Why did Syria and Egypt sign ceasefire agreements with Israel after the 1973 Yom Kippur War?
Jack Cohen
The answer is simple, because IDF forces were about 50 km from Damascus and exactly 101 km from Cairo. After three wars (1956, 1967 and 1973) in the last of which they had all the advantages of surprise, effective Russian missiles and they vastly outnumbered the IDF forces, nevertheless the IDF not only gave them a crushing defeat, but was on the way to their capital cities. So they capitulated and signed ceasefire agreements, that in the case of Egypt under Pres. Sadat became the actual Egyptian-Israel peace treaty of 1979. And it has held ever since, there has been no direct war between Israel and Egypt or Syria for the past 35 years.
Unfortunately, this is the kind of scenario we need to reproduce in relation to Hamas in Gaza. The Syrian Government under Hafez Assad and his son Bashar remained extremely hostile to Israel and in fact headed the “rejectionist front,” consisting of many Palestinian organizations that had headquarters in Damsacus, including Hamas until quite recently. But, despite their enmity to Israel, the Assad regime knew that it would be futile to attempt another war with the IDF. Therefore they preferred to act through proxies, such as Hizbollah in Lebanon.
Even though a large proportion of the Egyptians are still extremely hostile to Israel, nevertheless the Egyptian Army realizes that it is futile for Egypt to attempt another war with Israel and that is why it is advantageous for Israel that General al-Sisi became President of Egypt. But, the Palestinians, hiding behind the skirts of the fellow-Arab States and then using terrorism against us, have never been totally defeated by the IDF, that is why they continue to demand unrealizable conditions in order to even make a lasting ceasefire with Israel. I am afraid that they must be totally defeated, that we must be not 50 km from Gaza City, but the IDF must be in their command bunker under Shifa Hospital in Gaza City before they will capitulate. That may be the only way to actually obtain peace with them.
But, short of actual peace, they may capitulate to Israel’s and the international community’s demands for demilitarization and a permanent ceasefire if they are convinced that they can never defeat Israel. Although they opted not to continue the current ceasefire, their missile store is not inexhaustible, their fighters are being picked off, as the published numbers show that mostly young men of military age dominate the casualty figures in Gaza. Also, their organizational framework must be hit hard, if ca. 1,000 of their men are killed and maybe 5,000 wounded, then their effectiveness as a fighting organization with a command structure and response to orders must be failing. The IDF must keep hitting their operatives hard (never mind about civilians), as they did yesterday, killing three senior operatives and possibly Mohammed Deif, the Chief of the military wing of Hamas. and this will cause their morale to sink and their military capability to decline. Only time will tell, but as the war continues, eventually Hamas will eventually have to capitulate to the Egyptian ceasefire without conditions.
What Are We Fighting For?
Death, destruction and suffering makes pacifists of us all. We hate the need for war, but if we have to defend ourselves, then at least we must win, and the only way to win is to cause greater casualties, much greater casualties, to our enemy, Hamas. Let the death and destruction be disproportionate, so that eventually they may get the message and leave us alone! We only want to live in peace, but if in order to do that we must strike back at them, and although slow to anger, we will be great in our rage.
What are we fighting for? Foremost is for our survival, against an implacable and ruthless enemy, which does not hesitate to directly attack innocent civilians, in fact as far as they are concerned there are none, all Israelis are fair game. That is why they are celebrating the fact that they managed to kill a 4 year old boy, Daniel Tragerman, in one of their latest mortar barrages against southern Israel. But see the difference, we don’t show his bloodied body being carried into the emergency room of the hospital, nor allow the cameras to dwell on his injuries. We don’t allow cameras into the emergency room at all out of respect for the dignity of the dead. But, the supposedly sensitive inhabitants of the western countries are such easy game for the sensationalist tricks of the Hamas PR people, who not only allow this, but undoubtedly stage many incidents to show the killing of children and their injuries, maybe many of them are doused in ketchup. Be at least a little skeptical.
Another thing we are fighting against is the kind of regime, namely Hamas, that takes men out into the street without trial, accuses them of aiding the enemy, Israel, and then shoots them in the head in front of a large crowd. Whatever happened to due process. Note that IS do this too, shooting people in the back of the head as well as decapitating them, both are primitive brutal terrorist organizations. According to reports, 18 men and women were likewise executed by Hamas yesterday, apparently in retaliation for Israel’s assassinations of three (or possibly 4) leaders of the Hamas military wing, Izzadin al Kassem. We hope the fourth one, Mohammed Deif, the Head of the military wing of Hamas, who was probably injured, is also dead. Since we haven’t seen him before the cameras it is a good bet that he too was killed, which would be a huge loss for Hamas.
There are several kinds of peace, the most obvious one is the absence of violence. But, this is not enough, to have genuine peace there must be interaction between the sides, genuine compromise. Unfortunately the Muslim side does not know or understand the meaning of compromise. You will often hear Palestinian spokesmen say “it is our right, etc…” as if that makes it automatically acceptable, for example, the so-called “right of return” that is a pure invention of Palestinian propaganda, or “the occupation” which is a code word for Israel. In fact they can only get what we agree to and that will not be much. Israel certainly will not lift the blockade, so that they can import missiles, nor give them a port, so that they can import building materials to build tunnels, and certainly not an airport, so that they can bring in foreign terrorist fighters. By the way, Egypt also refuses to lift its blockade on Gaza, for fear of Hamas terrorism entering Sinai. So we must continue fighting until Hamas accept our conditions.
Jack Cohen, Netanya, Israel
Jack Cohen: Born in London, UK, lived in suburban Washington DC area for 30 years, moved to Israel in 1996. He has a web site: Comment From Israel
Jack Cohen
