'Yom Kippur' War shook 'Israel's' certainty, arrogance: Israeli media

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Israeli media
2 Oct 2023 10:05
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Former Israeli occupation commanders and soldiers recount to Israeli media their "traumatic" experience during the October 1973 War.

Israeli occupation forces take position with an anti-aircraft gun on the Syrian Golan Heights during the 1973 War on October 12, 1973 (AFP)

Israeli media discussed the impact of the October 1973 War on the Israeli occupation, emphasizing that it shook the confidence and arrogance that had been entrenched in "Israel".

During the war, Egypt and Syria sought to regain territory occupied by "Israel" during the Six-Day War in 1967, launching coordinated attacks against occupation positions in the Egyptian Sinai and the Syrian Golan Heights and catching the US-backed occupation off guard.

The Israeli i24NEWS website reported that "the joint attack – the Syrians rolling across the Golan Heights in the north, the Egyptians storming Israel’s fortifications along the Suez Canal in the south – punctured the certainty, even arrogance that had taken root in Israel."

It said the war that began with a surprise attack by Egyptian and Syrian forces on October 6, 1973, which coincided with the "Yom Kippur" Jewish holiday, was "one of the most traumatic events" in "Israel".

The website quoted Amnon Amikam, a former company commander during the war, as saying that the memories of the joint Egyptian-Syrian attack "are very strong."

Amikam admitted that back then, he felt that "Israel was in danger, there was a question mark over its existence. That is how I see it."

Just days before the war, despite increasing signs, the Israeli occupation military intelligence confidently thought that the chances of war were "lower than low," the Israeli website highlighted.

Similarly, i24NEWS quoted reserve Major-General Chaim Erez, who led the Israeli occupation's 421st Brigade during the war, as saying, "The day before the war broke out, I heard a lecture from a top intelligence officer. It ended with the assumption that since the Arab armies do not have a good response to the Israeli air force, there will not be a war in the coming years."

He continued, "I wasn't sure there would be a war, but I thought we have to do something. I called my deputy and told him to tell all the officers in the brigade to stay home next to the phone."

The phones did indeed ring the next day while Israeli settlers were commemorating "Yom Kippur", the website indicated, noting that although Israeli officers of the 421st brigade were prepared, the remainder of the army was not.

Oden Megido, an Israeli company commander at the time, told the Israeli website that when occupation soldiers arrived at the ammunition center, they found their tanks "completely dismantled".

"Suddenly, you see soldiers dying, soldiers injured. It's scary. For the first time, I realized there was such a thing as soldiers missing in action," former Israeli occupation officer Yair Geller said.

According to i24NEWS, 47 Israeli occupation soldiers and officers of the 421st brigade were killed in the 1973 war and hundreds were wounded.