two wars of DOOOOMMMMM; the second one.

Oh and I forgot last time...imagine a disclaimer here stating that any historical details mentioned in this blog tonight MAY OR MAY NOT BE accurate/biased/warped. it's also a good moral lesson; NEVER LEARN THESE THINGS IN ONE NIGHT.

Without further ado; THE YOM KIPPUR WAR (October 1973)

BACKGROUND;
After their tragic defeat in the Six Day War, Egypt and Syria are BACK! to challenge Israel. This time, they want the Sinai back, as well as the Suez Canal which got taken in what, 1952? So, they hatch a dastardly plan to attack Israel in a time when they're unsuspecting - YOM KIPPUR! It's a Jewish holy day.

THE ACTUAL WAR (SUMMARY because I don't know the blow-by-blow and I'm praying they don't ask for a recount);

6 October 1973 => Syria+Egypt strike, looks promising, Israel suffers heavy casualties and nearly gets pushed out of Golan Heights and Sinai Peninsula. However, they soon rally back, and Syria gets pushed back. Once Israel nears Damascus, the Arabs feel threatened so the mighty SOVIETS come to splurge billions of dollar arming them. ..then the US comes and does the same for Israel.

CEASEFIRE was called on 22/10, but the Israelis kind of broke this.
So the Russians get mad at their duplicity and threaten to bring over air troops to support Egypt.
Then USA Nixon's like ...well we have NUCLEAR WEAPONS and puts their troops on alert.
...and the USSR backs down.

Although the Arabs had a hidden weapon - the oil weapon. They were able to control oil supplies for much of the world, and with this, they increased oil prices by 70% + stopped oil supply to USA & Europe.

The US, faced with the prospect of a direct Soviet clash (remember, cold war's all about proxy. don't show true colours.) as well as an oil threat (dodgy to US economy), pressured Israel into signing a ceasefire. Israel, thus persuaded, signed a joint USA-Soviet ceasefire agreement in November with Egypt.

...and hence the Yom Kippur War ends.

IMPACTS OF THE WAR

*it kickstarted the peace progress in the Middle east - lead to the first significant peace accords between Israel and an Arab Nation/Egypt ( Camp David Accord, 1978 , as well as disengagement agreements were signed with Egypt and Syria (1974/5). Thus impact = peace, made Israel's place in the Middle East more stable.

*highlighted the importance of oil as a weapon in the conflict - using it, the Arab countries achieved their political demands with US/Israel. impacted conflict - whole new weapon/aspect to look out for - and yeah it's important 'cause it was the reason for the later Gulf War!

*Kind of made the Cold War rivalries as a factor in the war obvious - Soviet and the US both sue billions of dollars ( Soviet - 2.5 )to arm the poor used countries to be proxies in their Cold War. new players, and since these were the superpowers of the time, new POWERFUL players.

That's all.
...I'm going to delete these entries one day. Tripeeee!