2023-10-01 08:45:18
Hero in Israel for his role on the Syrian front during the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, Avigdor Kahalani estimates fifty years after the fact that despite the human losses, this conflict had “the effect of a slap in the face” beneficial to his country.
Severely burned during the fighting against Egypt during the Arab-Israeli War of June 1967, through which Israel conquered the Sinai, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and part of the Golan Heights, taken from Syria, this officer of active returns to service after a year in hospital and multiple operations.
When the war broke out on October 6, 1973, Lieutenant Colonel Kahalani was, at the age of 29, leader of the 77th tank battalion, which had just been transferred to the Golan.
Israel is at a standstill for Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, one of the high points of the Jewish liturgical calendar, and the joint offensive of Egypt, to the south, and Syria, to the north, takes the country from short.
“The ratio of forces was roughly eight to ten (Syrian) tanks to one Israeli tank. Their tanks were better than ours (…). Someone looking from the outside would have said: they have no chance,” he adds.
Avigdor Kahalani (with beard) and his crew in 1973 (IDF)
” Earn “
On October 9, Israeli forces seemed on the verge of giving in. The Syrian army directly threatens Israeli territory, but will be cut off in its momentum by Colonel Kahalani’s unit and other battalions of the 7th brigade.
“I had to lead the attack to reconquer the heights from where we could stop them and, on this line, around 160 tanks came and we were only ten or twelve tanks,” says the former tanker.
After a fierce battle, the Syrians retreated. The officer alone would have put 45 tanks out of action out of some 150 destroyed by his unit.
“There is a critical moment when you have mobilized almost every muscle in your body for four days almost without food, without sleep, you have only a few ammunition left in your tank, you mobilize (…) every thought, to be better than them and win,” recalls Mr. Kahalani, a living legend in Israel, regularly invited to speak to young conscripts.
Avigdor Kahalani “displayed remarkable leadership ability and personal heroism in a difficult and complicated battle, the results of which were a game-changer for the Golan Heights campaign,” says the citation accompanying the medal. Bravery, the Israeli army’s highest distinction, which was awarded to him in 1975.
“Sacred Cows”
After the initial debacle, Israel, supported by an intense American airlift, ended up rectifying the situation until the conclusion of a ceasefire validated by the UN on October 25.
Despite the scale of human losses on the Israeli side (more than 2,600 dead in three weeks of combat, for at least 9,500 dead and missing on the Arab side), Mr. Kahalani, who lost one of his brothers in this conflict, believes that the war was “healthy for the people of Israel”.
“It had the effect of a slap in the face which brought us back a little to lucidity”, after the euphoria of the lightning victory of 1967, he said.
“If we had mobilized the reservists two days earlier, it is likely that there would not have been a war (…) but they (the members of Golda Meïr’s government) hesitated (…) and even when there was “There were clear signs that there was going to be war, they continued to be in denial,” said Mr. Kahalani.
According to him, “everything changed after the Yom Kippur War”: “suddenly, there were no more sacred cows”.
Avigdor Kahalani (right) and his crew photo years later, on a Syrian tank (Credit: IDF)
“Moment of truth”
At the end of the war, a commission created to investigate the state of military preparedness of the country and the action of the army after the outbreak of the conflict, led to the resignation of the head of Israeli military intelligence, Eli Zeira, and the chief of staff, David Elazar, in 1974. Golda Meïr, although not directly implicated by the commission, also ended up resigning from her post as Prime Minister the same year.
After his military career, Mr. Kahalani was elected deputy for the Labor Party in 1992, before creating a centrist party and becoming Minister of Internal Security in the first government of Benjamin Netanyahu (1996-1999).
According to him, the 1973 war was the trigger that pushed Israel to develop “much more modern weapons, like (the missile defense system) Iron Dome” and to achieve the military technological advantage it enjoys today. .
But above all, believes Mr. Kahalani, the conflict constituted “a warning” about the “existential danger” which still weighs, according to him, on Israel, and embodied in 2023 by “Iran”.
The Islamic Republic, whose officials regularly call for the “destruction of the Zionist regime”, is accused by Israel of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons, which Tehran denies.
“The moment of truth (…) will come, I have no illusions” and “I hope that when the time comes, there will be courageous leaders in Israel,” said Mr. Kahalani, alluding to a possible Israeli military action against Iran, as Mr. Netanyahu again threatened on September 22 at the UN.
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