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PURELY COMMENTARY
the enemy strike first. At 2
p.m. sharp, Egypt and Syria
launched a coordinated, all-
out assault throughout Israel,
hoping to finally avenge the
humiliation of 1967 and wipe
the Jewish State off the map.
TIME TO PANIC
Golda Meir was in a panic.
She called Secretary of State
Henry Kissinger and begged
him to convince President
Richard Nixon to immediately
airlift much-needed supplies,
including approximately 100
fighter jets. Kissinger failed to
see the urgency.
Meir finally tried appealing
to Kissinger as a fellow Jew.
“Henry, you’re a Jew!” she
told him. According to Meir,
Kissinger said, “Golda, you
must remember that I’m an
American first, the secretary
of state second and a Jew
third,” to which Golda Meir
famously said, “Henry, in
Hebrew we read from right to
left.”
Soon thereafter, the
weapons were released, and
Israel was able to avert an
existential disaster. Israel
could publicly claim victory
and indeed large territorial
gains were made but, in
reality, it also felt like a defeat.
Israel had been punched in
the gut like never before; its
aura of invincibility forever
shattered.
But there was another key
lesson that Israel learned from
the Yom Kippur War. In 1967,
despite its stunning victory, it
faced a huge public relations
backlash for striking first, as
many countries — including
many anti-Israel voices in the
U.S. — claimed the strikes
violated international law.
The specter of that backlash
loomed so large for Golda
Meir that she was willing to
accept initial Israeli casualties.
But after Oct. 6, 1973,
Israel would never again
allow public relations to take
precedence over Israeli lives.
As Golda Meir herself later
noted, “If we have to choose
between being dead and
pitied, and being alive with a
bad image, we’d rather be alive
and have the bad image.”
Since then, Israel routinely
deploys preemptive strikes
whenever it perceives a
serious external threat, as
evidenced in Iraq (1981),
Lebanon (1982), Operation
Defensive Shield in the West
Bank (2002), Operation
Breaking Dawn in Gaza
(2022), drone strikes in Iran,
Syria (2018 and 2023), the
recent excursion in Jenin and
multiple other times.
In 2023, it is unthinkable
that Israel would learn that a
massive attack against them
is imminent and yet sit on its
hands in the hopes of pleasing
the world.
Those days forever ended
on Oct. 6, 1973, the Day of
Atonement.
Today, Israel’s enemies can
celebrate their big victory
on that day. They can name
bridges and schools after
the date, and they can lie to
tourists about the meaning
of the date. But they entirely
miss the point of how that day
forever transformed Israel.
Fifty years later, the world
fully understands that
Israel will never again be so
unprepared for war, and that it
doesn’t give a damn about its
public image when it comes to
protecting the precious lives of
its people.
Mark Jacobs is the co-founder and
chair of the JFS Legal Referral Service.
The Radomer Aid
Society
C O R D I A L LY I N V I T E S Y O U
T O A T T E N D I T S
“Centennial” Celebration Dinner
Wed. | Oct. 18, 2023 | 6:00 pm
Congregation Beth Ahm
5075 West Maple Rd., West Bloomfield, MI
$100/person
Cocktails | Hors d’Oeuvres | Dinner
Guest Speaker
Professor Howard Lupovitch
Please RSVP by October 10, 2023
Sandra Tuttleman | 248.757.2349
Supports many local charities
Come celebrate the Jewish spirit with the
descendants of Radomer!