A war drill conducted by the IDF's 74^th Armored Battalion on the Golan Heights has significantly improved its readiness for combat against Hezbollah, the battalion's commander has said.

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Lt. Col. Ofer Tchorz, commander of the Merkava 4 Tank 74^th battalion, a part of the 188^th Armored Brigade, told Jewish News Syndicate that the training cycle has allowed his troops "to prepare for the next war and improve our readiness."

The exercise simulated combat against the Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist group in Lebanon, in which the battalion would have to navigate hilly terrain and take on a heavily armed enemy that employs guerilla warfare tactics and fights out of populated areas in Lebanon, stated Tchorz.

The four-day live-fire battalion-wide exercise capped off a three-month training period, he added.

"It was intensive and empowering," said the commander. "We've spent three months training on the Golan Heights beginning with the individual soldier and the level of the tank crew, and rising up to the battalion-wide drill, which we held last week," said Tchorz.

The exercise followed a nearly eight-month operational cycle of border defense duties tasked to the battalion on the Lebanese border.

During the drill, the tanks teamed up with infantry units, combat engineers and artillery units, as well as with the Israeli Air Force during portions of the exercise.

"We understand that in next war, the only way in which each part of the army can bring its strength to the table and bridge one another's gaps is through integrated combat," said the Tchorz. "This is how we deliver maximum efficiency."

Compared to the situation on the eve of the Second Lebanon War in 2006, an IDF tank battalion in 2022 has undergone far more extensive training, said Tchorz.

"Prior to 2006, the IDF, including the Armored Corps, was dealing with the Second Intifada, with urban combat, and arrests," he said. "The biggest problem was with the tank crews; they did not train on their platform. They were conducting activities on foot in Judea and Samaria."

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Today, he explained, "the situation is completely different. For example, in the past two-and-a-half years, the 74^th battalion did not get out of our tanks, whether in training or in operational duties. So our readiness is considerably higher. This is one of the lessons of 2006. We are training far more than we did in the past. We have also significantly improved our training techniques."

The Merkava 4 is also equipped with Rafael Advanced Defense System's revolutionary Trophy active protection system, which intercepts guided anti-tank missiles and rocket-propelled grenades, greatly boosting the tank crew's survivability on the battlefield. The system also contributes to the tank's offensive capability by tracking down the source of fire instantly and then enabling the unit to share enemy location data on the military's digital command and control network, clearing the path for rapid and precise return fire.

"The platform and its technologies have become significantly more advanced," said Tchorz. "We have new capabilities on-board the tanks that give us far higher effectiveness and lethality."

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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The debate in the IDF about integrating women into combat units continues at full force, along with a similar one on social media. Some think that women shouldn't be in the army at all, others believe that they should serve on the home front, while others think that women's combat service should be restricted to less dangerous zones. And some believe that all roles in the IDF should be open to women, who should be assigned based on their abilities, not their gender.

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But there is one group that isn't getting upset over the discourse – the women serving in combat units, who are the ones establishing facts on the ground day after day. Or as Sgt. Ofir Weingold, a technician in the 53^rd Armored Battalion who just finished a long deployment on the Gaza border – where she was serving during Operation Guardian of the Walls in May – puts it, "Going into battle? There's no way I'm staying behind. It won't happen."

Every day, female soldiers – some in combat roles, some in combat support roles – work side by side with the men. Sometimes, they are the only women in their respective companies, and they prove that opposition to their doing these jobs is rooted in nothing more than stereotypes.

"My name's Ofir. I'm 20, from Barkan. When I was drafted, I joined the Technology and Maintenance Corps, and after basic training and the tank course I was assigned to the 53^rd Battalion," she says. Weingold serves in a unit that fixes the tanks' sophisticated technology, and in times of war, these soldiers can be called into enemy territory to make repairs, even under fire.

"I was the first girl who joined a company of male combat soldiers, and there's no doubt they were a little in shock at first, but slowly we started to realize the advantages – like order and organization, and a different viewpoint," Weingold says.

Lately, the 53^rd Battalion has been training intensively on the Golan Heights after seven months on the Gaza border.

"We worked hard there, under fire, day and night. It was a challenge, no doubt," Weingold says. "Our work is definitely hard, but we aren't afraid of hard work. A little rain, a little mud, but it's all OK."

During Operation Guardian of the Walls, the IDF began preparations for a possible ground incursion into the Gaza Strip, which did not happen. However, much to Weingold's dismay, even if the IDF had gone into Gaza, she would not have been part of the operation, as the military's directive for the integration of women in combat currently does not allow lone female soldiers from her unit to enter enemy territory in an APC.

"I'm classed as a level 3 rifleman, a combat soldier, and I can cross the border, and if there was an incursion and there was another female soldier or officer, I could go in. I'd want to, definitely. When I was in the middle of all the craziness I said that if there was a ground incursion I'd 100% be part of it, there was no way I'd stay behind – it wouldn't happen. At a certain stage I was given leave during the operation and I turned it down. I said there was no way the soldiers would go through it without me. I stayed with them," she says.

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Staff Sgt. Daniel Hatan, 19, a company medic at the 9^th Armored Battalion's training base, isn't afraid of the idea of going into battle, either. She is even happy to have been moved up from her initial job in combat intelligence.

"At the start of my combat service I went through border infantry training, but then I realized that I was less suited to what went on there and asked for another job. They offered me a chance to join a new pilot that would put female medics into armored combat units. They even told me it would be easy because I was already considered a combat soldier and if things got real, I would be sent across the border," Hatan says.

"I think there are women who are really cut out to be in combat and can do everything, which is great. But I don't think it needs to come at the expense of professionalism – you need to look closely and make sure that every female combat soldier has the right character, because it's still a battalion full of guys. I believe that there are women who can do the job just as well, or even better," she says.

"I've had to carry a few tank soldiers on stretchers, and it wasn't easy, but the exhausting part of the job is the routine medical care. I don't regret the path I've chosen. I've experienced things I never would have anywhere else, and I recommend that girls that fit the job do what I did."

Cpl. Hadar Simchon, 19, serves on a rocket launcher in the 334^th Artillery Battalion, and doesn't regret having chosen the role for a moment.

"At first, I wanted to join the special forces and I hadn't heard of the rockets, but when I found out about it, I got excited," she says.

Simchon and her comrades operated an MLRS rocket launches that can cover areas as big as a soccer field and help batter the enemy. "It's an insane tool with enormous power," she says.

Her artillery battalion is now in the midst of training on the Golan Heights. "We practice using the equipment … drill everything that could happen in war."

According to Simchon, the men and women in the battalion do exactly the same jobs. "The advantage of the MLRS is that you don't need to lift the shells, so the equality is notable – everyone does exactly the same thing," she says.

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For the first time in Israeli military history, an entirely female tank company will patrol the country's southern border with Egypt as part of an ongoing pilot program to assess the feasibility of female armored crews.

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The female tank crews are currently completing their training at the IDF's Shizafon Base in the Negev Desert, which houses the military's Armored Corps School. Shortly after the course's completion, they will be sent to the mixed-gender Caracal Battalion, which defends the northern portion of Israel's border with Egypt.

Slated to begin their posting next month, a female commander will be placed in charge of the tank crew.

The armored company will operate Merkava IV tanks, outfitted with all the latest capabilities and technological systems that the military has to offer, an IDF officer said.

"They are getting a proper tank," said the commander of the Caracal Battalion, Lt.-Col. Erez Shabtai.

The IDF initiated a pilot program over 2017-2018 to determine whether women should be allowed to serve in tank units, the results of which were inconclusive, although four female tank commanders emerged from it.

The reanimated program is not without its controversy. While there is no question about the women's professionalism and skill, some critics have pointed to the lower standards of physical requirements, arguing that it could endanger frontline troops.

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The army also dismissed allegations that it was involved in some kind of social engineering, and that the women serving in combat positions were a necessary addition to the IDF's fighting strength.

This article was first published by i24NEWS.

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The Syrian media reported that the targets were used by forces affiliated with Hezbollah, and claimed that IDF tanks had also fired on a Syrian army base in the area.

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When Gantz was asked what transpired in Syria overnight, he responded, "We are operation on all fronts. I won't get into who fired at what overnight … things happen."

While the IDF is keeping mum on the reported events near Quneitra, it did confirm strikes on underground Hamas infrastructure in retaliation for rocket fired at southern Israel on Tuesday evening.

At 11:25 p.m., the IDF Spokesperson's Unit put out a Twitter notification that read: "A short while ago, IDF fighter jets and combat helicopters struck underground infrastructure belonging to the Hamas terrorist organization in the southern Gaza Strip."

The IDF explained that the strikes were a response to the rocket fired at southern Israel from Gaza earlier Tuesday evening.

Hazem Qasim, a spokesman for Hamas, discussed the events, said that they were linked to Israel's normalization agreements with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, and accused the Gulf Arab states of silently agreeing to what he called "Israeli aggression."

"The delegation from the United Arab Emirates arrived [Tuesday] to complete the normalization agreements. Tonight, the IDF carried out strikes in Gaza and in Syria. Normalization encourages the occupation to continue its aggression and its settlement policy," Qasim said.

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Dean Shmuel Elmas and Lilach Shoval contributed to this report. 

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Negotiations for a ceasefire, which are being mediated by Qatari envoy Mohammad Al-Amadi, did not lead to any breakthrough on Saturday. Al-Amadi left Gaza, but returned.

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Hamas said that it "appreciated the Qatari envoy's efforts, which are ongoing."

According to Hamas, the "main problem is Israel's refusal to accede to our demands."

On Saturday, Palestinian news outlets reported that Israel had agreed to open the Kerem Shalom crossing, renew the supply of fuel to the Gaza Strip, and open Gaza's fishing zone in exchange for Hamas stopping its balloon attacks, but the terrorist organizations in Gaza had rejected the offer, and informed Al-Amadi of their decision.

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Trophy, a system that was first deployed by the Israel Defense Forces in 2011 and which has intercepted many threats fired at Israeli armored vehicles, will be eventually be installed onboard four American M1 main battle tank brigades, for both the US Army and Marine Corps.

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The system has accumulated more than 600,000 operational hours and underwent 4,000 successful field tests. It is now under contract for production for thousands of systems.

The US Army is in a rush to install the system on its tanks because it wants to urgently send them to the European theater, according to statements by American military officials who manage combat vehicle upgrades. In the past, the United States spent a great deal of money trying to develop Active Protection Systems, but didn't manage to find one it was satisfied with.

It therefore took a decision that is far from being a given and looked beyond American shores for a solution.

The armored brigades that will receive Trophy will take part in American deployments to Europe, dubbed "Operation Atlantic Resolve," which began after Russia's seizure of the Ukrainian Crimea region in 2014. The United States is seeking to reassure European allies, and deploys infantry and armored forces as a result.

Rafael has made major sales to America before, including Popeye air-to-surface missiles and electro-optic pods that help American aircraft gather critical intelligence.

Israeli defense firm Plasan Sasa has in the past sold the US passive armor for thousands of vehicles, which saved many lives. In previous years, Rafael teamed up with General Dynamics to equip Bradley fighting vehicles with explosive reactive armor.

In passive defenses, plates of armor stop incoming threats like anti-tank missiles and IEDs. In explosive reactive armor, explosives sandwiched in between armor plates set off the warhead of the incoming threat.

Yet active protection is a breakthrough technology – one that Israel developed as a painful lesson learned from the destruction of multiple tanks by Hezbollah missile cells during the 2006 Second Lebanon War.

Other countries considering similar defense purchases

Several other states could be next in line to purchase the system, including potential European clients such as Germany and Poland. Australia, which is also seeking to upgrade its land forces, is another likely buyer.

Meanwhile, an American brigade of Bradley M2 armored vehicles is undergoing advanced trials with the Iron First Active Protection System, which is made by Israel's Elbit company.

Israeli defense companies have established cooperation with local partner companies since governments insist that local firms conduct the marketing, handle the transactions, and most importantly, that the systems are locally produced.

As a result, Rafael has teamed up with US contractor Leonardo DRS, which specializes in ground combat systems. Leonardo DRS is headquartered in Arlington, Va.

According to a statement by Rafael, "the deliveries are the culmination of a multi-year qualification process. A joint team of government and industry from both the US and Israel worked together to adapt and integrate Trophy for both Army and Marine Corps Abrams variants."

Leonardo DRS's CEO, William J. Lynn, described Trophy as an "advanced defensive protection systems for our front-line tanks to give our warfighters a needed layer of survivability against real and emerging battlefield threats."

He added that "our partnership between Leonardo DRS and Rafael has worked tirelessly to bring this battle-proven technology to the US military while improving the system to meet the stringent needs and requirements from the customer."

Rafael CEO and president, Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Yoav Har-Even, described the first delivery as "a major milestone in US-Israel cooperation. There is no greater pride and satisfaction than the knowledge that the technology developed by Rafael and Elta over many years of investment, trials and combat performance will play an instrumental part in safeguarding American lives, just like it has saved Israeli lives and revolutionized the way our armored forces perform their missions."

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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These numbers horrified the members of the nonprofit Yom Kippur War Center. It made clear what they had already suspected – that the worst war in Israel's history was being forgotten. That the price paid in it was being taken for granted, and that its legacy was non-existent, and that if the story of the war – and their own stories – weren't told now, it would never be told, as the generation who fought it is dying off. The current General Staff of the IDF doesn't include a single general who enlisted in the military prior to 1973, and only 12 currently serving MKs fought in it.

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A group of Yom Kippur War veterans is trying to change the narrative and inculcate a different kind of discourse and a more accurate memory of what happened here 46 years ago. Supposedly, it should be obvious; in actuality, it's a Sisyphean and very Israeli task in which common sense fights bureaucracy. Every citizen should hope that intelligence and justice beat the functionaries to allow the right thing to be done, even if it's very late in coming.

Only two hours before

Rami Swet is a story. A personal story, a family story, the story of a generation. His parents, Zvi and Ruth, made aliyah from Europe before World War II. They lost their entire families in the Holocaust and both enlisted in the British Army – Zvi was a commando, Ruth was a nurse. They met in a hospital after Ruth was called in to translate for a wounded Israeli, and they married after the war. They settled down near Negba and built a ranch.

Later, the parents moved on to the new Afeka neighborhood in north Tel Aviv. After the 1967 Six-Day War they moved to Nuweiba in Sinai, where they owned a gas station. They had five children, three boys and two girls. All the boys served in the IDF Armored Corps and the girls went to the Medical Corps and army human resource management.

The Yom Kippur War found the Swets scattered in various locations. Micky, the eldest son, had finished his time as a company commander and had been sent to university at the army's expense. He was with his wife, who was about to give birth. Yair, the middle son, was a platoon commander in the 77^th Battalion under Avigdor Kahalani [who would later serve as IDF chief of staff] and just about to be discharged. Rami, the youngest son, was a newly-minted officer and was serving as a teacher in the course for tank commanders.

"The eve of the war, all three of us were called up to the front," Rami recalls. "Yair's battalion, which had been in the Sinai, was moved up to the Golan front. Micky ran to the emergency supply unit and left for Sinai. I was called up with an ad hoc battalion from the Armored Corps training school to the Golan Heights, and we got to an area we weren't really familiar with. We got maps just two hours before the war broke out."

Rami's war didn't begin when the siren sounded, but with four Syrian fighter jets that were on their way to the Israeli command in Nafakh on the Golan Heights, and attacked him and his comrades, as well. "I knew that Yair was in the area, too, but I didn't know exactly where. Only later I learned that when I was near Hermonit and north of it, he was 500 meters [550 yards] away from me in the Beqaa Valley."

Rami's battalion was trying to stop Syrian incursions in the area between Hermonit and Tel Varda, but because they were an informal, inexperienced battalion unfamiliar with the territory, it fell apart as quickly as it had been formed after the commander and deputy commander were both killed.

"I was wounded on the fourth day of the war. The first time was at Hermonit from shrapnel, and then when the tank was hit – a wound that caused me to lose my vision temporarily," Rami says.

At the hospital, he met other wounded. Naturally, the conversation centered around their experiences, and one of the wounded next to him said his company commander had been killed. Someone asked what the commander's name was, and the wounded man answered, "Swet." That was the first time Rami learned that his brother Yair had been killed, but he refused to acknowledge it. After he was released from the hospital he was sent back to the Golan Heights. At Nafakh, he met his brother's deputy and realized what had happened.

Q: How was Yair killed?

"He was killed on Oct. 7, the second day of the war, in battles to stop [the Syrians] on the Golan. The team that was in front of him on the slope was hit, and the soldiers jumped out of the tank. Yair left the turret and got down to pick them up, and during the rescue he took a direct mortar hit and was killed. His team was traumatized and abandoned the tank because they thought the tank had been hit, too. They got back to it only three hours later. It was still running, with Yair's body inside it, and they got him out."

Yair Swet was posthumously awarded the Medal of Distinguished Service for his part in the battle. The background for his medal states that "He hit enemy tanks at close ranges of 200-500 meters, and caused the enemy heavy losses. As the battle continued, one of his company's tank was hit, and the crew was seen jumping out. Lt. Yair Swet approached the crew to see what had happened, and when he stopped, he was hit and killed. Lt. Yair Swet served as an outstanding example of courage and coolness under pressure for the entire company, and inspired the soldiers to hold their ground and continue fighting."

Rami saw all this unfold from a few hundred yards away but didn't know that Yair was part of it. He also didn't know that his older brother Micky had been wounded in battles in Sinai.

"We rolled down to Sinai, to the northern edge of the [Suez] Canal," Micky says.

"When we got to the highway, I turned to the west to identify where the Egyptian enemy was and approach them. Our tanks and armored vehicles that had been hit were burned and blackened at the side of the road, and immediately we realized that this war would be very, very different. An APC carrying soldiers on compulsory service came in my direction and I spotted the commander. I asked him, 'Where are our forces, and where's the enemy?' His answer was tough and dry: 'Our forces are done – everything ahead of you is just the enemy.'"

Micky took part in the large-scale offense, which failed, continued southward, and then was sent back to the main front.

"The battle started when we were under cover, and later on we ambushed the target. The battalion commander, with two companies, was fighting on the left flank of an Egyptian infantry force that was entrenched and aided by tanks. I was fighting on the right flank at short range, facing gunfire, grenades, and risking being run over by tank treads. Besides the fierce fighting, the radio informed us that all three platoon commanders had been hit, myself included. When the brigade commander's tank was hit, he handed command of the battalion over to me and got it out of the way."

"Because my tank had been hit too, in the motor, and black smoke was coming out, I told the battalion to move on while I marked the route as a smoke column. When the battalion was rescued, my team managed to put out the tank fire, and all the wounded were evacuated to a makeshift battalion regroup point."

Micky himself, who also received the Medal of Distinguished Service for his conduct in battle, was taken to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, where he read the human resources report about the identities of the wounded, including the name of his dead brother, Yair, and his wounded brother, Rami.

How to tell the parents?

At Nafakh, Rami was given Yair's personal effects: a book of phone numbers, his bullets, and a few other things. He wanted to go back to the fighting, but was denied for fear his family would sustain two casualties. He also learned that his older brother had been wounded and went to visit him in Jerusalem. "I tell him what happened to Yair, and we decide that we have to tell our parents."

Micky couldn't leave the hospital, so Rami went to his parents' house alone and informed his mother and sister.

"My mom had two requests. One, that even though 10 minutes earlier I'd told her she had lost a son, that I go back to the front, because 'I wouldn't be able to look my friends in the eye,' and second, that before I did that, I find my father and tell him."

Rami went to Sinai, where his father had remained to keep the family gas station running for the war effort. "Dad made a tear in my jumpsuit, gave me a hug, and said, 'Go to the front.'"

Rami did as his parents told him to, went back to his original unit from the tank officers' training course, and continued to fight in Sinai as a tank platoon commander as far south as Suez.

Q: Your parents were tough.

"It was a different generation. Mom refused to come to the medal ceremony to accept Yair's. She wrote that medals weren't for the parents. I always argued that, sadly, only soldiers get medals and not mothers."

Yair was given a battlefield burial during the war. Only two months after the war was over did the family first visit a cemetery, and on the one-year anniversary of his death, Yair was reinterred on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, "because our parents had been thinking about going to live in the Jewish Quarter, and wanted to be close to him."

Rami's father died 20 years ago. His mother died eight years ago. In the 2006 Second Lebanon War he was forced to bring her sad news again and report that her grandson, his sister's son, had died. "She said that she hoped my sister would be able to cry, which she hadn't."

Q: Your parents didn't cry?

"They cried in secret. With the door closed. My father was very bitter about Yair being killed. He saw the government and the army as traitors who sent children to be slaughtered like lambs."

Q: Was he right?

"Professor Asa Kasher said at the founding conference of our group that the country has an obligation not only to defend its citizens, but also to defend its soldiers. Today it's clear to everyone that things could have been done differently, and that we were asked to stand on the front in unrealistic conditions that dictated that we would have 2,673 casualties and over 11,000 wounded in the war."

'More is still being kept secret'

Despite the grief and the anger, Micky and Rami continued to serve in the army. Micky served as a battalion commander and later on as a division commander in the reserves, and Rami went on to two battalion commander roles – including the first battalion of Merkava tanks – until he was discharged in 1983. After that, he remained a reservist for another 20 years. "It was clear to us that we need to be part of the [post-war] rehabilitation," he says.

But the war has never left him. Two years ago he decided, along with a group of friends, to establish the Yom Kippur War Center, a nonprofit organization that would work not only to keep the memory of the war alive, but also to teach its legacy.

"It was the most significant event in the history of the country since independence. A war that threatened its existence, in which the entire population took part," he says.

Q: Why now?

"Because our generation has undergone a process of internalization and silence, and like our parents and grandparents didn't want to talk about the Holocaust, it didn't talk, either. We have a moral obligation to pass it on."

The organization plans to build an active center that will focus on four different goals: making information accessible, telling the story of the war, documentation and research, and serving as a center to commemorate heroism in the war. They hope it will be recognized as a national heritage site, like Ammunition Hill. The city of Netanya has already allocated land for the center, which will be built at an estimated cost of $30 million. The organization intends to promote a cabinet bill to expedite the processes to build the center and have it recognized as a heritage site, with the hope that in the future all IDF soldiers and schoolchildren will visit it on organized trips.

The group now boasts some 3,000 members, most of whom fought in the war. Rami Swet is the chairman, and he has set a goal of starting construction this coming year, with a projected opening date of October 2023 – exactly 50 years after the war broke out.

"This war hasn't gotten the respect it deserves. Even today, more about it is secret than is known. We are about to petition the High Court of Justice to force the government to release material about the war," he says.

Q: Like what?

"The Agranat Commission Report dealt with only one point – who was responsible for the [war's] failures. It didn't research the war. Most of the relevant documents are still classified. It's absurd – if I want to know what's happening in Iran, I turn on the news, but if I want to know what happened with the air force on Yom Kippur I get a file that is mostly redacted."

Swet says that the government has 23,000 documents on file that are waiting to be declassified, and that the IDF also has a wealth of information that is still secret.

Aside from the mission of commemoration, the group wants to change the way people talk about the war from the focus on failure to a discussion of heroism and victory.

"It's not that there weren't problems, but that's not the main thing. Take the data from the start and from the end. There's no army that could have turned things around and led to a victory like that. The army rose to the occasion, and the army isn't the top level of the government. The soldiers were the ones who won the war, and that's something we have to instill in people's minds. And that's even discounting that it was the only war that has led to a peace treaty."

Q: Why the urgency to do this?

"I wear three different hats: someone who fought and was wounded in the war; someone who was bereaved; and someone who now sees what is happening in the Israeli public. This event ended and was forgotten as if it was some minor episode in Israel's history."

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The documents, with many sections still redacted, were released for publication on Monday by the Defense Ministry's IDF Archives. The declassified sections reveal details about plans for an attack that would be lethal and change the rules of the game.

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In one section, then-IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. David (Dado) Elazar tells then-Maj. Gen. Rehavam Zeevi, "I have two moves. The first is to destroy Syria. There will be an outcry from the world [redacted], but as a first step, let's break one."

Zeevi responds: "Whatever hurts."

Most of what Elazar said next is still redacted, but two words have been authorized for publication: "4 cities," a hint at the targets of the attack.

Elazar said, "I want a dramatic turning point. I want someone to cry, 'Gevald!' Peoples are being wiped out, hold your fire, we'll all cease fire. We're in a catastrophe. If what I said is dramatic and stops the shooting – fine. It [will] stop Syria."

Documentation of a different discussion reveals a bit more while still concealing much of what took place in those early chaotic days.

Then-deputy chief of staff Maj. Gen. Israel (Talik) Tal, discusses bombing Damascus: "I know that we haven't agreed finally, it's too serious and fateful a matter either way. I don't accept the assumption about the effects that would break the enemy. That is to say, if I were 100% certain [redacted], I would say, 'Let's go.' It's possible this might not solve anything, and our situation would be a million times worse. I'm not sure that bombing Damascus will give us a ceasefire than not [bombing] Damascus."

In the same meeting, Tal suggests that Israel retreat from part of the Sinai Desert to concentrate its efforts on the northern front and in battles to check Syria.

"My operative proposal is to hold the Golan Heights steady with the ground forces and use the air force to help thwart [the Syrians]. Not desperate assistance, well-considered assistance in bad circumstances. In Egypt we need to fight wisely to hold them off," he says.

"I'm not saying it's impossible there, and [we could] use the air force to destroy tanks in those areas so that we could have a lot of forces here. We aren't using armor properly here, because we're doing things under pressure," Tal says.

One of the better-known quotes from the Yom Kippur War was uttered by then-Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, who voiced concern about the possible "destruction of the Third Temple [meaning the state of Israel]." The newly-declassified transcripts show just how pessimistic Dayan was.

On Oct. 7, 1973, 24 hours after the war broke out, Dayan is recorded saying, "What am I afraid of more than anything, in my heart? That the state of Israel will eventually be left without enough weapons to defend itself. It doesn't matter where the line is, there won't be enough tanks or planes and not enough people or well-enough trained people to defend the Land of Israel. In the end, no one will fight this war for us, and all the Arabs will swoop down on us from all sides. I want to tell that to Golda [Meir]."

That same day, the generals spoke among themselves. "At [the airport] Sde Dov, Moshe was talking to me about losing the Third Temple. He was very hoarse, it was painful to hear him. He was talking about a battle for the Land of Israel," Zeevi says.

Elazar replies that Dayan was in no way exaggerating: "This, friends, this is truly a battle for the Land of Israel."

Zeevi goes on to say that he believes that the southern Golan Heights had already fallen: "Maybe I'm being subjective because he [Dan Lener, a division commander] … told me this morning that the fighting in the southern Golan was over, and we lost."

In yet another discussion, Dayan does not keep the seriousness of the situation a secret.

"Anyone who still hasn't gotten a shock will get it now. We're at the number of tanks we had in the [1967] Six-Day War. This Hermon cost us 70 men once and 30 casualties and 70 wounded a second time, and that will destroy the people's morale … This is terrible, we need to make sure they're out of there and attack, and whoever is killed is killed…"

'If Jordan comes in, we're lost'

The senior commanders spend much time discussing what tactics can be employed to stop the advancing Syrians and Egyptians.

"Our situation is bad, very bad," Elazar says in a talk with his deputy. "I've said repeatedly [about] Moshe [Dayan's] option of starting to fold and withdraw – we can always do that. My plan is to try and break [them], at one point and possibly two. That might work, or it might not."

"Jordan is just about to come in. If we [redacted] Damascus, who knows what will happen if Jordan joins [the war]. If Jordan does, then we're lost. That's Jerusalem, 30 km, 400 tanks. Then the air force in Amman, another push by the air force [redacted] ... In Damascus economic targets go immediately, and if the air force goes to those divisions we'll see what happens," the chief of staff says.

Elazar orders then-GOC Northern Command Yitzhak Hofi: "You don't move from the ceasefire line. What will be will be, and I don't intend for us to retreat from there. We won't retreat. I'm coming up with a proposal to do all sorts of things in Syria that you were talking about yesterday because we're approaching a situation in which we must break Syria soon. I want Syria to want a ceasefire today."

'Call up children and the elderly'

On Oct. 9, two days into the fighting in the Gaza Strip, the General Staff already knew how grim things were. Dayan had made it clear to the generals that the Golan Heights must be defended "to the last man."

"If we need to switch the GOC to do that, we need to decide whether we will or not. This needs to be an order. We will bring in the armored forces, but we'll do so to finish off the Syrians' tanks. No matter what, there will be no retreat from that line. Not a single centimeter," Dayan says.

Dayan also makes unprecedented proposals to meet the lack of manpower caused by the many casualties and injured. "We need to look into the possibility of conscripting all those we release when the young people and reserves were enlisted – bring them into the tanks, the air, whatever is needed. We'll get tanks, and there won't be people. Take the older people we've released, and take the younger ones who haven't enlisted, from age 17. We need to … look into the feasibility of enlisting Jews from all over the world – Americans, British, South Africans, anyone who wants to. And if any of them have [military] professions – pilots, tank drivers."

Dayan has harsh criticism for the government and then-Prime Minister Golda Meir and suggests alternatives that she had not approved.

"The government has a different approach and a different spirit. I will have an obligation to you, to ourselves, to the army and to the people to say what I think needs to be done and we haven't done…. When I told Golda she was in shock – first, they don't know the facts, and second, some of them don't understand the facts and the military interpretation of the situation," he says.

Worry that mothers might 'invade' battlefield cemeteries

The senior commanders were dealing not only with immense difficulties on the battlefield, but with the need to keep the homefront from collapse. At one point, Elazar talks with the commander of the IDF Manpower Division Maj. Gen. Herzl Shafir how best to deal with the hundreds of casualties who had been given hasty battlefield burials, and that some of them were unidentified.

"I'm not telling the families of the casualties until Sunday … after that, we need to consider it," Shafir tells Elazar.

"We need to understand that we are burying everyone in temporary graves. There are no funerals. The problem we will face is how to tell the families. They'll want to come see the cemeteries, and we can arrange that," Shafir points out.

Elazar answers: "If we don't notify [them], we'll be invaded by mothers. They'll start walking around and looking at signs for names. Before you do anything, post a guard so they won't get in there."

A conversation between Elazar, Tal, and then-IDF Spokesman Col. Pinchas Lahav deals with how to present the difficult situation in the north and the south, especially given the plans to bomb Damascus.

Lahav says, "We wanted a scare reaction and to create a picture … we can hold off on that."

Tal responds: "Clear skies … and Arabs screaming as Damascus is bombed. It's no good for getting us Phantoms [referring to the air convoy from the US to Israel in which aircraft and weapons were being transferred]."

Lahav suggests framing what was taking place to avoid dramatic headlines: "Not lie about the facts, but we can lie in technique."

Elazar then asks Lahav if he had been too optimistic a day prior to the discussion, and Lahav answers in the affirmative: "Yes, I told you to be optimistic, because I think that if we make it out of this, the people of Israel will forgive you. The spokesman is a weapon. The defense minister, with all due respect, is rigid in his thinking."

Lahav was to be mistaken – after the war, Elazar was the target of extensive criticism for his handling of it as chief of staff.

Some of the transcripts deal with the internecine battles between the generals themselves. Elazar attacks how then-Mag. Gen. Ariel Sharon [who would go on to become prime minister] was handing the southern front, saying his tactics approached the level of a "war crime."

"I didn't say anything … as an order and today he, against orders, went all the way to the water, fought a major battle against orders, lied to [GOC Southern Command Shmuel] Gorodish [Gonen], and when I listen to him on the radio, I see he's lying to me. And now he wants permission to cross to the other side."

In still another conversation, one of the most sensitive of the war, Elazar informs Gorodish that he is to be replaced by former Chief of Staff Haim Bar-Lev.

"Worse solutions for you could have been found. This is a test of how much you trust me, that I'm trying to find a solution that is least harmful to you. You will remain GOC Southern Command, and Haim Bar-Lev will come down and be at your side. If you accept it with good grace, it will be an excellent solution," Elazar encourages him.

"You need to take it well, Shmulik. When we're down or when the war is over, you'll understand. There are [different] dimensions to this war. Shmulik, I want you to accept it. Trust me, that I'm doing my best for everyone in the circumstances. Take it in good spirit, but he is the commander and you'll work with him as such."

The post The secret transcripts of the Yom Kippur War appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

The ministry of defense is aiming to procure an armored vehicle that can be operated by two soldiers instead of four with the hatch closed, something officials involved in the project say would be a unique achievement.

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The ministry tasked three Israeli companies – state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, along with Elbit Systems – with drumming up ideas.

The so-called Carmel project, launched three years ago, aims to develop not the vehicle itself, but its brains and sensors, which can be installed into existing tanks. All three firms succeeded in reducing the number of soldiers to two.

The vehicles also have options for autonomous driving and target identification with the help of sensors and cameras, along with artificial intelligence and other features.

"This is a revolutionary concept based on cutting-edge technology," Brig. Gen. Yaniv Rotem, head of the Defense Ministry's research and development branch, told journalists.

"Many countries and many armies are looking for the armored vehicles of the future," Rotem said.

Israel – which has long eyed a future robot army as a means of reducing the use of soldiers on its combustible fronts with Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, just as its air force has increasingly relied on pilotless drones – demonstrated options for the project to US military representatives on Sunday and plans to do the same for other countries.

"Now the people will be sitting in the tank, it's closed, they are far better protected, and they can advance without worrying about snipers or other things," Rotem added.

Asked why Israel was not eliminating human involvement entirely and operating the vehicles remotely, Rotem told reporters: "At the end of the day, it is the man in the vehicle who makes the decision. You need someone who thinks more than a machine."

The Defense Ministry, he said, was separately devoting "a lot of discussion" to a potential robot army of the future.

"Our vision [is], 30 years from now, a lot of autonomous capability," he said.

A second defense official said that while the "smart-tank" prototypes could, in theory, be remote-operated, disruptions or delays in the signal would potentially impede their effectiveness in battle.

Two of the competing systems appeared inspired by video games and other home technologies, are seen as appealing to young soldiers.

Israel Aerospace Industries has Xbox-style controls. Rafael has a vehicle simulator with touch-screens and animation whose terrain and characters' garb recall Afghanistan – a nod to the US Army representatives.

Elbit Systems, meanwhile, came up with adapted air force helmets whose inside visors provide a 360-degree view of the vehicle's exterior. Rotem said Israel was already incorporating the helmets among its Merkava tank crews.

The post Israel unveils prototypes for 'combat vehicle of the future' appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Aqaba residents stood at the shore watching and taking photos as a helicopter and a tank were slowly submerged into the water.

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The city's Special Economic Zone, which is responsible for promoting business and tourism in the city, hopes the underwater structures will encourage more diving enthusiasts to visit by enhancing the environment for marine life.

The museum will also relieve the pressure on natural reefs by drawing visitors away from those sites.

Video: Reuters

A total of 19 military vehicles and machines have been submerged in the sea after weeks of planning and pinpointing appropriate locations to ensure that the process would not harm natural marine life in the area.

Some have landed at 15-20 meters (yards) below the surface, while other objects can be found deeper, at 20-30 meters.

Aqaba resident Asmaa Riyaty, who learned how to dive from her father, often goes diving to enjoy looking at a tank "that looks beautiful," she said. The 17-year-old is looking forward to going into the water with family members to see a helicopter that she watched being lowered from the shore.

The museum is the latest addition to the diving sites in the area. The Aqaba seabed is also home to a C-130 Hercules jet sunk last year, as well as a tank and shipwreck which were submerged in the late 90s. These have become popular diving sites with rich coral reefs and an active marine life.

Local diving instructor Samy al-Azrat hopes the latest additions will attract more tourists and business.

Tourism is one of the country's main sources of foreign currency and constitutes around 10% of the country's GDP.

The post Jordan hopes underwater tanks will draw tourists and fish appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.