In the opening panel of a special three-day anniversary event, experts and former officials from Egypt, Israel, and the United States discussed the conflict’s enduring lessons for peacemaking and statesmanship today.
Friday marks the 50th anniversary of the fourth Arab-Israeli Middle-East war. Called the Yom Kippur War, as Egypt and Syria attacked on Judaism's holiest day, and the Ramadan War, it occurred in October 1973.
When you compare the situation at the beginning of the war to the situation at the end, there is no escaping the obvious conclusion that it was a huge victory.
At the end of 1973, Israelis were hurting, apprehensive, and unsure. Although the country had successfully resisted a powerful assault, there was no celebration, but a pervasive dispiritedness.