Posted on 02/15/2011 9:15:12 PM PST by Rabin
On October 6, 1973, in a move calculated to attract US attention, Egyptian forces crossed the Suez Canal, capturing a narrow strip of land. After three weeks of fighting and with a fragile UN ceasefire in place, Sadat's grand plan came to fruition.
In November, Henry Kissinger, the US national security adviser, arrived in Cairo for talks. Agreements between Israel and Egypt were brokered and the following year Richard Nixon, the US president, visited Egypt for the first time.
A series of diplomatic efforts ensued which ultimately led to an historic peace agreement between Egypt and Israel and Sadat's highly symbolic visit to the Israeli Knesset.
Sadat stepped into the international spotlight while the whole world watched, but the Egyptian president was also being closely observed by forces within his own country who opposed his moves.
On October 6, 1981, while watching a military parade in Cairo, Sadat was assassinated by four gunmen from a militant Islamist group.
(Excerpt) Read more at english.aljazeera.net ...
Rab.
Oh boy! I can imagine what a propaganda program that is.
Thank you for this information. I believe that Sadat, then Mubarak, saved the lives of millions of Egyptians and Israelis over the past few decades.
When I was at university during the 1970s, there was a saying: that “the Arabs would fight and die to the very last Egyptian”.
I believe Anwar Sadat realized that Egypt was being used, and that the goal was unattainable.
Oh brother. Here. Let's fix it up so it will surpass Al-Jazeera standards.
On October 6, 1973, in a move calculated to swiftly destroy Israel with with an Egyptian/Syrian blitzkrieg, Egyptian and Syrian forces invaded the Sinai and the Golan Heights respectively. Though encouraged by early success against Israeli defensive positions in the Sinai, the Egyptians dug-in underneath their SAM umbrella and waited for the numerically superior Arab air forces to annihilate the IAF so they could resume their advance across the Sinai. Unfortunately for the Arabs, that never happened.
The Egyptian armored forces in the Sinai, having waited over a week for the OK to continue their advance was now willing to wait no more for the expected Arab air victory. So the Egyptians peaked out of their SAM umbrella and started advancing across the Sinai, leaving their heavier SAMs behind. Now out of range of those long-range SAMs, the IAF, having routed the Arab air forces, now proceeded to decimate the Egyptian armored forces, forcing them back across the Suez with Israeli forces in hot pursuit.
With the Syrians eliminated as a threat, indeed the IAF was now bombing Damascus, Israel was able to concentrate on destroying the Egyptian forces.
It was only after the Israelis crossed the Suez and started chasing Egyptian troops up the Egyptian coast on Egyptian soil, did the Soviets start rattling their nuclear saber to force the United States into backing a ceasefire in the region.
In addition to that, the Egyptian 3rd Army was cut off by the Israeli crossing of the Suez. They overplayed their hand and got whipped. Typical tactics of the arab armies that clash with Israel: Overhype their success and negotiate a cease-fire when the tide turns against them.
Israel was happy for a ceasefire becasue 1973 showed what 2 Arab armies (rather than the normal 5) could do, just six years after the Six Day Way; Sinai was over-extending them (as Egypt’s early success showed). It was the closest the Arabs had come since 1948; the 2 front scenario couldn’t continue.
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