The state of Israel has a basic, inescapable geopolitical dilemma: Its national security requirements outstrip its military capabilities, making it dependent on an outside power. Not only must that power have significant military capabilities but it also must have enough common ground with Israel to align its foreign policy toward the Arab world with that of Israel’s. These are rather heavy requirements for such a small nation.

Security, in the Israeli sense, is thus often characterized in terms of survival. And for Israel to survive, it needs just the right blend of geopolitical circumstance, complex diplomatic arrangements and military preparedness to respond to potential threats nearby.

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Imagine what it would be like if 15 per cent of New Zealand were living every day under direct fire.

Imagine if every person in greater Wellington or Christchurch lived in fear of an imminent rocket attack. Imagine all the schools closed in a 40km radius of either city. Imagine not waking up to the sounds of nature but sirens calling everyone into bomb shelters and stairways.

Sadly, this isn’t a situation my countrymen need to imagine. Once again it has become a terrifying fact of life for the one million souls who inhabit southern Israel.

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With Yom Kippur recently celebrated, Bruce Thompson gave an interesting presentation on the Yom Kippur War, fought in October 1973.   The Yom Kippur war was a seminal conflict for Israel.  But then which isn’t?  Egypt and Syria had been looking for a face saver following their decisive defeat in 1967.  Their arms build up in the aftermath of that war was dismissed by Israel’s intelligence agencies based on the assumption that they would not want to repeat their 1967 humiliation.

Sadat fuelled this complacency by repeatedly threatening military action in the months leading up to the invasion without following through.  Despite reports of unusually high concentrations of military troops near the border and even a warning from a high-ranking spy, Israel chose to do nothing.  Later the world learnt that this decision was in part based on a lack of US Support for a pre-emptive strike.  The US wanted a political advantage, the moral high ground by allowing the Arabs to attack first.  How influential this actually was, continues to be debated.

The Egyptians intended a limited war with the goal of winning control of both banks of the Suez Canal under the protective umbrella of a Anti-Aircraft Missile network built on the Western Bank of the Canal.  Without air superiority, their plan originally intended to avoid pressing deeper into Israeli territory.  The Syrians intended to seize back the Golan Heights.

Egypt and Syria invaded on October 6.  Military surprise was achieved and the Arabs fulfilled their objectives to their schedule.  Israel suffered heavy losses as they encountered new technologies introduced since the 1967 war:  sophisticated SAM batteries and portable anti-tank AT-3 Sagger wire-guided anti-tank missiles.  Egypt departed from its original plan and sent its troops beyond its SAM umbrella which ultimately led to its defeat.  The Syrians were not able to make their objectives before the Israeli army was fully mobilized.  Eventually the tide turned and Israel began to take Syrian territory.  The same was being mirrored on the Southern front.  Israeli forces were within 60km of Cairo.  With oil prices spiking, there was considerable international pressure to negotiate a cease fire. A cease fire eventually came into force on October 25.

The War resulted in the fall of the Meir government, the early retirement, and/or resignations from Israeli senior officers, an acknowledgement from Egypt that they could not defeat Israel.  The war also challenged many American assumptions; the United States initiated new efforts at mediation and peacemaking. These changes paved the way for the subsequent peace process. The Camp David Accords that followed led to the return of the Sinai to Egypt and normalized relations—the first peaceful recognition of Israel by an Arab country.  The Egypt-Israel peace pact signed by Sadat and Begin continues to be honoured today.  The Arab World, which had been humiliated by the lopsided rout of the Egyptian–Syrian–Jordanian alliance in the Six-Day War, felt psychologically vindicated by early successes in the conflict. In Israel, despite impressive operational and tactical achievements on the battlefield, the war effectively ended its sense of invincibility and complacency.  Egypt continued its drift away from the Soviet Union and left the Soviet sphere of influence entirely.  New tactics were also developed to counter new SAM missile and portable anti-tank missile technologies.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Barry Thompson is Vice-President of NZFOI and has been a member for over 20 years.  A staunch supporter of Israel, he is also has a keen interest in Military History.

Rockets rising from Gaza on their way to Israel

Hamas claims responsibility for rockets; IDF intercepts 8 rockets fired toward Ashkelon; IAF strikes kill 4 Hamas members; southern local authorities cancel school.

Palestinians fired a total of 80 rockets at rural areas of southern Israel since Tuesday night, injuring five, causing damage and sending local residents fleeing for cover.

The Iron Dome missile defense system successfully intercepted two…

Read more, and here.

 Shlomo Venezia was one of the first Jews to climb out of the freight car when it came to the end of the line at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland on April 11, 1944, his mother crammed behind him. Two blows from a German guard’s baton struck him in the back of the neck.

Mr. Venezia’s book offers a harrowingly matter-of-fact account of his experience at Auschwitz.

“When I turned around to try to find my mother, she wasn’t there anymore,” he recalled. “I never saw her again, she wasn’t there, and neither were my two little sisters, Marica and Marta.”

Mr. Venezia, an Italian Jew who died at 88 on Oct. 1 in Rome, would enter what Primo Levi, the writer and fellow Auschwitz survivor, called “the gray zone,” where terrorized victims survived on the fringe of collaboration. A sturdy 20-year-old, he was ordered into the Sonderkommando, a unit of prisoners forced to direct thousands of other victims of the Nazis into the gas chambers and to bear their bodies into the crematories.

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Desecrated Jewish graves in Auckland

A protest was held outside an Auckland cemetery this afternoon where Jewish graves were desecrated.

Efforts to clean the graffiti from headstones in the Jewish part of the Symonds Street cemetery are continuing today.

Socialist Aotearoa spokesman Joe Carolan says many in Auckland are shocked by the attack.

Read more.

We held another scrumptious sausage sizzle at Bunnings Shirley in October.

It has been nearly 60 years since the end of WWII and the generation that lived through it have nearly passed on.  Yet the Holocaust is a salient reminder that extreme racial hatred leading to genocide is exclusive to “third world uncivilised” countries and peoples.

The Holocaust shows us that highly educated, First World industrialised countries can also be caught out by this evil.  The lessons are obvious for New Zealanders.  We have a multiracial society with diverse cultures and views.  We are also human and therefore suceptible to mindless hysteria borne from racial intolerance.

Knowledge and understanding of the Holocaust and its epidemiology can help to prevent it from happening here.  This is why we raise funds to further Holocaust Education.

Many thanks to

• Kate MacPherson
• Glennis Lane
• Barry Thompson
• Andre & Rebecca Marchand and
• Tony Kan

For all their hard work which raised $450.90.

Sausage sizzles aren’t just a fundraiser for a good cause.  They’re also a great opportunity for members to get to know one another at a different level and an opportunity to answer questions about Jewishness, Israel, world peace and the Holocaust from the public.  If you’d like to join in, please email contact@nzfoi.org

Abdullateef al-Mulhim is a former commodore of the Saudi Navy.  He writes:

“Hundreds of billions of dollars were wasted and tens of thousands of innocent lives lost fighting Israel. The Arab world, though, has many enemies and Israel should have been at the bottom of the list. The real enemies of the Arab world are corruption, lack of good education, lack of good healthcare, lack of freedom, lack of respect for human lives and, finally, the many dictators who used the Arab-Israeli conflict to suppress their own people….”

You can read more of this thought provoking article here.

You can watch the full interview here.