Last week the Yom Kippur War returned with staggering intensity. Thirty-seven years after the war ended the trauma of that terrible experience came back to haunt the Israeli public when the government published the minutes of its sessions during those fateful days. Even today it boggles the mind to read about the terrible lapses of Israel’s political and military leadership. Perusing those minutes one realizes just how much trouble the country was in at that time. The crisis could have led to the destruction of Israel as a state. All signs indicated that we were on the verge of a tough war. Intelligence flowing in from various sources warned of a simultaneous attack by Egypt and Syria an attack that was liable to come at any moment. But the policymakers especially in the intelligence wing decided to ignore all the warnings. In a tangible manifestationg of the pasuk “He turns the wise backwards and makes their knowledge foolish” (Yeshayahu 44:25) the experts “determined” that all the Arab states were doing was engaging in an intimidation maneuver.
The number of errors and miscalculations that were made by those entrusted with Israel’s security is staggering – in the military echelons and even more so in the government offices. HaKadosh Baruch Hu took away their intelligence and their ability to interpret the situation correctly. And in contrast to the Six Day War when all the mistakes of Israel’s leaders ended up somehow contributing to a victorious outcome in the Yom Kippur War even the right decisions turned into stumbling blocks.
That should say something to us.
The worst part of all: Reading the documents today one is astonished at what took place at the government’s emergency meetings back then after the alarms were sounded at 2 o’clock on Yom Kippur afternoon. The minutes of those meetings on those first days of tragic casualties while Egypt advanced steadily into Sinai evoke a sad picture of despair impotence loss of direction and bewilderment on the part of Israel’s leaders. They simply didn’t know what was happening to them. They felt like animals caught in a trap with no way out. Prime Minister Golda Meir was actually contemplating suicide and legendary Defense Minister Moshe Dayan looked at the devastation being wrought and admitted that his approach had been completely wrong and that he did not know what to do at that critical hour.
Reading all these facts one is deeply shaken. To think that the whole population of Israel at that time was in a storm-tossed ship without a captain!
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