The Yom Kippur War(October 1973)
"After the exhilaration of the victory in the Six-Day War in 1967, Israelis became increasingly dispirited. The growing level of terrorism, combined with increasingly ominous threats from Egypt, made peace seem further away than ever. Rather than reconciling themselves to Israel’s existence, the Arab states looked for a way to avenge the humiliation of their defeat. The Soviet Union was doing its share to stoke the flames of war by pouring arms into the region. And the Arab states in the Persian Gulf were beginning to take greater control of their oil resources and use the revenues to flex their political muscle. The Yom Kippur War began on October 6, 1973 when the combined armies of Egypt and Syria attacked Israel in the Suez Canal area and the Golan Heights. After a few days of hard fighting in which Egypt established itself on the eastern side of the Suez Canal and the Syrians captured most of the Golan Heights, the attack was halted and a counter-attack by Israel Defense Forces succeeded in pushing back some of the Egyptian forces, crossing the Canal and reaching within 101 kilometers of Cairo. On the Golan Heights, the Syrian forces were repulsed completely and IDF forces captured an enclave in the northern Heights deep in Syrian territory, as well as recapturing Mount Hermon. A cease-fire agreement was signed by Israel and Egypt on October 24, 1973. A separation-of-forces agreement was signed on January 18, 1974 in which the sides agreed to observe the cease-fire, made arrangements for the reduction of forces and established a UN emergency force in the demilitarized zone. Israeli forces withdrew to a distance of 20 kilometers east of the Suez Canal, and the Egyptian army withdrew most of its forces to the west of the Canal." - The Jewish Virtual Library |