FINAL WARNING: The Shining Star
separated from the other two, so he drove up a hill and destroyed three
enemy tanks. He repositioned himself only to see a column of thirty
Syrian tanks heading his way. He shot the first, changed positions, and
kept shooting. By the time he was done, he had destroyed ten of the
tanks, and the Syrians began to retreat because they thought they
were being attacked by a larger Israeli force.Nixon responded to Meir’s appeal by saying: “Send everything that
can fly.” In a commitment to stand by them in their darkest hour, he
also sent in two carrier battle groups to the eastern Mediterranean Sea,
and when the Soviets threatened to intervene by dropping
paratroopers into the Sinai, our military alert level was raised to
DEFCON 3. In a 31-day airlift, a $2.2 billion emergency aid shipment
code-named Operation Nickel Grass, the U.S. sent in shipments of
ammunition, fighter-bombers, and tanks. Meir would later say: “For
generations to come, all will be told of the miracle of the immense
planes from the United States bringing in the material that meant life to
our people.”In a swift, often reckless counterattack, Israel pushed their way to the
west bank of the Suez, and came within 100 miles of Cairo, the
Egyptian capital; and within artillery range of the airfields of
Damascus, the Syrian capital. With the tide turned, Israel again
prevailed, taking even more territory. Again Russia urged the UN to
order a ceasefire. Sadat’s terms for a ceasefire was for Israel to
withdraw from all territory it took during the 1967 war. American and
Soviet pressure turned this Israeli victory into a negotiated
compromise. The Arabs punished the world for their support of Israel
by initiating an oil embargo against all the nations, such us the United
States, who were partial to Israel. This move created worldwide
economic chaos.In 1977, Israeli Chief of Staff Mordechai Gur said publicly that Egypt
was again preparing for war, basing his assumption on an
unprecedented military buildup that was part of a two-year $6 billion
arms modernization plan. Jimmy Carter, said in a 1978 meeting with
Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin: “I can say, without
reservation, as President of the United States of America, that we will
continue to do so (remain committed to Israel’s security), not just for
thirty years, but forever.” However, in 1978, President Carter was able