Lessons from the Yom Kippur war, 50 years on – and why it matters today

As the world holds its breath and leaders meet in an attempt to stop the Israel-Gaza conflict from escalating, author Uri Kaufman revisits the Yom Kippur war, which brought the world close to nuclear war, and looks at what stopped it

Israeli troops take position with an anti-aircraft gun on 12 October1973 (AFP via Getty )

It was 50 years ago, on 6 October, and I was a nine-year-old boy running around in the New Haven synagogue in Connecticut where my father was the rabbi when I came upon a group of men huddled in a corner. Children are not expected to fast on Yom Kippur, but that did not reduce my embarrassment the year before when I had been caught eating an ice cream. My childish mind wondered if the gentlemen were also engaging in similar secret culinary infractions.

But as I got closer, I could see how serious their faces were as they huddled around a transistor radio. Dazed and in shock, they were listening to the news of a surprise attack on Israel by the combined armies of Egypt and Syria. Launched on the Jewish holiday, the Arabs went to war to reclaim the lands they had lost in the 1967 six-day war.

The world would look on in horror for 18 days as the parties engaged in some of the largest tank battles in history. By the time the conflict, now known as the Yom Kippur war, ended, an estimated 20,000 men were dead. The global economy was shaken to its foundation by an oil embargo, while the superpowers had been pushed to the brink of a third world war.