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Why This War…
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 January 2009
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The course of events in the Middle East since 6 October 1973 has been as surprising and as unexpected as the very events of that day. In retrospect, of course, the surprises of that day have been depreciated and obscured by journalists, scholars, and politicians who have begun to treat the outbreak of the war as part of a chain of natural developments initiated in June 1967, or in May 1948, or in 1897 depending upon their historical bent. But hindsight notwithstanding, no one expected war to break out in the Middle East in 1973. For this reason, the decision to launch a war against Israel must be examined for what it was: a complex calculation encompassing not one or two but a broad range of considerations. The decision to go to war is never a commonplace decision, nor is it one taken lightly or made naturally – not even in the Middle East. Rather, it is a complex phenomenon whose threads must be unraveled in order to be understood.
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References
page 523 note 1 This orientation has been obvious in accounts of the October War offered by Israeli scholars and journalists which have appeared in Ha-Aretz and Ma‘ariv. See especially an interview with Professor Yehoshafat Harkabi, Ma‘ariv, 24 December 1973, or the column ‘Bayn Sheshet ha-Yamim le-Yom ha-Kippurim’ [Between the Six Days and Yom Kippur] Mal'ariv, 6 July 1974.Google Scholar
page 523 note 2 For this reason the warnings of the possibility of war coming from an Israeli intelligence officer, David Siman Toy, could be dismissed.Google Scholar
page 524 note 1 The most comprehensive accounts to appear thus far are: Lucius D. Battle, ‘The Arabs: Why Now?’ New York Times Magazine, 21 October 1973;Google ScholarDraper, Theodore, ‘The Road to Geneva’, Commentary, 57, 2 (02 1974), 23–37;Google ScholarLaqueur, Walter, Confrontation: The Middle East and World Politics (New York: Quadrangle, 1974);Google ScholarRa'anan, Un, ‘Soviet Policy in the Middle East, 1969–1973’, Midstream, 19, 10 (12 1973), 23–45;Google ScholarSafran, Nadav, ‘The War and the Future of the Arab–Israeli Conflict’, Foreign Affairs, 52, 2 (01 1974), 215–36;CrossRefGoogle ScholarSheehan, Edward R. F., ‘Sadat's War’, New York Times Magazine, 18 November 1973;Google ScholarWaterbury, John, The Crossing, American Universities Field Staff, 18, 6.Google Scholar
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