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Fall of the Third Temple by Steve Payne
 Author
says: what if Golda Meir was forever haunted by authorizing pre-emptive
air strikes? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not
necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
On October 6th, 1973:
with eighty-thousand troops of Anwar Sadat's Army set to cross the
Suez Canal and strike Israel's unprepared reserve forces on the Bar-Lev
Line, Golda Meir sanctioned a repeat of the pre-emptive strike that had
destroyed the Egyptian Air Force on the ground during the first day of the
Six-Day War.
The Prime Minister's decision to approve the request from IDF Chief of
State David Elazar (and disregard the counter advice of Minister of Defence
Moyshe Dayan who could not bring himself to believe that Egypt and Syria
were about to strike the first blow) was made in the context of an
extraordinary set of circumstances.
Whilst Henry Kissinger anticipated a Middle East Peace Settlement during
Nixon's Second Term, the initiative had been deprioritized when Anwar Sadat
expelled Soviet advisors in July 1972. Unbeknown to the White House, or
indeed Israeli Intelligence, the Kremlin had continued to supply Sadat with
surface-to-air and anti-tank guided missiles plus fighter bombers.
By now the Nixon White House was mired in the chaos of Watergate and thus in
no position to assert any form of authority. And Henry Kissinger, who had
only been Secretary of State since September 22nd, was unable to grasp the
issue because he was wielding executive power as the defacto President
whilst his boss was in the process of going insane.
The strike itself had been planned for the holiest of Jewish festivals, Yom
Kippur when Jewish forces were skeletally thin, and hardly expecting an
attack from Arab Nations who were themselves celebrating Ramadan. Meir
justified Israel's pre-emptive strike by proclaiming that "The Muslims can
fight and lose, then come back and fight again. But Israel can only lose
once".
It was a catastrophic misjudgement; Kissinger response was that Israel would
not even receive "even a nail" from Washington. And within forty-eight
hours, Arab Nations would announce a massive retailation including an oil
boycott, Meir would order the readiness of thirteen tactical nuclear
weapons, Dayan would advise "The Fall of the Third Temple" and America would
move to DefCon3.
Author
says original content has been repurposed to celebrate the author's
genius © The Yom Kippur War, October 2008. To view guest historian's
comments on this post please visit the
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