Ramadan Offensive 1973

In Malaysia, sociologically, the Malay Muslims in Malaysia (3M) are at the end of the consumer line.

Thus explaining why the 3M's are mostly the ones badly hurt with any price increase in anything.

Let me explain this fact. Supposedly, by this moment, money is abolished in Malaysia, and everyone have to barter trade to get what they want.

The Chinese will outdo most because of dominance in business. 3M? Ok, the professionals in 3M will barter trade their "special services" like law or medical, but how about others?

Then you will realised most 3M and Indians have to work their asses off doing "something", and in return they get money, but this money will be "consumed" (only some will be saved by people who have sense).

So by looking at the big picture, most 3M will somehow felt that they are oppressed by others, since they could not escape being slaves for consumption, because they could not possibly make themselves progressively when inflation sets in.

Most 3M's feel this way, and if you are a 3M and you don't, then I suggest for you to try buying a house in Klang Valley.

And so, in this spirit of Ramadan, let me tell to the 3M's that all is not lost. Do not feel victimized.
Do not feel that the world is against you every time.

Actually, in modern history, Israel was once defeated by Muslim in the month of Ramadhan, while the Muslim soldiers were fasting in year of 1973.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yom_Kippur_War

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Badr_%281973%29

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/yom-kippur.htm

Yom Kippur War /  can be divided to 2 phase, the early phase of Sinai crossing thru Suez (the Ramadhan offensive) and the 2nd phase which saw Israel fighting back.

Actually the offense was carried out by Egypt and Syria, nonetheless for this writing, I'll focus on the Egyptian side of the story only. Nevertheless, you guys can do your own reading and  find out about the whole affair (I provided the links, didn;t I?)

Nevertheless, Yom Kippur will always be portrayed in the Western media as a victory to Israel as it is a failure for the Egyptian to go further and total defeat of Syrians, but Egyptian managed to win back the Sinai Peninsular, once lost during the previous 1967 Six Day War.

The Eastern media, like Malaysian media, never seem to highlight this Yom Kippur war, and focus more towards internal fightings and  labelling other muslims, syiah, sunni, wahabi, communist, liberalist, etc.


The Ramadan Offensive that I will highlight here, is the highly successful Egyptian crossing of Bar Lev line situated in the Sinai area, which was won previously by Israel during the Six Day War.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Badr_%281973%29

After the Six Day War, the Sinai area is flooded with lots of SAM sites,and Israel boast that the defensive fortification line there, called Bar Lev line. It is constructed mainly to prevent any bridge crossing, especially by the tanks. It is boasted that even nuclear strike would not damage the Bar Lev line.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bar-Lev_Line 

 Egyptian started the offensive around 2pm (14:00 hours) by crossings of Egyptian frogmen to the Israelian side. 

The combatmen first have to "eradicate" the sandy ditches of Bar Lev line, so that the tanks could cross over.

Because the Egyptian previously constructed Aswan Dam in the 50's, they knew that "earth moving" job takes a lot of time, and so they come out with the idea of using jet water pump.

And so, by using jet water pump, the combatmen were able to clear the passage in a mere two hours (in some area, they made it in less than an hour).

By then, simultaneously, under fire, the bridges were constructed, and thus the Soviet tanks owned by Egyptian (might be T-55 and T-64 I'm not sure whether T-72 tank made it to participate in the offensive).

Simultaneously also, the combatmen who had crossed, were tasked to disable the SAM sites at Sinai area to enable air-cover.
  
This fact, shows that the Soviets did provide intelligence as to the locations of the SAM sites.

The Egyptian combatmen were also tasked in fighting the Israel M-60 Patton tanks, and so the combatmen were armed with anti-tank equipment (tank hunting detachments).

The normal infantry that crossed went to disarm the other Israeli's combatmen inside the fortifications.

The first wave of  armour and anti tank units, finally succeeded in the crossing around 6 pm (18:00).

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Badr_%281973%29

Even though, in the end of the whole Yom Kippur affair war, Egypt made the mistake of wanting to go forward until reaching Israel border (Egypt already calculated that it'll only able to fight in a short term war), the Israelis fought back until they themselves reached the Sinai crossing and cross over to the Egyptian line.

By then, Egypt had to sign an agreement (Camp David agreement) with Israel.

http://www.jimmycarterlibrary.gov/documents/campdavid/index.phtml

Nevertheless, there are crucial elements in Camp David agreement, is always forgotten by the media.

1. Framework point 2 : Egypt, Israel, and Jordan will agree on the modalities for establishing elected self-governing authority in the West Bank and Gaza

There are 3 countries that issue passports to Israel, which is Egypt, Jordan and Turkey.

But note that, whether HAMAS or FATAH, whoever wants to establish an authority in Gaza and West Bank will somehow require political back-up from Egypt.

2. Tunnel issue

http://www.jimmycarterlibrary.gov/documents/campdavid/frame.phtml

• The following matters are agreed between the parties:
  1. the full exercise of Egyptian sovereignty up to the internationally recognized border between Egypt and mandated Palestine;
  2. the withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from the Sinai;
  3. the use of airfields left by the Israelis near al-Arish, Rafah, Ras en-Naqb, and Sharm el-Sheikh for civilian purposes only, including possible commercial use only by all nations;
  4. the right of free passage by ships of Israel through the Gulf of Suez and the Suez Canal on the basis of the Constantinople Convention of 1888 applying to all nations; the Strait of Tiran and Gulf of Aqaba are international waterways to be open to all nations for unimpeded and nonsuspendable freedom of navigation and overflight;
  5. the construction of a highway between the Sinai and Jordan near Eilat with guaranteed free and peaceful passage by Egypt and Jordan; and
  6. the stationing of military forces listed below.

Stationing of Forces

• No more than one division (mechanized or infantry) of Egyptian armed forces will be stationed within an area lying approximately 50 km. (30 miles) east of the Gulf of Suez and the Suez Canal.
• Only United Nations forces and civil police equipped with light weapons to perform normal police functions will be stationed within an area lying west of the international border and the Gulf of Aqaba, varying in width from 20 km. (12 miles) to 40 km. (24 miles). 
• 
  
• In the area within 3 km. (1.8 miles) east of the international border there will be Israeli limited military forces not to exceed four infantry battalions and United Nations observers.
• Border patrol units not to exceed three battalions will supplement the civil police in maintaining order in the area not included above.
• After a peace treaty is signed, and after the interim withdrawal is complete, normal relations will be established between Egypt and Israel, including full recognition, including diplomatic, economic and cultural relations; termination of economic boycotts and barriers to the free movement of goods and people; and mutual protection of citizens by the due process of law.

Interim Withdrawal
Between three months and nine months after the signing of the peace treaty, all Israeli forces will withdraw east of a line extending from a point east of El-Arish to Ras Muhammad, the exact location of this line to be determined by mutual agreement.

 If you look at the agreement above, you will see Israel are allowed to allocate 4 battalions of army (1 battalion = 1000 people) at the border.

However, the over all Sinai peninsular is still under Egypt, and there were underground tunnels within Sinai Peninsular which have been supplying Palestinians.

Dr. Asri Zainal Abidin (Dr. MAZA) went to Palestin, and reported there is about 1000 underground tunnels in the Sinai Peninsular, each tunnel is big and can fit in a truck-sized vehicle. 

And this tunnel were the bloodline that supplies the Hamas and the Palestinians, with food, rockets, etc.

The Israel knew of the tunnels, but why didn't they do anything about it?

Answer : there's a clause in Camp david agreement, preventing any jurisdiction for Israel army to even cross the Sinai area, if Israel cross the area, it will cause casus belli to Egypt to attack back.

Whatever tunneling works done, the Egyptian can say the works is to integrate the construction of a highway between the Sinai and Jordan near Eilat with guaranteed free and peaceful passage by Egypt and Jordan. (There's a highway already, but whatever tunnelling works done can be said to be done to integrate this highway)

In wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_David_Agreement
  
The agreement also resulted in the United States committing to several billion dollars worth of annual subsidies to the governments of both Israel and Egypt, subsidies which continue to this day, and are given as a mixture of grants and aid packages committed to purchasing U.S. materiel. From 1979 (the year of the peace agreement) to 1997, Egypt received military aid of US$1.3 billion annually, which also helped modernize the Egyptian military.^[18] (This is beyond economic, humanitarian, and other aid, which has totaled more than US$25 billion.) Eastern-supplied until 1979, Egypt now received American weaponry such as the M1A1 Abrams Tank, AH-64 Apache gunship and the F-16 fighter jet. In comparison, Israel has received $3 billion annually since 1985 in grants and military aid packages.

It can be said, if the Israel tries to interfere with the tunnels, they may risk losing the USA annual subsidies.

 Now you understand?
 
That is why when Anwar Sadat was killed, I wonder why it happened?

Was it because of tyrany? (previous President Jamal Abdul Nasser was worst, he hanged the Syed Qutb, the leader of Ikhawanul Muslimin) 

Or was it because he's perceived as a bad Muslim because he had signed a treaty with Israel?

If it was the latter, then I feel really sorry.

Bad Muslim, he had a dog, etc.

That's the problem with 3M and other Muslims in the world.

They labelled Anwar Sadat as evil because of he rears a dog, and because he signs a treaty with Israel, but then that treaty had a military advantage, we able to supply the Palestinian thru the tunnel. 

That's why, I reiterate this many times, don't call other Muslims a bad Muslim just because he drinks, not living the Muslim way, calling some people wahabi, syiah, sunni, liberalist, communist, because all that matters in the end is that he/she is still a Muslim. 

We have to be thankful to a bad Muslim like Anwar Sadat, because of Ramadan Offensive and the Camp David Accord,  1000 underground tunnels were able to be built under Sinai Peninsular.

In this world where Muslims are mere consumers and not inventors, labelling other Muslims wahabi, syiah, suni, socialist, komunis or whatever, is such a stupidity.

Everyone just do what Dear God has blessed for them to do.

Some people, even though a bad Muslim, God has given them knowledge, so use their knowledge instead of fighting them.

This is not the time for internal fights.  Ok, maybe my view is the same with Said Jamaluddin Al Afghany, and because of that, I might be label as Syiah.

Nope, I listen a lot to Dr. MAZA.

Then I'm a wahabi then?

There's no democracy in Arab Saudi, and even lots of Arab countries which do not practice democracy are allies with the US. The govt and ministries postings in these countries are allocated to their own king's and prince's families, I don't support that.

What is important is I'm a Muslim, right?

Labelling is the sin that kills a lot of Muslims.

I don;t know, why the hell most Islamic pages in Facebooks have a lot of curses in their comments. The Muslims also like to make Anti Page, anti this, anti that, and most of the Anti Page is towards their own Muslim community. One example is one Pagebook face "Kami Tak Mahu Wahabi Di Malaysia".
Then, it listed a list of Muslim's names which is labelled as Wahabi.

All in a while the Non Muslims Facebook page, War History page, Megadeth, napalm death, and death metal grindcore facebook page which sang of military, politics and war have more "peaceful" facebook page and comments than most Islamic Facebook page I read. Such an irony. 

Nowadays, in Facebook, I'm more open to "like" a Non-Muslim page rather than a Muslim page because the Muslim pages has TOO much curses and infighting!

Sometimes, I think it's even quite unwise for Malaysians to even comment on the issue of Morsi and Ikhwanul Muslimin. Because what happens in Egypt is a very delicate affair, the Malaysians don't really can muster and understand the whole thing in Egypt, and the delicate politics in Middle East. 

The Morsi guy rule for 1 year, then he asked for a military inscriptions to be send to Syria, only to found out the Egyptian military does not want to go to Syria (disobey the President).

After that, the military decided to dispose Morsi and Ikhwanul Muslimin. Yes there were the Tamarod movement, but Ikhwanul Muslimin also went to streets with 4 million supporters. 

You say that this Morsi guy, even though 1 year, is no good and had to be toppled down, but still you people can persist living under UMNO for 57 years eh?

I think what happen in Egypt is a military affair, but I keep my opinions to myself first, I might be wrong.

If I'm proven right,that military is indeed the true perpetrator, then two things will happen.

1. The Egyptian president will be an ex general, or someone from the military.

2. The Egyptian will sign some sort of military agreement with any powers in the world, or Middle East sometime after the President and Prime Minister declares the Cabinet.

There are neo-cons in the White House that drives the policy, that is pro-military action in Middle East.

But nevertheless, after the Iraq affair,  The USA still suffers further economic downhill. 

So the US public are very sceptical of the Neo-cons, that's why I predict, as long as Obama is still the President, there will be no major conflict, because the Democrats in the least are aware of public sentiments, and they are afraid to get involve in any military conflict, because the Democrats knew the US public realised that US economy is not helped by any of the wars.

In recent Libya, it was advertised in the media that the military action is taken by NATO, not US. To pacify the US public, I guess.

There is also inside pressure from ex-servicemen in US, to close down many US overseas base, and their opinion is based on economic reasons, no more political.

Anyway, at least, for a start, to have a little bit understanding of Middle East affair, read this.

Middle East conflicts are bloody complicated.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_War_for_Civilisation:_The_Conquest_of_the_Middle_East