OneManGang
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I found myself finishing this book just as Israeli operations began against Hizbollah in Lebanon. Timely, no?
The Eve of Destruction: The Untold Story of the Yom Kippur War
Howard Blum. New York: HarperCollins, 2003. 350 pp. Ill. Notes. Bib. Index. $25.95.
In the beginning there was The Contact, and the Contact begat The In-Law, and the In-Law begat The Concept, and the Concept begat disaster.
On October 6. 1973 an Egyptian force of over 300,000 men backed by 2000 tanks, massed artillery, and covered by a multi-layered air defense system of anti-aircraft missiles and guns shielding them from the Israeli Air Force, crossed the Suez Canal. Facing them was a line of Israeli fortifications, the much-ballyhooed Bar-Lev Line. The Press had made much of the line and Israelis slept peacefully in there beds confident that the forts and firing positions would hurl any Arab crossing attempt into the Abyss much as Moses had lowered his arms and the water covered Pharaoh and his horses and his chariots and charioteers. Reality was far different. The total Israeli presence on the canal that fateful day: 465 men and three M-48 tanks.
Things were no better on the Northern Front. The 150 or so Centurion tanks of the Israeli 7th Armored Brigade and its sister 188th Brigade were tasked with covering the Golan Heights and keeping the Syrians out of the fertile valleys below. They were arrayed along the Purple Line. Again, this was painted as a stout defense. Again reports were much exaggerated. Col. Avigdor Kahalani , a battalion commander in the crack Israeli 7th Armored Brigade, often walked up and shook The Purple Line a chain-link fence. Unbeknownst to Col. Kahalani, a Syrian force of 150,000 men and 1400 tanks were putting the final touches on preparations for an attack timed to coincide with the Egyptian attack along the Suez Canal. The vanguard of the Syrian forces were Republican Guard divisions mounted on the formidable Soviet-built T-62 tank with its impressive 115mm smoothbore cannon - the most powerful tank gun in the Middle East.
Still, right up until the Syrian tanks crushed the fence and Egyptian tank-infantry teams appeared in the midst of the Bar-Lev Line, The Concept told the Israeli high command there was nothing to fear. There would be no war. The Concept was always right. If one questioned The Concept, there would be consequences.
Howard Blum has done an admirable job of weaving together the disparate threads that brought Israel to the brink of disaster in 1973, to the brink of ordering last-ditch nuclear attacks on Damascus and Cairo. The story reads like a Greek tragedy, full of bickering generals, bickering politicians, double-dealing agents, plots and sub-plots, prophets and prophecies ignored, nefarious doings of all kinds and hubris on a massive scale.
But there is another side to the story. There is the tale of valor, courage, skill in battle and sacrifice by soldiers on both sides who struggled and died for nameless sand dunes, valleys and basalt rock formations. Then too, there is love the love of Lt. Col. Yossi Ben-Amon and his new bride Nati married less than a month before the war and still on their honeymoon in India when duty called Yossi into the hell of the Golan. The love of Col. Kahalani for his men who repeatedly beat back waves of Syrian tanks saving Israel at the cost of their very lives. The love that motivated Col. Yanosh Ben-Gal to commandeer a helicopter at gunpoint to seek out his friend, a badly wounded Yossi Ben-Amon, and fly him to safety. The love of Egyptian General Saad el Shazly, for HIS men who had done everything asked of them, but then had to sacrifice themselves on the altar of political expediency.
Most of all though, it is the story of how the vaunted Israeli intelligence services were duped into ignoring clear signs of war until the moment Egyptian troops crossed the Suez Canal and the Purple Line disappeared under Syrian tank treads. The Egyptians pulled off one of the great intel spoofs of all time and the Mossad bought it all the way. Mossad THOUGHT it had a highly-placed source (the In-Law) that would give them warning (the Concept) and the Concept came to overwhelm all other possibilities.
Once the war started, the real double-dealing began. What the Syrians didnt know was that their erstwhile allies, the Egyptians, despite repeated assurances to the contrary - never intended to press their attack to the fullest and re-take the entire Sinai peninsula. The Syrians, for their part - assuming the Egyptians were coming from the south - intended to not only re-occupy the Golan Heights but also advance into the Jezreel Valley and threaten Israels very existence. At one point the Syrians were less than a kilometer from breaking through, having eliminated the 188th Armored Brigade (operating south of Kahalani).
That last threat prompted the Israelis to move their nuclear-tipped missiles code-named the Temple Weapons into launch position. Temple referred to the idea that the current state of Israel is the Third Temple of the Hebrews. If the Arabs were to win, the Israelis firmly intended to make it a Pyrrhic victory. Damascus, Cairo and other major cities in Egypt and Syria were targeted and would have been reduced to radioactive slag. There has even been some speculation that targets in the Soviet Union, (i.e., Moscow) were on the list, but given that the Temple missiles could not reach orbit, that seems unlikely.
But Kahalani and his men held, a reserve tank brigade moved in just in time and the missiles stood down. The fighting was horrific and Kahalani labeled the previously un-named valley he and his men defended the "Valley of Tears." The Israelis counterattacked and opened the road to Damascus while another force in the Suez under Ariel Sharon exploited a gap in the Egyptian lines and forced their own crossing of the canal and rampaged along the Egyptian shore, cutting off an entire Egyptian field army before the deteriorating Arab situation led to a superpower confrontation and a quickly arranged cease-fire.
Blum has done an excellent job of taking his audience into the chambers of the Israeli cabinet, into General Shazlis command post and into the turret of Kahalanis Centurion tank as waves of Syrian armor came at him. It was this war, more than any other that really defined the modern Middle East and set the stage for all that has come since.
Sun Tsu, whose thoughts on the art of war are required reading at every service academy in the world worth its salt, once said All war is deception. Eve of Destruction throws that maxim into stark relief.
Reviewed by Pat Gang
Syrian tanks destroyed in the "Valley of Tears."
Other suggested readings:
Mohammed Heikal The Road to Ramadan Heikal was editor of Cairo's leading paper and a confidant of Sadat.
Avigdor Kahalani The Heights of Courage
Chaim Herzog The War of Atonement
London Sunday Times Insight Team The Yom Kippur War
I have to give a special plug to this last. It was published less than a year after the war and yet remains some of the best writing on the subject. The Brits USED to know how to journalism right. Maybe one day they'll remember
The Eve of Destruction: The Untold Story of the Yom Kippur War
Howard Blum. New York: HarperCollins, 2003. 350 pp. Ill. Notes. Bib. Index. $25.95.
In the beginning there was The Contact, and the Contact begat The In-Law, and the In-Law begat The Concept, and the Concept begat disaster.
On October 6. 1973 an Egyptian force of over 300,000 men backed by 2000 tanks, massed artillery, and covered by a multi-layered air defense system of anti-aircraft missiles and guns shielding them from the Israeli Air Force, crossed the Suez Canal. Facing them was a line of Israeli fortifications, the much-ballyhooed Bar-Lev Line. The Press had made much of the line and Israelis slept peacefully in there beds confident that the forts and firing positions would hurl any Arab crossing attempt into the Abyss much as Moses had lowered his arms and the water covered Pharaoh and his horses and his chariots and charioteers. Reality was far different. The total Israeli presence on the canal that fateful day: 465 men and three M-48 tanks.
Things were no better on the Northern Front. The 150 or so Centurion tanks of the Israeli 7th Armored Brigade and its sister 188th Brigade were tasked with covering the Golan Heights and keeping the Syrians out of the fertile valleys below. They were arrayed along the Purple Line. Again, this was painted as a stout defense. Again reports were much exaggerated. Col. Avigdor Kahalani , a battalion commander in the crack Israeli 7th Armored Brigade, often walked up and shook The Purple Line a chain-link fence. Unbeknownst to Col. Kahalani, a Syrian force of 150,000 men and 1400 tanks were putting the final touches on preparations for an attack timed to coincide with the Egyptian attack along the Suez Canal. The vanguard of the Syrian forces were Republican Guard divisions mounted on the formidable Soviet-built T-62 tank with its impressive 115mm smoothbore cannon - the most powerful tank gun in the Middle East.
Still, right up until the Syrian tanks crushed the fence and Egyptian tank-infantry teams appeared in the midst of the Bar-Lev Line, The Concept told the Israeli high command there was nothing to fear. There would be no war. The Concept was always right. If one questioned The Concept, there would be consequences.
Howard Blum has done an admirable job of weaving together the disparate threads that brought Israel to the brink of disaster in 1973, to the brink of ordering last-ditch nuclear attacks on Damascus and Cairo. The story reads like a Greek tragedy, full of bickering generals, bickering politicians, double-dealing agents, plots and sub-plots, prophets and prophecies ignored, nefarious doings of all kinds and hubris on a massive scale.
But there is another side to the story. There is the tale of valor, courage, skill in battle and sacrifice by soldiers on both sides who struggled and died for nameless sand dunes, valleys and basalt rock formations. Then too, there is love the love of Lt. Col. Yossi Ben-Amon and his new bride Nati married less than a month before the war and still on their honeymoon in India when duty called Yossi into the hell of the Golan. The love of Col. Kahalani for his men who repeatedly beat back waves of Syrian tanks saving Israel at the cost of their very lives. The love that motivated Col. Yanosh Ben-Gal to commandeer a helicopter at gunpoint to seek out his friend, a badly wounded Yossi Ben-Amon, and fly him to safety. The love of Egyptian General Saad el Shazly, for HIS men who had done everything asked of them, but then had to sacrifice themselves on the altar of political expediency.
Most of all though, it is the story of how the vaunted Israeli intelligence services were duped into ignoring clear signs of war until the moment Egyptian troops crossed the Suez Canal and the Purple Line disappeared under Syrian tank treads. The Egyptians pulled off one of the great intel spoofs of all time and the Mossad bought it all the way. Mossad THOUGHT it had a highly-placed source (the In-Law) that would give them warning (the Concept) and the Concept came to overwhelm all other possibilities.
Once the war started, the real double-dealing began. What the Syrians didnt know was that their erstwhile allies, the Egyptians, despite repeated assurances to the contrary - never intended to press their attack to the fullest and re-take the entire Sinai peninsula. The Syrians, for their part - assuming the Egyptians were coming from the south - intended to not only re-occupy the Golan Heights but also advance into the Jezreel Valley and threaten Israels very existence. At one point the Syrians were less than a kilometer from breaking through, having eliminated the 188th Armored Brigade (operating south of Kahalani).
That last threat prompted the Israelis to move their nuclear-tipped missiles code-named the Temple Weapons into launch position. Temple referred to the idea that the current state of Israel is the Third Temple of the Hebrews. If the Arabs were to win, the Israelis firmly intended to make it a Pyrrhic victory. Damascus, Cairo and other major cities in Egypt and Syria were targeted and would have been reduced to radioactive slag. There has even been some speculation that targets in the Soviet Union, (i.e., Moscow) were on the list, but given that the Temple missiles could not reach orbit, that seems unlikely.
But Kahalani and his men held, a reserve tank brigade moved in just in time and the missiles stood down. The fighting was horrific and Kahalani labeled the previously un-named valley he and his men defended the "Valley of Tears." The Israelis counterattacked and opened the road to Damascus while another force in the Suez under Ariel Sharon exploited a gap in the Egyptian lines and forced their own crossing of the canal and rampaged along the Egyptian shore, cutting off an entire Egyptian field army before the deteriorating Arab situation led to a superpower confrontation and a quickly arranged cease-fire.
Blum has done an excellent job of taking his audience into the chambers of the Israeli cabinet, into General Shazlis command post and into the turret of Kahalanis Centurion tank as waves of Syrian armor came at him. It was this war, more than any other that really defined the modern Middle East and set the stage for all that has come since.
Sun Tsu, whose thoughts on the art of war are required reading at every service academy in the world worth its salt, once said All war is deception. Eve of Destruction throws that maxim into stark relief.
Reviewed by Pat Gang
Syrian tanks destroyed in the "Valley of Tears."
Other suggested readings:
Mohammed Heikal The Road to Ramadan Heikal was editor of Cairo's leading paper and a confidant of Sadat.
Avigdor Kahalani The Heights of Courage
Chaim Herzog The War of Atonement
London Sunday Times Insight Team The Yom Kippur War
I have to give a special plug to this last. It was published less than a year after the war and yet remains some of the best writing on the subject. The Brits USED to know how to journalism right. Maybe one day they'll remember
