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27/10/2023–|Last updated: 10/27/202308:07 PM (Mecca time)
Occupied Jerusalem- The former US ambassador to Israel, Martin Indyk, said that the “Al-Aqsa Flood” battle and the sudden attack by the Hamas movement on Israeli settlements on October 7th, takes the world back 50 years, when the October 1973 war broke out, “as it was confirmed once again that the situation in… The Middle East has not changed, and the continued existence of Israel depends on the United States of America and its support.”
Indyk’s statements – the former American envoy to the Middle East peace process – were made in an interview with the newspaper “Yedioth Ahronoth” on the eve of the publication of his new book “Master of the Game” in Hebrew, where the American diplomat explained why the shock of the Hamas attack was greater than the surprise of the October 1973 war. .
In his interview, Indyk reviewed what US President Joe Biden has realized with regard to the Israelis, and highlighted the big difference between the era of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and the era of former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and the late Egyptian President Mohamed Anwar Sadat. He also reviewed the role of then US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger during the Yom Kippur War.
Between the October War and the Al-Aqsa flood
Indyk said in his interview with the newspaper, “There are many similarities between the Yom Kippur War and this terrible tragedy that occurred in the Battle of Al-Aqsa Flood,” and he adds, “The element of surprise, and the failure of intelligence, these matters are very similar, even if the details are different.”
Indyk explained that the broader failure in dealing with Hamas’s sudden attack on the “Gaza envelope” and Israeli towns in the south is the loss of deterrence power, and Israel’s excessive self-confidence, which is also reminiscent of the “Yom Kippur War.”
“But the failure of the Israeli army’s immediate response to Hamas’ surprise attack was much worse.” Indyk adds, “On Yom Kippur, we were surprised, but the response was immediate. Israeli Air Force planes took off within minutes.”
As for the “Al-Aqsa Flood” battle, he says, “It is unimaginable that it took 10 hours for the Israeli soldiers to reach the Gaza Strip. It is simply unimaginable, and I do not know if anyone has a reasonable explanation for that.”
Repeated trauma and fracture
The American diplomat says, “We realized that in 1973, Anwar Sadat went to war to create conditions for peace, and this is not what Hamas does. It is a “terrorist” organization that has no nuances, and it wants to eliminate Israel.”
Regarding the comparison of the first days between the two wars, Indyk replied, “As happened in 1973, I think people still do not understand the severity of the shock resulting from the collapse of everything we believed in. When I went to study in Jerusalem, it was in the midst of euphoria after the Six-Day War, and then “The blow came.”
The former American ambassador added, “All the security theories we thought were thrown out the window and no longer have any value. The shock of the October War broke us, left a deep fracture, and it took a long time to understand its depth, and even a longer time to recover from it and wake up from the horror of the surprise.”
He pointed out that the Israeli public during the “Kippur War” lost confidence in the government, and no longer believed anyone at the political or military level. It did not comprehend or understand how this happened to the army, and it lived in a state of severe loss of self-confidence, and “all of this was repeated 50 years later with an attack.” Hamas,” according to his description.
“Uncle Joe guards Israel”
The White House identified the delay in the Israeli response in the Battle of Al-Aqsa Flood when fighting was still continuing in the settlements surrounding the Gaza Strip, as there was a loss of confidence and a leadership vacuum in Israel.
Indyk says, “Biden announced America’s defense of Israel, in addition to the unprecedented visit to Tel Aviv.” He believes that what Biden did in the early days of the surprise attack and war on Gaza was much more important than what his new admirers in Israel now appreciate.
He said, “Biden understood what Bill Clinton understood when Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated. These two presidents saw the collapse of self-confidence and the enormous anxiety in Israel, and they realized that their primary mission is to make the people in Israel understand that they are not alone.”
The American diplomat believes that this is the first time that Israeli society has experienced a “national shock” of this magnitude. “Maybe they don’t understand the psychological importance of the fact that Uncle Joe from America is watching over and protecting them,” he said.
Netanyahu’s theory failed
In response to a question about Netanyahu’s performance, Indyk replied, “Israel has a long history of leaders who were faced with challenges, existential risks, and responsibilities that weighed heavily on their shoulders, to the point that these responsibilities were too heavy for them.”
Indyk explained that in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan believed that Israel was finished, and Prime Minister Golda Meir said in her memoirs that she contemplated suicide. It was also very difficult for Yitzhak Rabin in 1973 after Meir’s resignation. “As for Netanyahu, he is going through great difficulty this year.”
The American diplomat pointed out that the theory adopted by Netanyahu to “contain Hamas” collapsed and failed, pointing out that the Israeli Prime Minister told the Israelis, “We can make peace with the Arabs without the Palestinians, and we will adopt a policy of divide and rule, and there is no Palestinian partner for peace, and he was promoting that the issue Palestine no longer exists, and the majority of the Israeli public believes him.”
The Palestinian issue was not on the agenda at all in all the recent election campaigns that Israel witnessed. Indyk says, “Promoting as if there was no Palestinian issue was misleading. Netanyahu’s theory was a distortion and a wrong perception that led to catastrophic loss of life. In the end, there is only one path: negotiations, agreement, and separation.”
