All posts tagged: Yom Kippur War

Jerusalem Palestinians prepare for Ramadan amid holy month’s uneasy politics

Jerusalem Palestinians prepare for Ramadan amid holy month’s uneasy politics

Published by Sam

JERUSALEM (RNS) — The stores near the Damascus Gate of the Old City of Jerusalem are filled with holiday sweets, and the butcher shops are overflowing with lamb and beef. Ramadan lamps and extra-large bags of charcoal for nightly iftar break fasts greet customers at the minimarkets. Despite the bustle of holiday prep, “Ramadan feels different this year, sadder because of the war,” said a shopper named Layla, who, like many East Jerusalem Palestinians, preferred not to share her last name due to caution about publicizing their views.  The Israel-Hamas war that began on Oct. 7, when Hamas killed about 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped 250 more, and Israel’s subsequent military onslaught in Gaza, has gutted Muslims around the world, but none more perhaps than those in the Palestinian neighborhoods of Jerusalem. “How can we have big festive iftar meals when we know that the people in Gaza don’t have enough food?” said Fadi, a young East Jerusalem resident who works in a sporting goods store. Nearly all of the more than 2 million …

Kissinger’s Inhuman Diplomacy – The Atlantic

Kissinger’s Inhuman Diplomacy – The Atlantic

Published by skeptic

Henry Kissinger spent half a century pursuing and using power, and a second half century trying to shape history’s judgment of the first. His longevity, and the frantic activity that ceased only when he stopped breathing, felt like an interminable refusal to disappear until he’d ensured that posthumous admiration would outweigh revulsion. In the end none of it mattered. The historical record—Vietnam and Cambodia, the China opening, the Soviet détente, slaughter in Bangladesh and East Timor, peace in the Middle East, the coup in Chile—was already there. Its interpretation will not be up to him. Kissinger is a problem to be solved: the problem of a very human inhumanity. For he was, undoubtedly, human—brilliant, insecure, funny, gossipy, curious, devious, self-deprecating, cruel. In Martin Indyk’s book Master of the Game, about Kissinger’s successful efforts to end the 1973 Yom Kippur War, you meet a diplomat with a deep knowledge of the region’s history and personalities, operating with great subtlety and stamina to bring about a state of equilibrium that led to peace between Israel and Egypt. …

The Lessons Israel Failed to Learn From the Yom Kippur War

The Lessons Israel Failed to Learn From the Yom Kippur War

Published by skeptic

The parallels are blindingly and painfully obvious. A surprise attack against an Israel caught largely unaware; an invading military force; the timing, a holy day in early October; the victims, an unsuspecting population forced to scramble for underground bomb shelters and mobilize for war; the mistakes by an intelligence apparatus that is the envy of the world. But the surprise attack that took place in Israel this past weekend is arguably worse than the one that launched the Yom Kippur War of 1973. Hamas, a guerrilla organization that controls the Gaza Strip, has already killed many more Israeli civilians in the first days of this war than Egypt and Syria, sovereign nations with national armies, killed during the October war 50 years ago. Hamas struck targets deep inside Israeli towns. The magnitude and sophistication of this past weekend’s attacks—carried out in multiple locations and involving thousands of fighters—implies that this offensive was in the works for several months, if not longer. And intelligence gathering should have been easier in Gaza, where Israel is reputed to …

The World Needs a Unified and Resolute America

The World Needs a Unified and Resolute America

Published by skeptic

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. The rest of the planet does not pause while Washington sorts out its internal food fights. Republicans—and other Americans—need to put aside their childish squabbles. First, here are three new stories from The Atlantic: Childish Squabbles Two years ago, I wrote my first newsletter for The Atlantic, in which I worried that the United States was “no longer a serious country.” Of course, we’re still a powerful country … But when it comes to seriousness—the invaluable discipline and maturity that allows us to discern matters that should transcend self-interest, to set aside churlish ego and emotionalism, and to act with prudence and self-restraint—we’re a weak, impoverished backwater. When I wrote those words, the world was emerging from a pandemic, but many Americans were still refusing vaccines; Congress was bickering over infrastructure; Russia was occupying Crimea. Joe Biden had been …

This War Isn’t Like Israel’s Earlier Wars

This War Isn’t Like Israel’s Earlier Wars

Published by skeptic

On Saturday night, I was seated on the first El Al plane to fly from the United States to Israel since Hamas had attacked my country. Many airlines had canceled flights to and from Israel, but El Al had refused to grant the terrorists that victory. Though we took off after midnight, sleep was impossible. My mind writhed thinking of the reports of unbearable Israeli casualties, the images of the captured and the dead, and the prospect of wider war. Alongside those waking nightmares was an agonizing irony. I’d just come from participating in events in New York marking the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War. Just as in 1973, when Israeli reservists living or vacationing abroad rushed to rejoin their units already in combat, my plane was filled with young men ready to trade the thrills of New York for the horrors of a war under way. Their presence was another reason to reflect on the eerie similarities and stark differences between these two wars, both of which broke out on Jewish holidays—the …

Five Observations About the War in Israel

Five Observations About the War in Israel

Published by skeptic

Yesterday, Hamas launched a multifront attack that shocked Israel, infiltrating the Gaza border by land, sea, and air. The attack took place on the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, nearly 50 years to the day after an Arab coalition’s surprise attack on Israel—the last assault of this scale—spurred the Yom Kippur War in 1973. More than 600 Israelis have been killed, according to local reports. Thousands more are injured, and an unknown number of civilians and soldiers are being held hostage in Gaza. More than 300 Palestinians have been killed and more than 2,000 injured, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Last night, Israel’s security cabinet voted to officially put the country at war, and Israeli fighter jets have begun air strikes on targets inside Gaza. Our writers are reporting on the stakes of this historic conflict, and exploring events as they continue to unfold. Below are five observations that help illuminate the latest. Israel didn’t see this coming. Just one week ago, Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, told The Atlantic’s editor in …