Nadene Goldfoot
This is better understood by being there. My cousin called me in despair, after watching something on YouTube about the war as he had watched in horror when so many tanks were blown up. He imagined the Israelis had been doomed, and he was a veteran himself of the USA. He didn't know it, but he was watching a portion of the Yom Kippur War of 1973. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Okhd_ijkI6k
From the western , it is only about 60 miles – without major terrain obstacles – to and , and Israel’s industrial heartland. The Golan – rising from 400 to 1700 feet in the western section bordering on pre-1967 Israel – overlooks the , Israel’s richest agricultural area. In the hands of a friendly neighbor, the escarpment has little military importance. If controlled by a hostile country, however, the Golan has the potential to become a strategic nightmare for Israel.It did become just that. Arabs were bombing the valley from above. Yet remember, it was the Arabs themselves that attacked on the Jewish most holy holiday when all Jews were in the synagogue praying while on a 25 hour fast, a fast that was also without water to drink; a real fast when asking forgiveness for anything they did that was wrong.
On Yom Kippur eve (5 October, 1973), the Israeli 7th Brigade was ordered to move one battalion to the Golan Heights to strengthen the Barak Armored Brigade, under the command of Yitzhak Ben Shoham. At 10:00 on Yom Kippur (6 October)1973, Ben-Gal and other brigade commanders convened with General Yitzhak Hofi in Nafakh, where Hofi told them that Intelligence was estimating the Syrians would attack that day, at around 18:00. The 7th Brigade was assigned as a reserve force around Nafakh and was to prepare for a counterattack in either the north or south sector, or to split and support both. Ben-Gal then drove to meet one battalion in Sindiana and address the officers. He called an orders group at Nafakh for 14:00, assuming it would give his second Battalion enough time to organize. As they gathered to wait for him, the Syrian artillery and planes began to attack. Ben-gal's men ran back to their battalions while Ben-Gal moved the headquarters out of the camp. After an hour, he was ordered to move to the northern sector in the Kuneitra area and to transfer the 2nd battalion to the southern sector, under command of the Barak Brigade. The 7th Brigade was left in charge of the northern sector from Kuneitra northwards with two battalions.
Israeli Intelligence estimated that Syria had more than 900 tanks and 140 batteries of artillery immediately behind the Syrian line. The Syrian 7th Division was one of the units ready to attack. The actual number of Syrian tanks was about 1,260. Each Syrian infantry division had one infantry brigade, one mechanized infantry brigade, and one armored brigade. The infantry and mechanized infantry brigades each had three infantry battalions, a battalion of forty tanks, an anti-aircraft (AA) artillery battalion and a field artillery battalion. The armored brigade had three battalions of forty tanks each. The division also had a regiment of division field artillery, a divisional AA field artillery regiment, a reconnaissance regiment with a company attached to each brigade and a chemical company with a section attached to each brigade. The total force of the division was about 10,000 men, 200 tanks, 72 artillery pieces and 72 anti-aircraft guns and surface to air missiles (SAMs). The 7th Division, under the command of Syria's Brigadier-General Omar Abrash, had about 80% of its tanks and armored personnel carriers (APCs). There were also independent armored brigades with about 2,000 men and 120 tanks each. One of the independent brigades attached to Abrash's division was a Moroccan brigade. In the rear were the 1st and 3rd Armored Divisions, with 250 tanks each. The Syrian attack force was backed by at least 1,000 artillery pieces.
First day
At 13:55, while Nafshi's sector came under a heavy artillery barrage, several soldiers along the Purple Line reported that the Syrians were removing the camouflage nets from their tanks and artillery. Ben Shoham ordered his battalion commanders, Nafshi and Oded Erez, to deploy their nearly seventy Centurion tanks in prepared battle positions. Nafshi was at Kuneitra when the order came to deploy his platoons and move his headquarters somewhere safer. He immediately ordered his troops to leave the town, and the tanks to advance while the soft vehicles fell back. Erez's 53rd Battalion was moved to the southern Golan. One of Nafshi's platoons of three tanks was near the Wassett crossroads when Syrian jets attacked Tel Abu Nida. When the jets departed, the crews began moving to the bunker line. After one kilometre, they came under large-caliber artillery fire. Before 14:00, Nafshi reported to his brigade headquarters that his battalion was ready for combat and was manning the Booster ridge.
Second day 
Yitzhak, son of Keden and Shlomo, was born on September 9, 1936, in Izmir, Turkey, and immigrated to Israel as part of the “Youth Aliyah” in 1950, referred to as Ben- Shaham. On the 7th of Tishrei 5740 (7.10.1973), while commanding his brigade in combat, Yitzhak was hit and killed at age 37 by enemy fire. In the course of his battle, Colonel Yitzhak Ben-Shoham served as commander of an armored brigade in the Golan Heights On October 7, 1973. On this day during the oil pipeline, he fought to curb the heavy pressure exerted on “Nafah.”
On the dawn of 7 October, the area between Hermonit and Booster was named "Valley of Tears" because of the great number of burning tanks lying across it. At 07:00, IAF Skyhawks began flying over the southern Golan. The first four came down from the southwest and within seconds, they were hit by Syrian SAMs. Several minutes later, another foursome approached and two were shot down. At 08:00, the 78th Tank Brigade of the 7th Division launched a second attack. It advanced along a 4-kilometre wide front in the valley in the direction of Wassett. The 75th Battalion was fighting a Syrian brigade, at ranges varying from 9–2,100 m (10–2,300 yd). Meanwhile, the 74th Battalion in the north was attacked by two Syrian battalions, supported by an armored infantry force in APCs, most of which were destroyed.] The Syrian objective in this attack was a wadi running in the direction of Wassett along the base of Hermonit. Ben Shaham was killed just before 13:00, a short time before the Syrians withdrew.
Third day
On 8 October, the 7th Brigade fought against elements of the 7th Division, the 3rd Armored Division and independent units, including the Republican Guard. On the brigade's southern flank, Zamir's company fought an armored force that had entered the area during the night. Zamir's force of seven tanks held the attack and eliminated about thirty Syrian tanks, two APC companies and twenty vehicles. In the afternoon, three individual Syrian tank battalion concentrations with armored infantry tried to break through in the Hermonit area. The Syrian artillery identified the Israeli positions and inflicted most of its casualties. The 7th Brigade lost about 50 dead and many wounded, and were left with fewer than 45 working tanks. Ben-Gal decided to create a reserve of five tanks under the command of his operations officer, whom he ordered to move back about half a kilometre away and prepare to block a Syrian breakthrough.
At dusk, Abrash's tank was hit just as he was getting it ready for a new attack, and he was killed. At night, the Syrians attacked the central sector towards Booster. Ben-Gal ordered Zamir's company to counterattack from the flank and the rear of the enemy. Zamir's seven tanks managed to break the attack.
During filming, life imitated art: The actor Aviv Alush, who plays the heroic Yoav, broke his ribs against the rock. The actor jumps up and he starts to scream, he’s like ‘Ah, ah!’ And we film it, and he says ‘No, it’s for real!’ And we’re like ‘Yeah, it’s for real!’ And we keep on shooting,” said director Yaron Zilberman. “We had that [type of] thing several times. We call it the gods of cinema.”
Fourth day
The Northern Command was trying to put together a command reserve, but could only assemble the survivors of the 53rd Battalion. The Barak Brigade had almost ceased to exist: Its commander and key staff officers were dead, and almost all of its troops and equipment were absorbed into other brigades.
Yossi Ben-Chanan, was in Katmandu, Nepal, on honeymoon. It was six years after the Six-day war; Yossi was a lieutenant colonel, commander of an armored battalion, and he had finally gotten away with his new bride, Nati.
They were a couple that represented all that was Israel in the early fall of 1973: young, brimming with enthusiasm and adventure, with the whole world before them and no mountain that could not be conquered. They were traveling the mountain passes of the Himalayas by motorcycle, and had ended up in Katmandu in time for Yom Kippur.
Two days later, having heard the horrible news of the surprise attack on Yom Kippur afternoon, minus their backpacks, which had been thrown off in a mad rush to make a plane from Delhi to Bombay, they boarded an El Al plane headed home to Israel, and to an uncertain future.
On Oct. 9, instead of climbing mountain trails with his new wife, he was climbing into the turret of a Centurion tank to command what was left of the 188th Brigade.
Lieutenant-Colonel Yossi Ben Hanan arrived the night before to take command of what was left of it. He had been the commander of the 53rd Battalion until two weeks earlier, and was on his honeymoon when the war started. He was sent to reorganize the brigade. He teamed with Erez, who had escaped from Tel Faris on Monday morning, and Shmuel Askarov, the 53rd Battalion's deputy commander, to start repairing tanks. At 18:00, he reported to his division commander,
General Rafael Eitan that he was ready to bring forward the thirteen Centurions he had repaired thus far, and was ordered to head for Nafakh. He was on his way when the IAF confirmed that about 100 Syrian tanks were headed toward the 7th Brigade's sector. One air photo depicted a complete Syrian battalion of thirty-eight T-62s and four BMPs.
The 7th Brigade, including reinforcements, totaled some twenty tanks. It began to pursue the Syrians but stopped at the anti-tank ditch. About 260 tanks were lying in the valley. The Syrians lost over 500 tanks and APCs and the Israelis lost 60 to 80 armored vehicles. One brigade from the 7th Division was taken out of action for three days and then reorganized as a battalion. Eitan told the 7th Brigade over the radio: "You have saved the people of Israel". Ben Gal told Kahalani: "You are the true savior of the people of Israel".] In the afternoon, the brigade's tanks pulled back a few at a time for ammunition and fuel. Ben Gal told Kahalani that the brigade has been ordered to counterattack into Syria. Eitan asked him to attack the next day, so as not to allow the Syrians time to reorganize,
The heroic stand of the 7th Armored Brigade and Yanush Ben-Gal's personal heroism and leadership are believed by many to be decisive factors in the Israeli victory over the Syrians.
But Ben Gal asked for a day to allow his men to rest and refill the ranks.
Tal Aluf ( (Brigadier General) Avigdor Kahalani was later awarded the Medal of Valor for his performance in the battle. Kahalani is a former Israeli soldier and politician. He was born in 1944, June 16th in Israel and was 29 years old in the Yom Kippur Golan battle, a true warrior. Avigdor Kahalani was born in Ness Ziona during the Mandate era. His parents, Moshe and Sarah Kahalani, were Yemenite-Jewish immigrants originally from Sana'a. Kahalani studied mechanics at the ORT School in Jaffa. He gained a B.A. in History from Tel Aviv University and an M.A. in Political Science from Haifa University. He also attended the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and graduated from Israel's National Defense College.
Kahalani was conscripted into the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in 1962, and joined the 7th Brigade of the IDF Armored Corps. He started as a regular soldier, but later completed a tank commander's course with honors. He then completed an officer's course with honors at Bahad 1, and became a career officer in the IDF. In 1964, he was part of an IDF delegation to West Germany to receive the IDF's first M48 Patton tanks.
When the Yom Kippur War broke out in 1973, Kahalani was a 29-year-old lieutenant colonel and battalion commander. He served as commander of the Centurion-equipped 77th Armored Battalion of the 7th Brigade on the Golan Heights. Kahalani's battalion – along with other elements of the 7th Armored Brigade – engaged in fierce defensive fighting against a vastly superior Syrian mechanized force, consisting of more than 50,000 men and 1,200 tanks. The battle proved to be one of the turning points of the war. After the war, the valley where it took place was littered with hundreds of destroyed and abandoned Syrian tanks and was renamed "Emek Ha-Bacha" ("The Valley of Tears"). For his actions during the war Kahalani received the highest Israeli military decoration, the Medal of Valor.
Decades after the battle, analysts were still presenting differing reasons for the Syrian withdrawal. In 1990, Patrick Seale argued that the reason why the Syrians were stopped was the superiority of the IAF, which was free to devote all of its attention to the Syrian front. In 2002, Kenneth Pollack wrote that the Syrian forces did not look for an alternative axis of advance and rolled forward without defending their flanks. In 1998, Martin Van Creveld suggested the explanation that on October 8 (though the Syrians did not withdraw until more losses on October 9), when Israel felt that the battle was being lost, it threatened Syria with a nuclear strike.
Let's face it. It was again,, like the miracle of winning in 1967. Things fell into place.
Some of these same soldiers also fought in 1967's 6 day war.
The Golan Heights are a rocky plateau in Western Asia that was captured by Israel from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War. The international community recognizes the Golan Heights to be official Syrian territory and widely rejects Israeli military occupation. Following the war, Syria dismissed any negotiations with Israel as part of the Khartoum Resolution, which took place in Khartoum, Africa. All the Arab leaders met there and decided on the 3 No's: which meant that they would never have peace with Israel and never recognize Israel as a state. They have never changed this.
The Golan was under military administration until the Knesset passed the Golan Heights Law in 1981, which applied Israeli law to the territory; a move that has been described as an annexation. In response, the United Nations Security Council unanimously passed UNSC Resolution 497 which condemned the Israeli actions to change the status of the territory declaring them "null and void and without international legal effect", and that the Golan remained an occupied territory. In 2019, the United States with Donald Trump as president, became the only state to recognize the Golan Heights as Israeli sovereign territory, while the rest of the international community continues to consider the territory Syrian held under Israeli military occupation.
The Golan Heights Today
Druze sector
There are approximately 22,000 Arabs, including at least 17,000 , living in the Golan Heights today. In contrast to 1948-1967, when civilian infrastructure and services were almost completely neglected by successive Syrian governments, Israel has invested substantial sums in either installing or upgrading electric and water systems, in agricultural improvements and job training, and in building health clinics, where none had existed previously. The inhabitants also enjoy the benefits of Israel's welfare and social security programs. Israel has built or refurbished schools and classrooms, extended compulsory education from seven years to ten, and made secondary education available to girls for the first time. The Golan's Druze residents enjoy complete freedom of worship; the Israeli authorities have made financial contributions and tax and customs rebates to the local religious establishments.
Jewish sector
Today, there are approximately 26,000 Jewish residents in 33 communities (27 kibbutzim and moshavim, 5 communal settlements and the town of ) on the Golan Heights and the slopes of . (Katzrin has its own mayor and local council; the other 32 communities form the Golan Heights Regional Council.)
Syria never signed a peace agreement with Israel and remains technically at war. For Israel, relinquishing the Golan to a hostile could jeopardize its early-warning system against surprise attack. Israel has built radars on Mt. Hermon, the highest point in the region. If Israel withdrew from the Golan and had to relocate these facilities to the lowlands of the Galilee, they would lose much of their strategic effectiveness.
Resource:
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/history-and-overview-of-the-golan-heights
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valley_of_Tears
https://www.jta.org/2020/11/13/culture/hbo-series-valley-of-tears-reopens-wounds-
of-the-yom-kippur-war
https://www.thejewishstar.com/stories/a-sukkot-reminder-everything-in-life-is-
fragile,14517
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Status_of_the_Golan_Heights
fantastic article nadene, i love this. and the odds not in israel's favor!
ReplyDeletebut God!
God has His eye and His hand on His people and His land ;) and has He given her brave and devoted men to keep her lamp lit among the nations!