The Yom Kippur War, 1973

Day of Atonement.

On 6 October 1973 Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack against the Jewish state of Israel. It was Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the holiest day of the Jewish year. The war was brief, but it was hard fought in its early stages when the combined forces of Egypt and Syria, armed with Soviet weapons, nearly overwhelmed the Israeli forces. It was only with the resupply of Israeli weapons by the United States and the U.S. warning to the Soviet Union to stay out of the conflict that Israeli forces rallied and the Arab states were defeated.

The Oil Weapon.

In response to the support for Israel from the United States and other Western European powers, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), dominated by the Arab states, employed the "oil weapon," an embargo on the export of oil from the Middle East to those nations they deemed sympathetic to Israel. The result was a sharp decline...

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