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Remembering the war between wars
By Nachman Shai
Military victories are meaningless if they fail to lead to lasting political achievements. The writer, director-general of the United Jewish Communities-Israel, was the IDF spokesman during the 1991 Gulf War.
This year's Yom Ha'atzma'ut medals were distributed to fighters from the War of Attrition. At a Beit Hanassi ceremony, former IDF commanders headed by Maj.-Gen. (res.) Ariel Sharon became the first to receive their decorations. Nearly 300,000 soldiers who participated in Israel's longest campaign will get their turn.
By finally granting these medals, Israel is doing justice not only to the fighters, but to history.
The War of Attrition, also known as The Thousand-Day War, did not start on an exact date. It was actually a continuation of the Six Day War. Shortly after the Sinai was captured, IDF soldiers were happily wading in the Suez Canal when the first Egyptian shells were lobbed at them.
The fire was sporadic at first, then gradually intensified, moving from light firearms to mortar, and from mortar to artillery. Next came Egyptian incursions and ambushes of the Sinai outposts. The calm that followed the Six Day War had turned out to be false. Flak jackets replaced bathing suits. Soldiers entered well-protected trenches that stretched along the waterfront.
The defensive positions were compared to the Maginot Line, which the Germans crushed when they attacked France.
The attrition came as a surprise to Israel, which found itself worn down by small battles, unimportant in themselves. But the damage was cumulative: the slight trickle of casualties became substantial. It was a war for which Israel was not prepared.
ISRAEL'S DEFENSE doctrine had been based on initiative and offense. Orde Wingate trained the pre-state Palmah to employ small units for special operations beyond enemy lines. Later in the War of Independence, in post-independence retaliatory operations, and in the 1956 Sinai Campaign, the IDF adopted offensive mobile operations.
Generations of fighters were raised on the doctrine that Israel cannot afford to wait for an attack, and so must always take preemptive action.
The Six Day War brought that strategy to its peak. The surprise air offensive illustrated how a small country could exploit its weaponry for maximum impact. The rest is history.
With the War of Attrition the advantage of offensive skill, mobility, and surprise disappeared. Ground war is the Arabs' strong point. They always had high capabilities in manufacturing artillery and missiles.
Israel did use long-range raids on the ground and in the air. It attacked the Egyptian rear, caused heavy casualties - many times more than it took - but these operations had only temporary value. The Egyptians continued shooting. Slowly they improved their air defense. Even though in aerial dogfights Israel had an advantage, Egyptian anti-aircraft fire became increasingly accurate. When IAF planes began getting hit in large numbers, Israel realized it was time to seek a cease-fire.
That was the hardest moment in the War of Attrition, the moment Israel wished to forget. Israel was forced to reach a cease-fire out of an inability to cope with the Egyptian aerial defense.
The Americans took advantage of this to force tough negotiations on the Israelis and Egyptians. They managed to achieve a mutual freeze of positions on both sides of the canal.
Right after the cease-fire the Egyptians moved their anti-aircraft batteries toward the canal and created a permanent threat to the movement of Israeli Air Force planes over the Sinai.
Even though they failed and Israel did not retreat from the waterfront, the canal remained closed. And even though the Egyptians suffered thousands of casualties, Israel achieved no real victory.
Military victories, as great as they may be, are meaningless if they fail to lead to lasting political achievements. Thus, the War of Attrition encouraged the Egyptians three years later to launch the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
Only belatedly would peace be reached between Israel and Egypt, our harshest enemy.
War of Attrition veterans - the hundreds of thousands who will receive their medals shortly - will rightfully be receiving them. Finally their long, Sisyphean and unglamorous fighting is being recognized as having paved the way to peace.
In many homes those medals will hang on walls; their owners are dead. Unfortunately, that is the price Israel paid then, and has been paying since, to walk the line between war and peace.
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