Morning of Yom Kippur War: Cabinet rejects call for preemptive strike

[shira]

Six hours before war breaks out, Golda convenes cabinet for consultation. IDF chief Dado says preemptive strike would give Israel 'huge advantage and save many lives,' but prime minister and Dayan reject idea: 'It's tempting, but world will portray us as the aggressors.' Minutes of dramatic meeting released
Yaron Druckman
Published: 10.06.10, 09:52 / Israel News


Morning of Yom Kippur War - the fiasco revealed. Six hours before the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War, Prime Minister Golda Meir's cabinet meets with IDF chief of staff David "Dado" Elazar and IDF Intelligence chief Eli Zeira. The minutes of the top secret meeting, released by the State Archives overnight Wednesday, reveal the scope of the fiasco. The army chief informs the ministers of a dramatic message relayed by Egyptian billionaire Ashraf Marwan, who spied for Israel, of the impending war.

Elazar says the communiqué is authentic, but Defense Minister Moshe Dayan still opposes a preemptive strike and a general call up of army reserves ("They'll say we are the aggressors"), the head of IDF Intelligence is overconfident ("They know they will lose") and Golda says, "As for a preemptive strike, the heart is tempted, but we'll see."

During the meeting, which began at 8:05 am on October 6, 1973, Dayan discusses Israel's Arab minority, and calls on the government to sustain a "liberal policy." He also suggests evacuated children from the Golan Heights. Meir says the children should be evacuated "now, and not on the eve of the operation." The IDF chief intervenes: "This is the eve of the operation."

Dayan brings up the communiqués between Jordan, Egypt and Syria, but is against "warning the Jordanian king at this time." However, he adds, should Jordan activate its radars, Israel will "take them out."

more...
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3965041,00.html

[oberliner]

1. A lot of documents seem to have been recently released on this topic

Interesting stuff.

[shira]

2. Yeah, interesting that way back in 1973 Israel felt it needed to sacrifice its citizens...

....so that bigots couldn't accuse Israel of another preemptive strike like in 1967.

It's no wonder bigots today feel empowered to tell Israel it has no right (unlike other countries) to defend its citizens.

[oberliner]

3. The Yom Kippur War: The Epic Encounter That Transformed the Middle East

Well-worth reading:

http://www.amazon.com/Yom-Kippur-War-Encounter-Transformed/dp/0805241760

Much of it can be read for free at Google Books.