Happy 6 October
Today Egypt commemorates 6 October, the date in 1973 when the Egyptian army accomplished the near impossible feat of crossing the Suez Canal and using water cannons to bring down parts of the ‘invincible’ Israeli Bar Lev Line fortification and cross over into Israeli occupied Sinai. The feat marked the beginning of the October War between Egypt and Israel, which lasted till 22 October when a truce was reached. The peace negotiations that followed led to a peace treaty in 1979 between the two countries, signed at the White House by Egypt’s President Anwar al-Sadat, Israel’s Prime Minister Menahem Begin, and the US President Jimmy Carter. But equally important, the Canal crossing served to give Egyptians back the self-esteem and dignity that had been so badly damaged by their defeat before Israel in the June 1967 Six-Day War and the consequent loss of Sinai to Israel.
To this day, 6 October marks the day of recovery of Egyptian dignity.
06 - 10 - 2014, 10:37 AM
العرض الشجري