On Oct. 6, 1973 the Egyptian forces recaptured the Sinai region which was taken by Israelis in the Six Day War of 1967. The Egyptian attack on the day of Yom Kippur took the supposedly invincible Israeli forces by surprise and forced them to an ignoble retreat.

From that day onward, the Yom Kippur festival became an occasion for mourning and sorrow.

This year, after the Sept. 11 outrage in the United States, the Israel’s media did not dwell much upon the Yom Kippur tragedy, but focused on the Sharon government’s “successful” efforts to establish security for Israelis. The Israeli TV featured a talk show with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak recently. The interviewer posed several questions relating to the Arab- Israeli conflict and Egypt’s role in fighting international terrorism.

The questions, however, betrayed a widespread sense of fear and insecurity that have gripped the Israelis as a result of Sharon’s extremist policies. The interviewer asked the president about Egypt’s stand in the event of a war breaking out between Israel and Palestine. The president replied in quite clear terms that Egypt would not participate in that war because the task of the Egyptian forces was to protect Egyptians and their land. He wondered how could he launch a war against Israel while both Palestinians and Israel were living intermingled. At the same time it is quite evident to Israel that no peace could be achieved without Egypt’s active participation. This realization has only heightened the sense of insecurity among the Israelis and made their leaders exercise restraint in their conduct in the Palestinian territories.

A leading Israeli columnist Yuri Eveneri strongly criticized the Palestinian policy adopted by Sharon and Peres as spurred by outdated perceptions. The writer called these two leaders as dinosaurs of the 40s and 50s. He pointed out that the Israelis were living in a state of constant fear of Palestinian counterattacks invited by the military actions of the Sharon government.

This Oct. 6 reminded the Israelis of the completion of a year after the beginning of the intifada in which a number of Israelis were also killed and injured.

In the wake of the tragedy of Sept. 11, several Israeli writers have warned about the dangers involved in allowing the relations with the Palestinians to deteriorate. Several journalists and officials view that Sharon is leading the country to total destruction. Already 30 percent of the Jewish settlers in the Palestinian neighborhoods have quit their homes looking for safer areas. The writer also warned about possible attacks against Israeli targets on the lines of those in New York and Washington or, worse than that, an all-out war with the neighboring countries.

Israel’s defeat on the day of Oct. 6, 1973 should prompt the leaders to search for the historical mistakes committed by the previous governments including depriving the Palestinians of their rights, Eveneri said.

The writer summed up the whole issue in a single question: When will a new Israeli leadership emerge with a new outlook and logic capable of realistically solving the Arab-Israeli conflict leading to real peace in the region? The new leadership should not adhere to old Israeli maxims such as “every citizen is an army and the entire state is a line of confrontation” and “Peace will prevail only when every Arab surrenders to us,” he said.

The writer concludes his article saying, “Ben Gurion’s ideas threw the people of Israel to three wars — in 1956, ‘67 and ‘73 — each one leading to the next. However, the world has changed and the Arab patience is showing signs of wearing thin and a day will come when our dinosaurs will be wiped out with their outdated perceptions.”