FINAL WARNING: The Shining Star
Israelis. Israel increased their territory from 8,000 to 34,000 square
miles. Moshe Dayan, Israel’s Minister of Defense, said afterwards: “Our
next war will be with Russia.”After the Israeli victory over the Arabs in 1948, Jordan maintained
possession of Judea, Samaria, and the eastern part of Jerusalem, and
expelled all the Jews and destroyed their synagogues. They renamed
the area the ‘West Bank.’ Their purpose was to convince the world that
these territories were the ancestral lands of the Jordanian Kingdom,
when in fact it is well documented that the land belonged to the Jews.
Even after the Arabs were driven out of this area during the 1967 war,
they still referred to this territory as the West Bank in an effort to
continue swaying public opinion.In the years that followed, Russia continued to arm Egypt, Syria, and
other Arab countries. However, by 1972, Anwar Sadat, the President of
Egypt, felt that Russia was trying to control the Middle East, and he
ended his country’s alliance with them. Egypt and Saudi Arabia joined
forces so they wouldn’t have to rely on Russia. Syria then became the
main recipient of Soviet arms.In 1973, Egypt’s War Minister announced that the headquarters for all
Arab fronts would be established in Cairo. On October 6, 1973, which
was Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, Egypt, Syria, Jordan
and eight other Arab nations joined together in a surprise attack
against Israel. Much of the Israeli air force was destroyed by Soviet
SAM ground-to-air missiles, and only 100 of 265 Israeli tanks survived
the first wave, giving the Arabs a 5 to 1 edge in armor superiority.
Nixon was very adamant about the U.S. position when he said: “If
Russia disturbs the balance of power in the Middle East, the United
States will move to assure Israel’s security.” With reports that the
Soviets were airlifting supplies to Egypt, and Iraqi troops were on their
way to support Syria, Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir began
considering the nuclear option, and made an urgent plea to the U.S.Israel no longer had the military hardware to wage an effective war.
They needed missiles, ammunition, tanks, and planes. An amazing
story that came out of this war had to do with Tzvika Greengold, who
was the leader of a group of three Israeli tanks on the Golan Heights,
where they were to hold off oncoming Syrian tanks. Somehow he got