On Oct. 6, 1973, Egyptian forces crossed the Suez Canal and attacked Israeli forces in the Sinai Peninsula. At the same time, Syria attacked Israel in the Golan Heights. The war that came to be known as the Yom Kippur War raged for three weeks before Israel decisively defeated Egypt and Syria.
For Israel, victory came at a steep price. It lost 2,800 of its soldiers killed-in-action plus many more grievously injured. The population of Israel at the time was about one-third of its present-day population, approaching 10 million.
Egypt’s President Anwar Sadat believed the war was necessary for his people to regain their sense of national pride after a series of humiliating and costly defeats by Israel since its establishment as a state in 1948. Sadat desperately wanted peaceful co-existence with Israel and he believed that a victory over Israel, as the Yom Kippur War was characterized in Egypt, would pave the way for his people to accept this status.
The early days after the conflict were fraught with a great deal of soul-searching, finger-pointing and anguish in Israel. Why had its vaunted military been caught so off-guard, then turned early defeats into a stunning victory, only to concede what it had achieved militarily for a hoped-for diplomatic solution?
The answer to this latter point was that Israel could take a view that Sadat was sincere in his stated desire to find a peaceful resolution. A view that no doubt was influenced by Egypt’s conduct during the war, which for the most part adhered to international standards for conducting warfare and the treatment of prisoners.
Fifty years later, in the period leading up to October 2023, Israel was deceived into believing that it was heading toward a de-escalated relationship with Gaza. Israel supplied Gaza with much of its drinking water and electricity.
Israel provided work permits to 20,000 Gazans, which created a very positive economic result for both nations- for Gaza, a solution to its chronic high unemployment, and for Israel, a source of low-cost labor to address its chronic labor shortages. Moreover, increasing numbers of Gazans traveled to Israel to receive medical treatment due to the abysmal level of care available in Gaza.
The attack on Israel by Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, was not an act of belligerent nations going to war to accomplish what they had failed to resolve diplomatically. Gaza has been a sovereign state since 2005.
In 2007, its people elected Hamas to be its government. It is one of the largest recipients of foreign aid (adjusted for population). It received an estimated $2 billion to $3 billion from Iran toward the construction of a system of tunnels running several hundreds of miles—money that could have been better spent to build out its infrastructure and provide basic services to its people. If it had a grievance with Israel, it would have been difficult to define other than Israel’s right to exist as a sovereign nation.
Oct. 7, 2023, was an act of terrorism instigated by one state against another. The targets of the attack were civilians—children, the elderly, concertgoers, women—all non-combatants.
The Gazan terrorists recorded their evil deeds with their Gopro cameras, almost as if to chronical with pride the rapes, mutilations, and murders carried out against their innocent victims. The Israelis taken into captivity that day further added to the barbarism perpetrated by Gaza against Israel.
As if the horrific acts of October 2023 were not enough, Hamas has since vowed to carry out more attacks against Israel until every Jew is exterminated.
In 1973, President Sadat grieved over the human toll on Egypt arising from its wars with Israel and desired an end to the bloodshed. He paid dearly for his hopeful vision that peace with Israel could be attained.
Sadat was assassinated in 1981 by Muslim extremists who could not countenance his acceptance of the Jewish state. His legacy was a durable peace with Israel and something that would have been thought impossible in 1973, the establishment of diplomatic relations with Israel in 1980.
The current war with Gaza will be far less costly for Israel in terms of the human toll (when adjusted for population size) than the Yom Kippur War in 1973. But the atrocities perpetrated by Gazans against innocent civilians in Israel in 2023 defy description and make it unlikely that Israel will find among Hamas a well-meaning counter partner with which to negotiate a peaceful resolution.
Hamas is a terror organization with a death grip on a failed state. It openly advocates for the murder of Israelis and Jews throughout the world. And Hamas celebrates the death of Gazan civilians as if they are merely a means of achieving this goal.
In short, victory for Israel will more likely be patterned after the Allies victory in World War II. A victory that was achieved only after the utter destruction of the Nazi regime in Germany and the militarists in Japan.
Unfortunately, like the rulers of Germany and Japan in World War II, Hamas is the embodiment of evil and many more Gazans will be lost before peace is achieved.
David Nemschoff
Manhasset
Mr. Nemschoff holds a faculty position at Long Island University/the School of Professional Studies, where he lectures on topics related to history and foreign affairs. The views expressed herein are his and not those of LIU. Mr. Nemschoff is the author of “Israel at the Brink- The Yom Kippur War.”