front line, inflicting maximum damage on Israeli targets, forcing the enemy into shelters and thus facilitating the crossing and the siege of the Bar Lev forts.
• 3. Assaulting the Suez Canal:
  • tank-hunting groups crossed first in rubber boats to destroy enemy tanks and stop them intervening;
  • the first waves crossed in wooden and rubber boats, with light anti-tank weapons and shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles, carrying rope ladders to climb the sand rampart;
  • the leading troops raised the Egyptian flag on the eastern bank, announcing the battle for the liberation of Sinai, with the soldiers crying Allahu Akbar;
  • engineer units opened 60 gaps in the sand rampart using pumps that drew water from the Canal to wash the sand away;
  • bridge units assembled the bridges, and tanks, tracked vehicles and heavy equipment poured across to the eastern bank;
  • when the enemy recovered and his aircraft appeared, the air defence faced them and Israeli aircraft fell one after another through 6 and 7 October; by the evening of 6 October the Israeli air commander ordered his aircraft not to approach the Canal.

Stage 2 — developing the offensive eastward (14 October)

• Syria achieved notable success, so Israel concentrated its effort against her and bombarded the Syrian command in Damascus.
• Egypt hastened to develop the offensive in Sinai to relieve pressure on Syria: an air attack on enemy targets deep in Sinai on the morning of 14 October, followed by concentrated artillery bombardment.
• On the same day the fiercest air battles were fought over the Delta sky: the enemy sent 70–80 aircraft against Egyptian airfields; Egyptian aircraft intercepted them and fifteen Israeli aircraft were lost. This is counted among the most glorious days of the Air Force.

Stage 3 — repelling the Israeli counter-attack east of the Canal (15–17 October)

• Israel massed large armoured forces supported by infantry, air force and artillery and attacked the middle of the front on 15 October; the Egyptian forces frustrated the attack and inflicted heavy losses.
• The enemy kept pushing waves until he opened a gap in the Egyptian defences at El-Defsouar, south of Ismailia — after American intelligence revealed an empty space between the Second and Third Armies.

Stage 4 — confronting the enemy forces west of the Canal (18–24 October)

• Israel pushed forces west of the Canal, trying to seize a strategic objective before a ceasefire resolution was issued.
• It tried to take Ismailia and then Suez city on 24 October, but the stubborn resistance of the Egyptian army and the popular resistance inside Suez defeated the attack.
• On 22 October the Security Council issued a ceasefire resolution; Egypt and Israel declared acceptance, but Israel broke it.
• Despite two further Security Council resolutions on 23 and 25 October, Israel attacked Suez again on 28 October and the assault shattered against Egyptian defence.
• The Israeli forces west of the Canal were encircled from all sides and became a target threatened with annihilation but for the ceasefire.

• They stormed the Suez Canal and destroyed the Bar Lev line, establishing on the eastern bank a bridgehead about 15 km deep.
• Hundreds of Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles were destroyed.
• The army achieved its basic mission within about 18 hours of the crossing.

• The war was a unique event and a turning point in the Arab–Israeli conflict: Israel suffered a strategic surprise that cost its army and its intelligence service — one of the ablest in the world — its self-confidence.
• The Egyptian forces undermined the foundations of Israel's combat doctrine and achieved mobility, manoeuvre and air superiority over the battlefield.
• It proved that natural and artificial obstacles and strong fortifications cannot stop modern armies when resolve and will exist.
• The balance of power in the Middle East was reversed; after 1967 Israel had relied on qualitative superiority and modern technology.
• The Arab fighter proved competent to master and use modern complex weapons.
• Egypt's air defence proved effective in limiting Israeli air superiority, and anti-aircraft missiles proved their importance.
• Concentration of force was among the most important principles of war; the concentrated air strike unbalanced the enemy from the first moments.
• Developing states without a war industry must hold an adequate stock of weapons, because great powers may control the decision to continue fighting.
• The war ended the "no peace and no war" state and opened the door to a peace in the Middle East.

Arab solidarity

• Nine states gave military support to Egypt and Syria: Iraq, Algeria, Libya, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Sudan, Kuwait and Tunisia.
• The Gulf states, Saudi Arabia and Algeria decided to give financial support.
• Saudi Arabia gave $200 million to Egypt and $50 million to Syria; Qatar contributed $15 million to Egypt plus material aid in medicines.
• The Algerian president Boumedienne, during his visit to the Soviet Union, placed $200 million at the disposal of each of Egypt and Syria with the Soviet government to procure what they needed of arms.

Oil as a political weapon

• The Arab oil-producing states decided to cut production, then declared a full embargo on the United States and the Netherlands.
• The embargo caused panic in the West, the United States and Japan, which pressured the US to respond to Arab rights.
• It was a shock for the US that some NATO states refused landing facilities for its aircraft, while others apologised or refused, fearing Arab reaction and wishing to keep the oil.

Diplomatic isolation in Africa

• Twenty-two African states severed diplomatic relations with Israel, in addition to eight that had already done so after June 1967 — so Israel was isolated in Africa.

• President Sadat began to consider a civilised initiative to resolve the conflict, and took these steps:
• The visit to Jerusalem in November 1977, in which he called for a lasting and just peace in the region and for sparing coming generations the miseries of war.
• Recognition of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.

• The US president Jimmy Carter invited President Sadat and Menachem Begin, prime minister of Israel, to meet at Camp David.
• It ended with a framework for peace based on:
  • complete withdrawal from Sinai;
  • normalisation of relations between Egypt and Israel;
  • securing the legitimate rights of the Palestinians, by having Jordan and Palestinian representatives determine the future of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, preceded by an end to Israeli military administration.

• Concluded between Egypt and Israel with the participation of the United States. Its most important terms:
• Ending the state of war, refraining from the threat of war and settling the dispute by peaceful means.
• Complete Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula.
• Recognition of the sovereignty of each party over its own land.
• Establishing normal political, economic and cultural relations between the two countries.
• Creating limited demilitarised zones on both sides of the border, deeper on the Sinai side.
• Beginning self-governance negotiations for the West Bank and Gaza one month after ratification.
• The foundation on which both Camp David (1978) and the 1979 treaty were built is Security Council Resolution 242 of 1967.

• Both sides were keen to implement the text of the treaty.
• The dispute over certain boundary markers between Egypt and Israel ended with the ruling of the International Arbitration Commission in 1989 affirming Egypt's right to the strip of Taba and other boundary points, so Egypt returned to its former borders.
• On Palestinian rights, about which the Camp David dialogue turned, each side held to its position.
• The matter ended in arrangements between the Palestinians and Israel at Oslo in Norway, and in dialogue between Arab parties and Israel at Madrid in Spain, with Egypt sponsoring these talks together with the United States.
• A national Palestinian authority was declared in Gaza and Jericho.

• The War of Attrition, the careful preparation and the deception plan paved the way for the October victory.
• The crossing began at 2 p.m. on 6 October 1973 and the Egyptian forces achieved their mission in about 18 hours.
• The armed forces smashed the Bar Lev line and established bridgeheads east of the Canal.
• Oil was used as a political weapon, Arab solidarity was achieved and Israel was isolated.
• The war led to the peace initiative, Camp David, the 1979 treaty, and the return of Sinai and Taba.