Word: swiftly
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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From a purely military viewpoint it was already clear that the Israelis had come breathtakingly close to a victory that would have matched their swift triumph in the Six-Day War. Despite the important advantages possessed this time by the refurbished Arab armies-the element of surprise, the early losses they inflicted, their easy penetration of the Bar-Lev Line along the east bank of the Suez Canal and Israeli bastions in the Golan Heights-the Israelis managed in scarcely more than two weeks to reverse the tide of battle and push the battlefronts into Syria and Egypt. At week...
Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, though, may have struck out as a potential successor to Golda Meir. Al though he very likely will retain his Cabinet post, his prestige has fallen. Israel's swift victory in the Six-Day War made Dayan a national hero. But the heavy casualties that Israel has suffered this time, plus the fact that the Arab attack took the country by surprise, have now hurt him. Uri Avneri, a longtime Dayan enemy, gleefully said last week: "The Dayan myth is dead...
...when many of his favorite gods were gods of war, man has invoked the deity in battle. Medieval Crusaders cut their way toward Jerusalem-sometimes through fellow Christians-shouting "Deus vult!" (God wills it!). Yankee soldiers in the Civil War marched into battle singing about God's "terrible swift sword." In World War II, both sides felt that God was behind them: Wehrmacht soldiers fought with GOTT MIT UNS emblazoned on their belt buckles; Americans were urged to "praise the Lord and pass the ammunition...
None of that is really reassuring, though; the Arabs essentially have the West over a 42-gal. oil barrel. World oil use will more than double during the 1970s. Slaking that intense thirst requires continual swift increases in output, and there is only one place they can come from. The desert sands of the Arab nations hold at least 300 billion bbl. of easily recoverable oil, or 60% of the proven reserves in the non-Communist world. Merely by increasing production more slowly than the West desires-let alone reducing it-the Arabs could cause considerable discomfort...
...encirclements and pulling back to safety. By the third day, Israel's 95,000-man standing army had been backed up by 180,000 reservists. They rushed into battle with verve and determination. It was the kind of battle that Israeli forces had trained for: a swift, savage mobile engagement between armored units...