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Why This War…

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2009

Donna Robinson Divine
Affiliation:
Smith College

Extract

The course of events in the Middle East since 6 October 1973 has been as surprising and as unexpected as the very events of that day. In retrospect, of course, the surprises of that day have been depreciated and obscured by journalists, scholars, and politicians who have begun to treat the outbreak of the war as part of a chain of natural developments initiated in June 1967, or in May 1948, or in 1897 depending upon their historical bent. But hindsight notwithstanding, no one expected war to break out in the Middle East in 1973. For this reason, the decision to launch a war against Israel must be examined for what it was: a complex calculation encompassing not one or two but a broad range of considerations. The decision to go to war is never a commonplace decision, nor is it one taken lightly or made naturally – not even in the Middle East. Rather, it is a complex phenomenon whose threads must be unraveled in order to be understood.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1976

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References

page 523 note 1 This orientation has been obvious in accounts of the October War offered by Israeli scholars and journalists which have appeared in Ha-Aretz and Ma‘ariv. See especially an interview with Professor Yehoshafat Harkabi, Ma‘ariv, 24 December 1973, or the column ‘Bayn Sheshet ha-Yamim le-Yom ha-Kippurim’ [Between the Six Days and Yom Kippur] Mal'ariv, 6 July 1974.Google Scholar

page 523 note 2 For this reason the warnings of the possibility of war coming from an Israeli intelligence officer, David Siman Toy, could be dismissed.Google Scholar

page 524 note 1 The most comprehensive accounts to appear thus far are: Lucius D. Battle, ‘The Arabs: Why Now?’ New York Times Magazine, 21 October 1973;Google ScholarDraper, Theodore, ‘The Road to Geneva’, Commentary, 57, 2 (02 1974), 2337;Google ScholarLaqueur, Walter, Confrontation: The Middle East and World Politics (New York: Quadrangle, 1974);Google ScholarRa'anan, Un, ‘Soviet Policy in the Middle East, 1969–1973’, Midstream, 19, 10 (12 1973), 2345;Google ScholarSafran, Nadav, ‘The War and the Future of the Arab–Israeli Conflict’, Foreign Affairs, 52, 2 (01 1974), 215–36;CrossRefGoogle ScholarSheehan, Edward R. F., ‘Sadat's War’, New York Times Magazine, 18 November 1973;Google ScholarWaterbury, John, The Crossing, American Universities Field Staff, 18, 6.Google Scholar

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page 525 note 1 Abdel-Malek, Anouar, Egypt: Military Society (New York: Vintage, 1969),Google Scholar chapter 4 Dekmedjian, Richard Hrair, Egypt under Nasir (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1971), chapters 5 and 6.Google Scholar

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page 527 note 1 Ibid. A similar view is expressed by Sheehan, op. cit. pp. 112–13. It is possible that this view was influenced by the editorials of Mohammed Hasseinin Heikal, who took a similar approach to the subject.

page 527 note 2 The Israeli approach had been that everything could be ‘talked about’ in the course of negotiations while announcing policies for specific regions such as Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, and Northern Sinai, which seemed to rule out these areas from the negotiating process. See also Laqueur, op. cit. pp. 42–3.Google Scholar

page 527 note 3 The first election platform of the ruling Labor Party in Israel, drafted before the outbreak of war, advocated no changes in foreign policy.Google Scholar

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page 530 note 5 This was borne out by the author's experience in Cairo, summer, 1973. During those months there was a great deal of talk about shortages.Google Scholar

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page 540 note 1 Vatikiotis, ‘Egypt's Politics. …’, p. 83.Google Scholar

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page 541 note 1 Mentioned by Safran, op. cit., but not detailed.Google Scholar

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page 541 note 4 The Israelis discovered to their own shock that the ordinary preparations for mobilization during a surprise attack had never been formulated because Israeli Military Intelligence had assured the army that it could always give them enough warning.Google Scholar

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