William Durupul

That is going to be our next episode with the wonderful Eugene Rogan.

So, 2,688 Israeli soldiers die in October 1973 as a direct result of this assault.

And the Arab numbers are less clear, much higher, about 8,000 Arab dead.

Avi Schein has written wonderfully on this.

He makes the point that, you know, had the Israelis not been lured into complacency, all this could have been avoided, that there were warnings from King Hussein, there were clear signs that the Egyptians were planning something, and the Israelis didn't take it seriously.

Despite a military defeat for Egypt, this succeeds in shaking the cage, getting the Egyptians back on the table, putting the momentum into the search for a Middle Eastern peace.

And when you go to Egypt today, this is regarded as the great Egyptian victory.

It's by the fact that when Ariel Sharon surrounded the army and cut them off and all that, it is remembered as a victory, despite the reality of ultimate military defeat.

But the peace is much more complicated, as Sadat had calculated.

And Golda Meir is forced to resign in April 1974.

Moshe Dayan's career is over because he hadn't prepared for it.

Labor Zionism, the movement that founded Israel, the Labor Party in charge for the whole of the period up to now, never recovers.

And the October earthquake, as it's sometimes called, has shattered the political status quo.

Yeah.

So this, again, is something that Sadat had anticipated and planned for.

Before all this, at the same sort of time as he is buying in pumps from Germany and planning all this, he pays a visit to King Faisal in Saudi Arabia.

And he tells him about his secret war plans.

And he sets up the oil weapon.

And on October the 16th, 11 days into the war, the Arab oil ministers gather together in Kuwait.

There's a new sense of confidence.