Mark Twain declared that “history doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” Any student of Israel’s history certainly had that feeling on October 7, when the country was attacked the day after the festival of Sukkot, a significant moment in the Jewish calendar. Historians will undoubtedly spend lots of time and expertise drawing similarities between the surprise attack that marked the start of the Yom Kippur War on October 6, 1973, and the latest murderous incursions launched by Hamas terrorists last month.
Few weeks prior to that “date which will live in infamy” to borrow FDR’s words, author Uri Kaufman released an enthralling book, Eighteen Days in October: The Yom Kippur War and How It Created the Modern Middle East (St. Martin’s Press). From cover to cover, this book details the very existential nature of this war – or any armed conflict – for Israel’s survival. On several occasions, Israel could have lost, marking the end of the Jewish State.
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