How Israel Got Caught by Surprise in 1973 and 2023

The Hamas terror attacks of October 7 took place almost 50 years to the day after the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War. As in 1973, the surprise assault will have far-reaching consequences for the Israeli military, Israeli politics, the U.S.-Israel relationship, and the future of the Middle East. On October 18, Michael Doran—author of “The Hidden Calculation Behind the Yom Kippur War” and teacher of an online course on the same subject—joined Mosaic’s editor Jonathan Silver for a conversation reflecting on the echoes between those two events.

Watch the recording or read the transcript below to learn about:

• How Israel was caught so flat-footed 50 years ago, and what errors allowed Hamas to execute such a deadly massacre this year.

• What Anwar Sadat tried to achieve with Egypt’s surprise attack, and what Hamas is trying to achieve today.

• How Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger’s conception of the U.S.-Israel relationship affected the outcome of the Yom Kippur War, and what the Biden administration’s policies toward Israel and Iran mean for an extended conflict with Iran’s proxies.