War of Attrition

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For other uses, see War of Attrition (disambiguation).

War of Attrition

Date	June 1968 – August 7, 1970 (ceasefire)
Location	Sinai Peninsula (Israeli control)
Result	Egypt and Israel each considered themselves victorious
Casus belli	Arab defeat from 1967 War and Egyptian refusal to recognize Israel under the terms of the Khartoum Resolution

Combatants

Israel

Egypt

Soviet Union

Strength

unknown

Egyptian: unknown
Soviet advisors: 10,700–12,300

Casualties

1,424 soldiers and >100 civilians killed
2,000 soldiers and 700 civilians wounded^[1]^[2]
15–16 aircraft lost^[3]

10,000 Egyptian soldiers and civilians killed¹
3 Soviet pilots killed

101–113 aircraft lost^[3]

Arab-Israeli conflict
Riots (1920) – Jaffa riots (1921) – Riots (1929) – Arab revolt (1936–1939) – Arab-Israeli War (1948–1949) – Suez Crisis (1956) – Six-Day War (1967) – War of Attrition (1968–1970) – Yom Kippur War (1973) – South Lebanon conflict (1978) – Lebanon War (1982) – South Lebanon conflict (1982–2000) – First Intifada (1987–1991) – Gulf War (1990–1991) – Second Intifada (2000–ongoing) – Israel-Lebanon conflict (2006)

The War of Attrition (Hebrew: מלחמת ההתשה‎) (Arabic: حرب الاستنزاف‎) was a limited war fought between Israeli military and the forces of Egypt, the USSR and the Palestinian Liberation Organization from 1968 to 1970. It was initiated by Egypt as a way to recapture the Sinai from Israel, which had controlled it since the Six-Day War. The war ended with a ceasefire signed between the countries in 1970 with frontiers at the same place as when the war started.

1 Egyptian Front
2 Jordan and the PLO
3 Timeline
4 Bibliography
5 See also
- 5.1 People
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Egyptian Front

The Israel Defense Force's (IDF) unanticipated victory and the Egyptian army's rout in the 1967 Six-Day War put the Sinai peninsula, up to the eastern bank of the Suez Canal, in Israel's hands. Egypt's humiliated army, the most powerful in the Arab world, yearned for retaliation. Sporadic clashes were taking place along the cease-fire line, and Egyptian missile boats sank the Israeli destroyer Eilat in October 21, 1967. Egypt began shelling Israeli positions along the Bar Lev Line, making use of heavy artillery, MiG aircraft and assistance from the Soviet Union with the hope of forcing a war-weary Israel into making concessions.^[4]

President Gamal Abdel Nasser's rationale was explained by journalist Mohamed Hassanein Heikal:

If the enemy succeeds in inflicting 50,000 casualties in this campaign, we can go on fighting nevertheless, because we have manpower reserves. If we succeed in inflicting 10,000 casualties, he will unavoidably find himself compelled to stop fighting, because he has no manpower reserves.

The International Community and both countries tried to find a diplomatic solution to the conflict. The UN’s Jarring Mission was supposed to ensure that the terms of UN Security Council Resolution 242 would be observed, but by late 1970, it was clear that this mission had been a failure. Fearing the escalation of the conflict into an East vs. West confrontation during the tension of the Cold War, American President Richard Nixon sent Secretary of State William Rogers to formulate the Rogers plan for a ceasefire. In August, 1970, Israel, Jordan and Egypt agreed to a ceasefire under its terms. The plan contained restrictions on missile deployment by both sides, and required the cessation of lands as a precondition for peace. Egypt and its Soviet allies rekindled the conflict when they violated the agreement shortly thereafter, by moving their missiles near the Suez Canal, and constructing the largest anti-aircraft system in history (up until that point).^[4]^[1]

Israel responded with a policy which Prime Minister Golda Meir dubbed “asymmetrical response,” wherein Israeli retaliation was disproportionately large in comparison to Egyptian attacks. Strategically, this policy was necessary, as Israel’s military was significantly smaller than Egypt’s.^[4]

The strategy worked because it showed Israel's willingness to sustain losses and its ability to inflict greater casualties against Egypt and its Soviet allies. Israel received the aid of the United States, and led Egypt to lose its taste for conflict. Following Nasser’s death in September 1970, his successor, Anwar al-Sadat, ceased hostilities with Israel, focusing instead on the prospect of a partial Israeli pullout from Sinai, a prospect not realized for many years.^[4]

[edit] Jordan and the PLO

Following the Six-Day War of 1967, a wave of Palestinian refugees entered Jordan, further strengthening the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), already powerful in Jordan at the time. King Hussein’s agreement to the Rogers Plan angered the PLO, as it constituted recognition of Israel, in breach of the terms of the Khartoum Resolution. Consequently, the PLO began fighting the Jordanian government, and engaged in a series of terrorist attacks against Israel, including plane hijackings and the infamous Munich Massacre in the Olympic Games of 1972. Syria aided the PLO against the Jordanian government. But Israel, by positioning troops along the Jordan River in what appeared to preempt a Syrian incursion into Jordan with a retaliatory invasion, is believed by many to have averted direct Syrian involvement in the conflict.^[4]^[2] With American and Israeli assistance, King Hussein expelled the PLO from Jordan in 1970, in what would become known as Black September. With the PLO expelled to Lebanon, the Jordanian front of the War of Attrition was closed. ^[4]

[edit] Timeline

October 21, 1967: Egyptian naval forces sink “The Eilat,” killing 47.^[1]

June 1968: The war officially begins with sparse Egyptian artillery bombardment of the Israeli front line on the east bank of the canal. More artillery bombardments in the following months kill some Israeli soldiers.^[4]

October 30, 1968: Israeli heli-borne commandos (Sayeret Matkal) destroy Egypt's main electricity supply. The blackout causes Nasser to cease hostilities for a few months while fortifications around hundreds of important targets are built. Simultaneously Israel reinforces its position on the east bank of the Suez Canal by constructing the Bar Lev Line.^[5]

March 8, 1969: Egyptian artillery begins massive shelling of the Bar Lev Line causing many Israeli casualties. Soviet MiG-21 fighters are employed in the attack. The IDF retaliates with deep raids into Egyptian territory, causing severe damage.^[4]

March 30, 1969: Nasser officially voids the previous year's ceasefire, three weeks after Egypt resumes attacks against Israeli positions.^[6]

May-July 1969: 47 IDF soldiers are killed and 157 wounded. Although Egypt suffers many times more casualties than Israel, it continued with its aggressive stance. Israel manages to sustain the high casualty rate but is hard-pressed to find a definite solution to the conflict.

July 20, 1969 and July 24, 1969: Nearly the entire Israeli Air Force (IAF) bombs the northern canal sector, destroying anti-aircraft positions, tanks and artillery. The aerial offensive continues until December and reduces Egypt's anti-aircraft defense to almost nothing. It manages to reduce the artillery bombardment somewhat. However, shelling with lighter weapons—especially mortars—continues.

October 17, 1969: The US and USSR begin talks to end the conflict.

December 9, 1969: The Rogers Plan is publicized. It calls for Egyptian "commitment to peace" in exchange for Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai. Both parties strongly reject the plan. President Nasser instead opts to plead for more sophisticated weaponry from the Soviet Union to withstand the IAF's bombings. The Soviets initially refuse to deliver the requested weapons.^[7]

January 22, 1970: President Nasser secretly flies to Moscow to discuss the situation. His request for new SAM batteries (including the 3M9 Kub and Strela-2) is approved. Their deployment requires qualified personnel along with squadrons of aircraft to protect them. In effect, he needs Soviet troops in large numbers, something Moscow cannot allow. He then threatens to resign, implying that Egypt might turn to Washington for help in the future. The Soviets had invested heavily in President Nasser's regime, and so Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev finally obliges. Soviet presence increases from 2,500–4,000 in January to 10,600–12,150, plus 100–150 pilots by June 30.

March 15, 1970: The first fully-operational Soviet SAM site in Egypt is completed. It is part of three brigades which the USSR sends to Egypt.^[3]

June 30: Following the Soviets' direct intervention, known as Operation Kavkaz^[3], Washington fears an escalation and redoubles efforts toward a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

April 8, 1970: Israeli bombardment kills 47 Egyptian schoolchildren at an elementary school inside a military compound, putting a definite end to the campaign. Israel instead concentrates on canal-side installations. The respite gives Egypt time to reconstruct its SAM batteries closer to the canal. Soviet flown MiG-fighters provide the necessary air cover. Soviet pilots also begin approaching IAF aircraft during April 1970, but Israeli pilots have orders not to engage these aircraft, and break off whenever Soviet-piloted MiGs appear.

June 25, 1970: An Israeli A-4 Skyhawk, in an attack sortie against Egyptian forces on the Canal, is pursued by a pair of Soviet-piloted MiG-21s into the Sinai. The Skyhawk is hit and forced to land in a nearby air base. In response, Israel plans and executes an ambush of Soviet-piloted MiGs.^[3]

July 30, 1970: A large-scale dogfight, involving 8–20 MiG-21s (besides the initial eight, other MiGs are scrambled, but it is unclear if they reach the battle in time), eight Mirage III and four F-4 Phantom II jets takes place west of the Suez Canal. The Israelis down four Soviet-piloted MiGs, and a fifth is hit and crashed en route back to its base. Three Soviet pilots are killed, while the IAF suffers no casualties.^[3]

Early August, 1970: Despite these losses the Soviets and Egyptians manage to press the air defenses closer and closer to the canal. The Soviet operated SAMs shoot down a number of Israeli aircraft. Israel cannot respond effectively. The SAM batteries allow Egypt to move in artillery which in turn threatens the Bar Lev Line.

August 7, 1970: A cease-fire agreement is reached, forbidding either side from changing "the military status quo within zones extending 50 kilometers to the east and west of the cease-fire line." Minutes after the cease-fire Egypt begins moving SAM batteries into the zone even though the agreement explicitly forbids new military installations. By October there are about 100 SAM sites in the zone.

September 28, 1970: President Nasser dies of a heart attack, and Vice President Anwar al-Sadat takes over. He agrees to end the War of Attrition, but almost immediately begins planning for the 1973 Yom Kippur War that would take place three years later.

[edit] Bibliography

Benny Morris. (1999). Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881–1999. Knopf. ISBN 0-679-42120-3.
Bar-Simon Tov, Yaacov. The Israeli-Egyptian War of Attrition, 1969–70. New York: Columbia University Press, 1980.