Yom kippur war 1973 #The object in war is a better state of peace—even if only from your own point of view. Hence it is essential to conduct war with constant regard to the peace you desire. -B. H. Liddell Hart12 The Egyptian offensive set the stage for Sadat to achieve every one of the political and strategic objectives he had set for himself when he decided that there was no alternative but a limited war. He achieved his limited military objective: he established and successfully defended a foothold in the Sinai. This “victory” ultimately transformed the psychological basis of the stalemated negotiations and prodded the United States into pressuring Israel to relinquish the Sinai. Politically, Sadat’s “spark” succeeded in setting in motion the chain reaction he wanted in the Middle East. From the diversity and disunity of Arab politics, unity and effective Egyptian leadership emerged almost overnight. Arabs had rarely been as united as they were in the aftermath of Operation Badr, because from Egypt’s success they were able to reclaim some measure of the lost pride and honor that they had vainly sought for nearly twenty-five years. Until 6 October 1973 all their hopes of regaining lost territories had seemed equally forlorn: the disinterest of the superpowers and the dark shadow of Israel’s “invincible” army combined to paint for them a gloomy picture of the future, one of helpless impotence and acquiescence in Israel’s arrogant plans for Jewish “resettlement” in their territories. Sadat’s Yom Kippur War 12 B.H. Liddell Hart, Strategy, (London: Faber & Faber Ltd., 1967), 338. 18 forced the Arab-Israeli conflict to the top of the superpowers’ list of priority crises and induced them to resolve Egypt’s claims in a manner completely consistent with its national interest. These results were not immediate however. It took time, and the bite of the Sadat-inspired Arab oil embargo--the cutback in Arab oil production ultimately led Japan and the European community to endorse the Arab demands--before the United States compelled Israel to withdraw from the Sinai. More significant for the prospects of Middle East peace,
Posted on: Sun, 05 Oct 2014 12:30:34 +0000
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