Abba Eban
Israeli Foreign Minister

This was a brutal and unprovoked attack in great mass by Egypt and Syria across the cease-fire lines.

On October 6, 1973, as Israelis celebrated the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur, Egyptian and Syrian forces launched a two-pronged attack against Israel. Hoping to win back Arab territory lost to Israel during the Six-Day War of 1967, Egyptian troops swept down into the Sinai Peninsula while Syria struggled to throw Israel out of the Golan Heights. Israeli forces were taken entirely by surprise, and it took several days and a U.S. airlift of military supplies to beat back the Arab advance. On October 6, Abba Eban, Israel's English-bred foreign minister, condemned the Arab attack as a violation of U.N. cease-fire agreements. The conflict caused a diplomatic crisis between the United States and the U.S.S.R., but the two superpowers eventually agreed to broker a U.N. cease-fire between Egypt and Israel, which took effect on October 25. In response to Western aid to Israel during the Yom Kippur War, eleven Arab oil-producing nations, with the support of OPEC, launched a crippling oil embargo against the United States, Great Britain, and several other nations. In the Middle East, the unprecedented success by an Arab force against the powerful Israeli military greatly enhanced Egypt's prestige, and gave Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat sufficient leverage to arrange a permanent peace accord with Israel.