Grandma's army

  This past Monday, Jews celebrated the most solemn holy day in their calendar, Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement). On the Sabbath day of October 6 th , 1973, as all of Israel came to a standstill to observe the High Holiday of Yom Kippur , Egyptian and Syrian forces launched a surprise attack against Israel, knowing she would be caught off-guard. In the first few critical days, the Egyptians had crossed the Suez Canal and were pushing Israeli forces back into the desert. In the Golan Heights, the Syrians had broken through the undermanned Israeli line and were advancing toward the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee). Since the bulk of the Israel army is made up of 80% reservists, it took two days for them to mobilize and deploy. It was only the vastly outnumbered soldiers in the front and Israeli pilots that held the line and stalled the attackers. It was their heroism and sacrifice that “compensated” for the serious lack of sufficient equipment and supplies, and saved the country from ...