Defining the Middle East

The Yom Kippur War

            Background

            Course of the War

International Implications

 

Defining the Middle East

Here, the Middle East is defined quite narrowly. It encompasses the Arab countries of South-West Asia and North Africa, Israel and Iran. This was a very important piece of strategic real estate: it had geographical and religious importance as well as being rich with resouces (it was a junction between 3 continents, the birthplace of 3 great religions, had 60% of the worlds oil reserves).

 

Background to the Yom Kippur War

1. Impact of historical animosity – the Yom Kippur War was the the 4th of 4 wars.

2. The Arab humiliation of the 1967 war. During the 1967 war, Israel seized all of the Sinai peninsula from Egypt, the West Bank territories from Jordan and the strategically important Golan Heights from Syria. It was this “stain of humiliation” that Egypt in particular wanted to remove.

3. Sadat's playing of the Soviet 'card' in July 1972. The USSR were mindful that the US had a relationship with Israel and were eager to also gain influence in the Middle East.

 

Course of the Yom Kippur War

On the 6th of October, 1973, Egypt and Syria launched a combined attack on Israel, which achieved complete tactical surprise. The war, which lasted until the 25th of October, was longer, more evenly balanced, more bitterly contested and more costly in loss of life and of material than any of the previous Middle Eastern wars. Moreover, this conflict eventually brought the two superpowers to the verge of a nuclear showdown and thus exposed the frailities of the new policy of Soviet-American detente.

 

International Implications

  1. Neither side emerged as the outirght victor, but it was the Arabs who achieved a psychological victory
  2. The conflict occasioned the use of economic warfare by the Arab oil-producing countries against the developed countries of the West.
  3. The Yom Kippur war demonstrated to the Arab world that Israel, while certainly not invincible, was nonetheless indestructable.
  4. This conflict served to deepen US involvement in the Middle East, and undercut Soviet influence in the region.