"Constitutes a close examination of the events leading up to the 1973 Arab-Israeli war and offers the first comparative analysis by Israeli, Egyptian, Jordanian, Syrian, American, and former Soviet military and diplomatic participants and scholars of that seminal event."-- Hermann F. Eilts, professor emeritus, Boston University, and former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia and Egypt Contents 1. Introduction 2. The Failure of Diplomacy 3. The Failures of Deterrence and Intelligence 4. The Airlift 5. Crisis Management 6. The Endgame 7. Lessons Learned and Puzzles to Be Solved 8. Summing Up The October War provides insiders' views of the politics and diplomacy of events leading up to and following the October, or Yom Kippur, War of 1973 between Egypt and Syria on one hand and Israel on the other, a turning point in the history of the modern Middle East. Offering fascinating insights into attitudes and processes, particularly in the United States but also in Israel and Egypt, the essays present firsthand accounts by senior officials--including U.S. Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger and Israeli ambassador to the United States Simcha Dinitz--and scholars from the United States, Israel, Egypt, Russia, Syria, and Jordan. This book evolved from a 25th anniversary conference on the war in which representatives of the combatants and their superpower supporters discussed, for the first time, the perceptions, motives, and mistakes of the various parties. These frank, often surprising accounts, interspersed with analytical commentary by scholars in the field, are an important contribution to the historical record and to future policy analysis. Readers will emerge with a new appreciation of the complexity of such questions as whether the war could have been avoided, why it came as such a surprise, and whether the opportunity for peace that developed afterward was fully exploited. Richard B. Parker, scholar-in-residence at the Middle East Institute in Washington, D.C., was a Foreign Service officer specializing in the Middle East from 1949 to 1980. He served as ambassador to Algeria, Lebanon, and Morocco in the Ford and Carter administrations. He is the author or editor of five books, including The Six-Day War: A Retrospective (UPF, 1996) and The Politics of Miscalculation in the Middle East.

Reports findings of a December 1973 Jerusalem Symposium assessing the trauma among the world's Jews (and non-Jews) during and following the October war.

This is the authoritative account of the Israeli army’s performance in the bitter Yom Kippur War of 1973. The origins of the war amid the turbulent history of competing powers in the Middle East are fully explored, as is the build-up of Arab forces that almost inexplicably caught Israel by surprise. The author then provides a gripping narrative of the conflict itself, punctuated by firsthand accounts and interviews with combatants. The War of Atonement is full of drama and tales of inspirational bravery, as Israel defied the odds to defeat the two-pronged invasion. An analysis of the political implications of the conflict bring this epic tale to a close. For this edition Chaim Herzog’s son, Brigadier General Michael Herzog, has written an introduction which places the book in the context of his father’s achievements and gives a revealing insight into the man himself. This is the most comprehensive work on a conflict that has had major implications for our own troubled times.

The Bar Lev Line along the Suez Canal was born out of the overwhelming victory of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in the Six Day War of 1967. Devastated by their defeat, the Egyptian army began a prolonged campaign of artillery bombardments of Israeli positions causing many casualties. Accordingly, the IDF Chief of Staff, General Haim Bar-Lev, ordered the construction of a series of fortified positions and observation posts that were named the Bar Lev Line by the Israeli press, thanks to its inevitable association with the heavily fortified Maginot Line. This book examines the original 23 positions of the Bar Lev Line, known as Moazims (Moaz is 'castle keep' in Hebrew), each of which were between five and 15 kilometers apart and surrounded by barbed wire and minefields. With rare photographs and cutaway artwork, the design of these positions is described. Finally, the author analyzes the effectiveness of these positions when the Egyptians launched an offensive on Yom Kippur 1973. Manned by just 436 reservists the Moazims were quickly cut off and the Israeli defenders paid a high price with a casualty rate of almost 50 percent. Although widely criticized, the Bar Lev Line proved a success during the war of attrition, and in 1973 it was the political and military failures which allowed the Moazims to be surrounded, rather than the failure of the defensive line itself.

An updated edition that sheds new light on one of the most dramatic reversals of military fortune in modern history. The easing of Israeli military censorship after four decades has enabled Abraham Rabinovich to offer fresh insights into this fiercest of Israel-Arab conflicts. A surprise Arab attack on two fronts on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, with Israel’s reserves un-mobilized, triggered apocalyptic visions in Israel, euphoria in the Arab world, and fraught debates on both sides. Rabinovich, who covered the war for The Jerusalem Post, draws on extensive interviews and primary source material to shape his enthralling narrative. We learn of two Egyptian nationals, working separately for the Mossad, who supplied Israel with key information that helped change the course of the war; of Defense Minister Moshe Dayan’s proposal for a nuclear “demonstration” to warn off the Arabs; and of Chief of Staff David Elazar’s conclusion on the fifth day of battle that Israel could not win. Newly available transcripts enable us to follow the decision-making process in real time from the prime minister’s office to commanders studying maps in the field. After almost overrunning the Golan Heights, the Syrian attack is broken in desperate battles. And as Israel regains its psychological balance, General Ariel Sharon leads a nighttime counterattack across the Suez Canal through a narrow hole in the Egyptian line -- the turning point of the war.