What was the Yom Kippur war, and why is the Hamas attack on Israel being compared to it

Why is the current violence being compared with the Yom Kippur war?

For one, this has been the deadliest attack on Israel since the Yom Kippur war of 1973. Gunmen from Hamas carried out a rampage in Israeli towns on Saturday, killing at least 400 Israelis so far and abducting many civilians. In retaliation, Israeli strikes have killed at least 313 Palestinians. In the Yom Kippur war, more than 2,500 Israeli soldiers were killed.

The second similarity is the criticism within Israel for the state being found unprepared. The attack on Saturday came as a surprise, despite Israel’s advanced intelligence and interception systems. The Yom Kippur war, too, had found Israel unprepared, with many soldiers on leave because of Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement, the holiest day in Judaism.

Saturday’s attack came when many Israelis were preparing to observe Simchat Torah, which marks the end of the annual cycle of public Torah readings, and the beginning of a new one. The Torah constitutes the first five books of the Hebrew Bible.

What was the Yom Kippur war?

The Yom Kippur war, or the October war, or the Ramadan war, was fought between Israel on one side and Egypt and Syria on the other, from October 6 to 25, 1973. It is also called the Fourth Arab-Israeli war, coming after three wars in 1949, 1956, and 1967.

After its decisive victory in the Six-Day War of 1967, Israel had acquired an aura of invincibility, and also captured territories from its neighbours, including the Golan Heights from Syria and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt.

Six years later, the two countries launched a coordinated attack on Israel. While Israel was aware of troops mobilisation, it had not expected an attack in the Holy Islamic month of Ramadan. Caught by surprise, Israel took time to mobilise its own soldiers, many of whom were on leave for Yom Kippur. Thus, initially, both Syria and Egypt made some gains.

Israel was able to stem the advance on both Syrian and Egyptian sides after three days and soon launched its own counterstrikes. Meanwhile, the US and the Soviet Union stepped in to back Israel and Egypt-Syria respectively, and tensions between the superpowers escalated dangerously.

The first ceasefire, brokered by the UN on October 22, did not hold. However, by October 25, a lasting ceasefire had been arrived at, with Israel’s reputation of invincibility dented.

What is the significance of the Yom Kippur war?

If Israel managed to beat back both attackers, why is Yom Kippur still seen as a game-changer? This was because its scramble to rally troops initially, and the heavy casualties it suffered, made it clear that Israel could be battered, if not beaten, in battle. Six months after the war, Prime Minister Golda Meir and her cabinet resigned.

In fact, many analysts believe that Egypt’s strategy behind launching the attack was not necessarily to defeat the militarily superior Israel, but to bruise it enough to bring it to the negotiating table.

After the ceasefire, a peace process was set in motion. Under the 1978 Camp David Accords, Israel returned the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt. The 1979 Egyptian–Israeli peace treaty was the first instance of an Arab country recognising Israel as a state.

For Syria, however, the war brought no happy consequences. The Israel-Egypt peace deal had nothing for Syria, and Israel in fact ended up occupying even more of the strategically important and fertile plateau of Golan Heights, which it holds to this day.