Wednesday, October 07, 2020
Elder of Ziyon
I can understand why Egypt celebrates the October 1973/Yom Kippur War. In the end, it was the spark that resulted in Israel returning the Sinai to Egypt.
But Syria also celebrates the war. There were numerous articles and videos in the official Syrian SANA news agency on October 6, the anniversary of the start of the war.
This article assured readers that Arabs in the Golan Heights were eager for Syria to take over the area again. (This is emphatically not true.)
This article talks with Syrian soldiers who are near the border with Israel.
This article talks with veterans of the war and celebrates their "victory," convinced that it was chapter one in a story that will end one day with a glorious Syrian victory.
This article tries to explain why the war was considered a victory - because it was not a clear defeat:
The October War of Liberation led by the founding leader Hafez al-Assad formed the compass of the struggle to liberate the usurped land and restore Arab rights. It was a clear declaration of the beginning of the era of victories and the end of the era of defeats. The October War of Liberation was the first war in the Arab-Israeli conflict that broke the wall of despair after the June setback in 1967 and consecrated the fact that Syria is the fortress of the steadfast Arab nation that defends its existence and future.
They don't mention that by the end of the war, Israel had pushed way past the 1967 Purple Line and was shelling the outskirts of Damascus.
Some victory!
