A series from The Jewish Story
The Yom Kippur War
Yom Kippur War part I - the context for surprise
March 4, 2021 · 40 min · Episode page →
If we call what happened in the 1967 a war of the spirit, then what occurred seven years later was a struggle of psychology. Here is the first...
About this series
If 1967 was a war of the spirit, what happened six years later was a struggle of psychology. Rav Mike tells the Yom Kippur War of 1973 in six parts, then adds two episodes on the aftermath, because the shock waves of this war run through Israeli society to this day.
The series starts with the context for surprise: a booming economy, the Israeli Black Panthers, a new leader in Egypt, and the can-do confidence of the Cherbourg boats affair. It then turns to the concept, the security paradigm that stopped Israel from seeing its danger almost until it was too late. The war opens with a stunning blow that nearly caused Golda Meir, Moshe Dayan and David Elazar to lose their way while ordinary soldiers held on for the life of the nation. The Valley of Tears, the American airlift and Ariel Sharon bring the recovery, and the end game plays out between Sharon and Henry Kissinger.
The last two episodes ask who actually won. One looks abroad, at the superpower confrontation, the Arab oil embargo and the peace process. The other looks home, at Israel’s first protest movement around Motti Ashkenazi, the cracks in the Labor government and the birth of the Likud.
Where this sits in the story
1971–1974 · 1 of 9 eras
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