Who "Won" the Yom Kippur War?

Who won the Yom Kippur War?

  • Israel

    Votes: 45 86.5%
  • Arab Alliance

    Votes: 2 3.8%
  • Britain! Rule, Brittania...

    Votes: 5 9.6%

  • Total voters
    52
Map-of-Yom-Kippur-War.jpg


Just got done watching a really good military-political documentary on the operations of the Yom Kippur War and it left me wondering, given that both Israel and the Arabs claimed victory in the conflict, who was the actual winner?

The schools of thought in a nutshell are as follows

1. Israel ultimately won the conflict because they were able to retain most of the land gained during the 1967 war - as well as pretty much crush any future hope of a military solution to reverse them on through part of the Arabs.

2. The Arabs (primarily Egypt) won the conflict because the initial successes in the Sinai invasion re-established pride in the military and set the stage for a return of the entire Sinai Peninsula only a few years later.

So what do you think?
Who won the war?
 
Militarily speaking, Israel.

Despite initial Egyptian successes which gave them psychological leverages and eventually lead to the return of Sinai, in the end the Egyptian 3rd army was comletely encircled, and held hostage.
 
Hard to say, but in all both Israel and Egypt won out in some way, though who gained more is a point of debate. Egypt was able to regain the Sinai, in particular, all despite their initial success turning into a rout. Israel did lose the Sinai, but they also normalized relations with Egypt and held off both sides, which is still a plus for them. Syria got zilch.

the USSR and USA which got some neat operating data.

And this too.
 
Israel got a permanent peace treaty with Egypt out of the YKW, changing Egypt's 25 year, much fought for policy on the existence of Israel. They captured the Sinai as a buffer and bargaining chip, and used it as originally intended so it's loss isn't important.

As such Israel is the winner.
 
I typically think Israel is the winner - despite early setbacks, they got stuff turned around and ended up victorious on all fronts, taking so many PoWs that it was a logistical challenge to deal with them. They also were able to use the result to get a peace treaty with Egypt, so it was a political victory in the international sense, too. Some might dismiss Israel's victory because of the logistical aid it got from the US, but considering the aid Egypt got from the USSR...I think we can be generous on that front. Egypt only won in that their military wasn't a complete embarrassment. Syria probably did better than Egypt, but still, at the end, Israel had achieved complete tactical and strategic victory.

That this is even in question is due to two things:
-In Syria and especially Egypt, propaganda spun it as a victory, basically because the alternative was death for the dictator, or revolution
-In Israel, "high" casualties (1% of soldiers under arms dead, another 4% wounded), combined with the loss of the feelings of invincibility from after '67 led to the perception that it was a defeat among the populace.

Neither of the above was true in any meaningful way.
 
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