Fifty Years After the Yom Kippur War, the US Should End Its Blank-Check Aid to Israel
Fifty years after the Yom Kippur War, its legacy still defines US policy in the Middle East. The aftermath of the conflict saw Washington massively expand aid to Israel — while buying off Arab governments in order to isolate the beleaguered Palestinians.
Israeli chief of staff in a meeting during the Yom Kippur War, October 10, 1973. (Bamahane / Wikimedia Commons)
An Israeli writer once told me how she’d been asked to look at a script for a TV show that hypothesized an alternate history in which the Israeli army lost the Yom Kippur War. Mostly ignorant, I asked what made such an idea compelling. She explained that the nearness of military defeat in the war that began on October 6, 1973 — and what might have happened to the Israeli project in such an event — still haunts Israeli society. Fifty years on from Israel’s (at least qualified) victory, the history of the conflict remains essential to any regional understanding of Palestine, particularly from a Western policy perspective.
Element of Surprise
The Israeli army has fought three major wars with its Arab neighbors. The first came in 1948, when Arab armies attacked in support of Palestinians driven out of their homes and cities by Zionist militias prosecuting the Nakba. The 1948 war ended in Arab and Palestinian defeat, and with it the initial consolidation of the Israeli state project.
Perhaps best-known of the wars is 1967, when, true to its alternative name as the Six Day War, the Israelis defeated a half-dozen Arab armies in under one week. In so doing, they claimed much of the land where the occupation regime still pursues its project of land grabs and settlement building. Its enduring significance derives from its revision of the prewar boundaries — which international law demands Israel withdraw back behind to create a viable Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
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