A Watershed in Retrospect (The Yom Kippur War Twenty Years On - RAK REKA No. 18)

Implications – The Aftermath

1. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PEACE PROCESS

Following the Yom Kippur War, Israeli society was in turmoil, and public outcry led the government to set up the Agranat Commission of Inquiry, leading to the resignation of Prime Minister Golda Meir.

The War brought about a change in the equations of the Arab-Israeli conflict, which can be said to have paved the way for the peace process. Although Israel won the war, the initial battering taken by the IDF allowed the Arabs to overcome past humiliations and meet the Israelis as equals. On November 19, 1977, Anwar al-Sadat, President of Egypt, came to Jerusalem and made a speech in the Knesset. This marked the beginning of negotiations under the auspices of Jimmy Carter, then US President. The process embarked upon by the Egyptian President in 1971 (which would cost him his life on October 6, 1981) came full cycle when the first Peace Treaty between Israel and an Arab state was signed in Washington on March 26, 1979, by Anwar al-Sadat and Israel's Prime Minister, Menachem Begin, and Israel returned the entire Sinai Peninsula to Egypt.

But the great expectations created by peace did not entirely materialize:

• None of Israel's other neighbors followed the Egyptian example and Palestinian terrorism grew, particularly after the PLO established bases in Lebanon, a country torn by civil war.
• Israel's "Operation Peace for Galilee", in June 1982, became the fifth war - although since the Yom Kippur War, there has been no direct Syria-Israel confrontation. This serves further to confirm the dictum that, "one can't make war without Egypt, or peace without Syria".

In the administered territories, the Intifada (Palestinian Uprising) which began in December 1987, demonstrated the impasse between the two peoples.

On January 16, 1991, the Gulf War began: the PLO supported Iraq and the divide between Israel and the Palestinians seemed greater than ever. Nevertheless, the outcome of the war was a change in the balance of power in the Middle East, creating a climate which was favorable to the initiation of peace negotiations.

The Madrid Conference which opened on October 30, 1991, brought Israel and her neighbors (Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and the Palestinians) together for the first time. The dissolution of the USSR was an important factor in changing _e balance of power, but equally important was the change of attitude caused by the Yom Kippur War when all the countries of the region realized " lat no military solution was going to resolve the problems of the Middle East.

2. PROTEST MOVEMENTS AFTER THE WAR

Mass protest movements appeared in Israel for the first time. Commander Motti Ashkenazi's solo demonstration (he served on the Bar-Lev Line) calling for the resignation of those responsible for "negligence", rallied the masses with incredible, speed. Without any prior organization, thousands of soldiers returning home joined the violent demonstrations. These gave rise to protest movements involving young people from across the political spectrum - farmers, officers and intellectuals.

• The outcry led to the appointment of the Agranat Commission to investigate the events at the outset of the war - and the decision not to mobilize the reserves before the outbreak of the war and not to launch a pre-emptive strike. Their findings brought about the fall of Golda Meir's government, her replacement by Yitzchak Rabin and the resignation of the Chief Staff, David (Dado) Elazar.
• In the longer term, the Yom Kippur war "earthquake" was to topple the Labor Party from power in May 1977 and bring in the first right-wing coalition in Israel's history, led by Menachem Begin.

The protest movements failed, however, to become a recognized force in Israeli political life; nor did they create a framework for ongoing activity, being content to voice reasoned criticism and praise values such as voluntarism, justice and the righting of wrongs.

They were on target in their assumption that there is a connection between Israel's laissez-faire attitude in security matters and the frenetic search for personal pleasure, but they were not successful in creating a common ideological basis which would have enabled them to deal with Israeli society's complex problems. These lobbies tend to thrive for about a year or two at a time and disappear, as everyone returns to their own private and public lives.

These movements are, in essence, the expression of the young and middle generations' lack of faith in the traditional establishment and its political parties. Is joining a political party really the best way to influence public life in Israel - or is it merely a trampoline for professional politicians to consolidate their personal power-base and reach the Knesset, as the "new left" spokespeople claim? Views on this issue are more divided than ever.

Another result of the wave of protest was the establishment of the "Shinui" (Change) party in 1974, which merged with Yig'al Yadin's "Democratic Movement" in 1976. As the "Dash" party they managed to gain 15% of the votes in the 1977 elections from people who perceived the Labor Party as representing the "system" they wished to challenge. Dash eventually foundered on its vague responses on major issues.

The trauma experienced by the young generation after the Yom Kippur War not only affected their confidence in the establishment. They grew to believe that they themselves had to act to prevent another such war or one more serious, because the traditional leadership was incapable of taking such action.

Two extra-parliamentary popular, political movements were born - "Gush Emunim", after the '73 War, and later - "Shalom Achshav", after the initial social protest movements died down, and in conjunction with the election earthquake of 1977, which toppled the Labor government and brought the Likud to power for the first time, under Menachem Begin.

Shalom Achshav (Peace Now)

The movement comprises activists from the middle classes, kibbutzim, liberal circles and intellectuals. It is independent of any political party and noteworthy for its success in its campaigns.

It calls for restitution of land captured in 1967 under the heading, "Shalom (peace) is better than a Greater Israel". Shalom Achshav was enthusiastic about the Camp David Accords and extremely active during the Lebanon War, where it called for IDF withdrawal.

It remains within the left-wing consensus, despite the creation of new caucuses alongside it, and is actively involved in promoting the Oslo Accords, the Road Map, and monitoring the expansion of Israeli settlements.

Gush Emunim (Bloc of the Faithful)

This is a religious-political movement created to empower the belief that 1948 was the "beginning of the Redemption", and that the Jewish people has a right to settle in all of historic Eretz-Yisrael, which will bring total redemption. Its founders originated with the National Religious Party, the Land of Israel Movement (which included non-religious activists), students of the Merkaz Harav Yeshiva, Bnei Akiva yeshivot, university students and faculty and the religious young generation.

In its heyday, the settler movement affiliated with it, but this equation was largely reversed in the 1990s, with the bloc being more or less submerged insided the different right-wing alliances opposing the outcomes of the Oslo accords.

References

Alon, Moni, The Eternal Hope: Youth and Social Change (Ivrit)
Barnavi, Eli, A Historical Atlas of the Jewish People, Hutchinson, London, 1992
Encyclopedia Judaica, Decennial

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