PANDEMIC LESSONS FROM YOM KIPPUR WAR
The secrets of Yom Kippur war are still hidden from the Israeli public. Why, and what does it has to do with the actions of governments around the world regarding the "pandemic"?
By Ehden Biber
1973's Yom Kippur war was the worst failure of the Israeli army. The Arab forces who attacked Israel caught the Israeli society by surprise, and Israel was in existential threat.
What really happened is still kept a secret.
To non-Israelis it is hard to grasp the shock that this war caused the Israeli society.
Yom Kippur is the holiest day for Jews. People fast, spend their day in the synagogue praying. No Radio or TV. This is when Egypt and Syria attacked.
Worse than the worst-case scenario: The dreadful hours before the Yom Kippur War
The shock of the war was mainly driven by the fact that this war occurred 6 years after Israel won in a huge landslide The Six Days War in 1967, where Israel managed to surprise and defeat the Arab armies that were planning to invade it and, according to their promises, annihilate it, which made many Israelis sure the end is coming.
Israel, which was under constant threat of invasion, suddenly felt euphoria. It now had control over the Golan heights, the west bank, and the Sinai Peninsula. The Israeli army line on the Suez Canal were fortified. Jews were free to visit the sacred Western Wall in Jerusalem.
In 1973, a week before the war, Egyptian army staged a week-long training exercise next to the Suez Canal. Israeli intelligence dismissed it as a training exercises. Movements of Syrian troops towards the border were also detected, Israeli intelligence again dismissed it.
The war started as a disaster. In the south, the fortified line on the Suez Canal collapsed. The Egyptian army rushed into the Sinai Peninsula. In the north, The Syrians tanks rushed into the Golan heights and there was not enough forces to stop them. The end looked so near.
The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), which was the hero of The Six Days War, has suffer huge losses: it lost 102 airplanes, 600 Israeli tanks were destroyed, but the worst part was the number of casualties: 2,800 died, 8,800 were wounded, 293 Israelis were captured.
After Israel barely won the war, a commission was created to identify the failures.
The commission, led by a judge name Agranat, known as Agranat Commission, has never released all of the information it has gathered and the testimony it has received.
How bad was the failure?
Documents declassified on 45th anniversary show Mossad Egyptian source suggested day before attack that Israel make public Arab states’ plans in order to deter them. He was ignored.
Yaakov Hisdai (יעקב חיסדאי) commanded in 1973 a military force that fought during the war. He got wounded and was decorated for his heroism.
After the war Hisdai was appointed as a military investigator for the commission.
10 years ago he was interviewed about his work.
During the interview, Hisdai said that the Agranat Commission was created to buy time for those in power, due to elections about to take place, to act as a pain killer for the Israeli public. It wasn't created to seek the truth, that everyone had their own reasons for it.
After Hisdai made that statement, he spoke about the fact that the information which was exposed to the commission has not been fully exposed to the public, that it included extremely sensitive information.
Hisdai explained that in 1982 there was a demand to publish the information. The Israeli president at that time, Yitzhak Navon, went to the prime minister at that time, Menachem Begin, and has advised the PM NOT to release the report.
Begin accepted his suggestion.
Begin said the reason he didn't want to open the report to the public was to prevent the public a trauma. Begin, who headed The Likud super-party, which combined his own party, was not part of the 1973 government, and had bitter rivalry with labour party which was in power.
During the interview, Hisdai was asked what, to his opinion, was the reason the information that was shared with the commission has never been published, and why the Likud didn't publish it.
He shared the story I've mentioned above, and then said the following:
"It teaches you one thing: When it comes to Yom Kippur War, even though there are sharp differences between The Likud and the Labour party, and even though The Likud party was not responsible for the war, the way they looked at the war was similar. They saw in the war a horrible failure, that destroyed the euphoria (that existed in Israel after the huge victory of the Six Days War in 1967), that everyone who is heading Israel want the people to live with, and you need to prevent the people from that suffering”.
Here’s a link to the full interview:
In a video of Yaakov Hisdai uploaded a month ago, he commented on the protest against the attempt to reform the judiciary system, and he identified the SAME FAILURES OF THE PROTESTS AFTER YOM KIPPUR WAR, which didn't address the root cause of the war!
The Israeli "democratic" system, according to Hisdai, is broken, and the only way is to revise the whole system. Hisdai tried in the late 80s and 90s to call for a constitution, via a political movement he founded (Laor), but his party was not elected to be in the Knesset.
BACK TO "OUR" "PANDEMIC".
Let us paraphrase Hisdai's words:
When it comes to the "pandemic", even though there are sharp differences between political parties, and even though one party might not been in power while it occurred, the way all politicians look at it is similar. Politicians sees the events related to the "pandemic" and the severe damage to people and to the society as a horrible failure that destroyed the euphoria of the public in their institutions/economy, one that everyone who is heading a country wants the people to live with. Today, instead of "preventing the people from realising how bad it was", our politicians has been substituted it with "mistakes were made" and "it's time to move on".
THESE ARE THE SAME EXCUSES THAT WERE GIVEN IN ISRAEL BY PEOPLE IN POWER, WHO DIDN'T WANT TO "ROCK THE BOAT".
Similarly to what has happened after Yom Kippur war, NONE of the Israeli politicians is willing to open this can of worms. NONE of them is willing to go after those who led us into this mess, this time because ALL of the Israeli politicians took part of these atrocities!
In 1973 Israel was invaded by military forces. Since 2020 Israelis were betrayed by its "leaders" who are allowing a hostile takeover, causing total annellation of the rights and freedoms of Israelis, causing huge injuries and death to many Israelis with ZERO accountability.
ISRAEL AND THE WORLD must remember the lesson from Yom Kippur war:
Lack of investigation into the root cause of failures, and avoidance of truth because it is going to impact a lot of people, especially people in powerful positions, is a recipe for a disastrous future !!!
Addendum:
We know some of the truth via the work of historians.
Based on their findings, my constitutionalist root cause analysis is that the failure was caused by the fact that the structure of Israeli democracy is not based on a constitution, which gives those at the head of the government absolute power.
Ehden Biber, 2023.
I am still a little confused. The Israeli response to the Yom Kippur pre-warnings was to ignore it. They got harmed badly but no one is to talk about it negatively because they wanted the Israeli people to continue in a euphoria generated by a previous success? ... Live in delusion you great Israelis 👍 because euphoric belief in falsehoods is a good thing? Is that the gist Ehden?
I used to believe in the so-called democracy.
My great grandfather was Jew from Poland and fled to the UK in the late 1930's and later came to South Africa. All the time fighting for the British. My dad fought for the British too, he was not a Jew as his mother was Christian. His sister converted and married a Jewish man, so we had close relationships with our Jewish side of the family. So we always had one view, that which was taught.
Then we had before that of course the Anglo Boer war, thinking back and seeing what the British did here to both Black and Afrikaner White was always on my mind. Then I saw the Americans and British turn on South African's and blamed them for apartheid. They had to done the same thing during the Angolan, Rhodesian, Mozambican to those people.
But after seeing the Brits in action again with the US democrat's against the Syrian, Arabs and now against the Russians who were partners against Hitler, yet support another Hitler Wannabe Zelenskii, and seeing NATO I have woken up.
Democracy is a complete farce. Secrets are hidden here too