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During the war of attrition I had finished a stint of
reserve
duty on the canal. I traveled to London and a bunch of Arabs
from various countries were pointing to me and swearing in
Arabic which I dont (yet) understand. After they left, an
Egyptian approached me and predicted the 73 war. We talked
for hours. He had just left the army. At the end we hugged -
we had endured the same war and suffered. He said he felt
closer to me than the other Arabs as we had suffered
together. I saw so much death in 73. Every time I closed my
eyes I thought of my Egyptian friend - I really really
believe he thought of me.
I was a zodiac boat operator in
the Israeli engineers crossing into "Africa" as we used to
joke. We were then based near Ismailia
where we found and re-conditioned an effendis 46 Dodge(
between being shelled) It was indeed the most traumatic part
of my life. YES we lost. War is not a football match as it
sounds from some of the writers. We lost because thousands of our young men died - and
that's the only
reason - nothing else counts. Most of the Jews came in
absolute desperation after the holocaust ( not diamonds oil
- unfortunately Israel and Palestine is mainly rocks and
sand) and couldn't trust anyone.
After 2000 years of a history of persecution we needed and
apparently still need a country. For
survival - only. After 73 we are still alive and prospering.
So maybe, for us, that loss was a victory.
Look at:
Sharon failed to occupy
Al-Ismailia City
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