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The Hidden Calculation behind the Yom Kippur War
(Mosaic) Michael Doran - On Oct. 6, 1973, five Syrian divisions with 1,400 tanks and 1,000 pieces of artillery attacked the two Israeli brigades stationed on the Golan, who had only 177 tanks and 50 artillery pieces. In the south, five Egyptian infantry divisions with nearly 100,000 soldiers, 1,300 tanks, and 2,000 artillery pieces launched themselves across the Suez Canal against some 450 Israeli reservists. Egypt's mobile SAM-6 surface-to-air missiles destroyed 10-30% of Israel's operational aircraft in the first 24 hours of the conflict. U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said President Nixon "has no particular love for Jews. He does not give a damn for Israel in the abstract. It interests him only within the strategic context of the Middle East" and he did not want to hand Moscow a victory. By the end of the first week of the war, Nixon realized that Moscow was exploiting American restraint beyond what he could tolerate and he had no choice but to match any weapons system that the Soviets might introduce into the Middle East. Nixon called Kissinger on Oct. 14 to emphasize that the resupply must not only be effective, but massive. A total of 550 U.S. transport planes flew to Israel over the next few weeks. At its peak, one plane landed every fifteen minutes. In return for Jerusalem's cooperation, Nixon and Kissinger provided it with the arms necessary to win the war, a security commitment that endures to this day, and a strategic alliance. The writer is a senior fellow and director of the Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East at the Hudson Institute.