“Every year on Yom Kippur our thoughts turn to the Yom Kippur War. The initial shock, the mounting casualty list, the early defeats, the crossing of the Suez Canal and the final victory. And the mistakes by our leadership and the heavy price that had to be paid for these mistakes.

Some of the analyses point a finger at those who are to blame for the mistakes, others insist that the war could have been avoided. All agree that it was our soldiers’ heroism that saved the day, snatched victory from the jaws of defeat and laid the foundation for the peace treaty with Egypt.

But almost unnoticed is the fact that there was a basic error, an unwillingness to face the facts that were staring us in the face, that underlay the mistaken thinking at all levels, civilian and military, before the war. Israel entered the Yom Kippur War in a state of denial, refusing to recognize that the deployment of Soviet surface-to-air missiles west of the Canal had neutralized much of the Israel Air Force’s potential in case of war.”