Another Arab Israeli War

Yesterday Hamas attacked Israel throughout the country. They launched a large scale assault from the Gaza Strip and attacked Israeli military bases and civilian villages. Hundreds of people have died and many hostages have been taken. It was a very significant act of war and the state of Israel will certainly respond. It looks like it will be another long war. 

It has been 50 years since the last major Arab Israeli war in the fall of 1973. I remember that time well as I was a Navy short-timer and we were put on alert. We made a quick trip to the eastern Mediterranean Sea and sat off the coast of Israel and Lebanon for a couple of weeks before luckily for me we headed back to Little Creek Virginia. I would get an early release discharge in December. 

The Arabs and Israelis have been fighting wars my entire life. There were wars in 1948, 1956, 1967, 1973, 1982 and now in 2023. Of course there have been attacks, incidents and confrontations regularly for over 70 years.

I remember very well the Six Day War in 1967. I was a teenager and already following what was happening in the long drawn our Vietnam War and I was fascinated with the quickness of this war in 1967 taking only six days. I thought the Israeli military was awesome and wished the the Americans in Vietnam would be so successful.