LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Yom Kippur: Yom Kippur War
built 189 days ago
On October 6, 1973, Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), the holiest day on the Jewish religious calendar, Egypt and Syria took advantage of optimal circumstances to launch attacks that took Israel by surprise. So complete was the element of surprise that when war erupted, Israel was only beginning to mobilize the reserve forces which form the bulk of the IDF. The thin forces stationed along the two fronts had to contain the invading armies until the IDF was prepared to meet them in force. The IAF was hampered by the dense anti-aircraft missile system which the enemy had deployed close to the front.
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A few months before the Yom Kippur War, Iraq transferred a squadron of Hunter jets to Egypt. During the war, an Iraqi division of some 18,000 men and several hundred tanks was deployed in the central Golan and participated in the October 16 attack against Israeli positions. Iraqi MiGs began operating over the Golan Heights as early as October 8, the third day of the war.
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Moshe Dayan and Golda Meir almost used that "Option" in the first days of the Yom Kippur War, when it appeared they were going to be overrun. Dayan gave the code for its use when he told Prime Minister Meir, "Arm the doomsday weapons, the Third Temple is about to fall."
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Following the Yom Kippur War most of the African states and some other Third World countries emulated the eariler action of the Soviet block and severed diplomatic relations with Israel. In 1975 the UN General Assembly passed its infamous "Zionism equals racism" resolution. The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which strengthened its international status in 1974, continued its terrorist attacks against Israel; Israel, in turn, refused to have anything to do with the PLO.
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Yom Kippur, the Day of Repentance, starts this Sunday night and runs through Monday evening. Per Israeli law, the country’s streets will be closed to traffic and a quiet white blanket will warm the land.
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For the Israel soldiers who fought in the Yom Kippur war of 1973, the tactical importance of the tank was proven convincingly on both the Egyptian and Syrians fronts. After being routed from their positions along the Suez Canal following Egypt’s surprise attack, a battered Israeli army recovered from near defeat by employing superior armored tactics backed by air cover. By the time the US brokered ceasefire took hold, the Egyptian Third Army had been surrounded and its 45,000 men and 250 tanks threatened with annihilation.
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