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SINCE IT BECAME an independent nation in 1948, Israel has fought six wars against its Arab neighbors. The 1948-1949 conflict, called the War for Independence, demonstrated that the new nation could stand on its own despite violent opposition to its existence. In the 1956 war in the Sinai, Israel proved that a preemptive strike could delay an enemy's preparation for war for years.
The Israeli Defense Force (IDE) reached its apogee during the Six-Day War of June 1967 and demonstrated the value of intelligence and planning. The Yom Kippur War of 1973 revealed the dangers of Israeli overconfidence. Israel's invasion of Lebanon 9 years later produced internal dissent and conflict between military and political objectives. But Israel's longest war, the War of Attrition, fought between Israel and Egypt from 1967 to 1970, is hardly remembered at all.1 When people do remember it, they usually remember it only as being a prelude to the Yom Kippur War.2
The Six-Day War resulted in Israel's occupying the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt sought to force Israel to withdraw from the territories conquered in the SixDay War; Israel sought to retain its foothold on the Sinai Peninsula to prevent an Egyptian or pan-Arab offensive and to achieve a regional cease-fire. Combat operations were generally limited to cross-border spellings, raids, ambushes, naval and air strikes, terror, and sabotage.3
The War of Attrition was Egypt's first attempt to force Israel to recognize that its continued occupation of the Sinai Peninsula was not in its best interests. The war was also a testing ground for Egypt and Israel to gauge the effectiveness of weapons that they would use again in 1973.4 The war profoundly affected Egypt's and Israel's perceptions of each other's combat effectiveness and deterrent power, which in turn, had far-reaching effects in the next struggle.
Egyptian President Gamal Abd el-Nasser's purpose in initiating the War of Attrition was to compel Israel to withdraw from the east bank of the Suez Canal and, eventually, from the Sinai Peninsula. Nasser based his decision to begin hostilities on an analysis of Israeli strengths and weaknesses. In his view, Israel's one notable weakness was a small population relative to Egypt's. Because of this, Nasser concluded that Israel could absorb fewer casualties than Egypt could. He also...