Today is Yom Kippur. From the Israel Project,
The Yom Kippur War began Oct. 6, 1973 when Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Israel’s southern and northern borders. Egyptian and Syrian troops crossed the cease-fire lines in the Sinai and Golan Heights, which had been captured by Israel in 1967 during its defensive Six-Day War against several neighboring Arab countries that had amassed troops on Israel’s borders.[2]
At the beginning of the Yom Kippur war, the Egyptians and Syrians made some significant gains, but within a matter of days the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) managed to drive back both armies.[3] The United Nations called for a cease-fire when the tide turned against the Arab nations. On Oct. 22, 1973, the U.N. Security Council adopted Resolution 338 calling “upon all parties to the present fighting to cease all firing and terminate all military activity immediately.”[4]
Although Israel managed to recapture areas lost at the start of the war, the IDF suffered heavy casualties during the hostilities, with 2,688 Israeli soldiers killed and more than 7,250 wounded.[5]
Following the war, Israel signed a series of Separation-of-Forces Agreements with Egypt and Syria and agreed to withdraw from parts of southern Sinai and the eastern Golan Heights.[6] In 1979, Israel and Egypt signed a historic peace treaty, the first between Israel and an Arab state. Israel, showing that it was willing to make painful sacrifices for peace, agreed to withdraw from the entire Sinai Peninsula, land it captured during the defensive Six-Day War. In return, Egypt became the first Arab nation to recognize Israel.[7]
Israel has maintained peace with Egypt ever since, but has been unable to achieve a lasting peace agreement with Syria. Between 1998 and 2000, Israeli and Syrian negotiators met to negotiate a peace agreement. Despite Israel’s willingness to cede almost all of the Golan Heights and relocate all Israelis who live there, Syria rejected this offer and refused to agree to a full normalization of relations with Israel.
Israel has made numerous other sacrifices for peace, most recently in August 2005 when it evacuated all 9,000 Israeli civilians living in Gaza. Israel then handed Gaza over to Palestinian control in hopes of paving the way for an independent Palestinian state. The only Israeli now in Gaza is Cpl. Gilad Shalit, who was kidnapped while patrolling the Israeli side of the Gaza border on June 25, 2006. He was forcibly taken by Iran-backed Hamas, the Popular Resistance Committees and The Army of Islam.[8]
Since Israel’s Gaza withdrawal, Iran-backed Hamas and other terrorist groups in Gaza have fired more than 5,800 rockets and mortars into Israel. Attacks from Gaza over the past seven years have killed 24 Israeli civilians and wounded more than 1,000 others.[9]
This year, Yom Kippur comes at a time of change in Israeli politics with the resignation last month of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as head of Israel’s largest political faction, the Kadima Party. Olmert’s successor as party leader, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, has until early November to assemble a coalition government with other parties in the Knesset (Israeli parliament). If successful, she will become Israel’s next prime minister. If not, Israel must hold a general election within three months.[10]
For more details on the Yom Kippur War, please see this.
Comments