1973 Arab Israeli War.

 

First, totally false premise regarding the 1967 war.  Egypt did not have just 3 reserve divisions in the Sinai.  Israel quickly defeated not just the Egyptians, but the Syrians and Jordanians as well.  In 1967 the 'Arab' forces did not have an effective answer to Israel's armour and airpower.  In 1973 the story was very different, largely due to the improvement in the training, discipline and equipment of the Egyptians and Syrians.  There was also the overconfidence of the IDF and the fact that the Egyptians and Syrians had successfully achieved surprize (keep in mind that they did attack during a Jewish religous holiday).  Still, that's not to excuse the IDF, just to say that it was a successful operation by their opponents.  In particular, the Egyptians displayed a high level of technical expertise in successfully crossing the Suez and destroying the 'fortifications' on the other side.  The IDF airpower could not penetrate the Egyptian air defenses and the IDF armour 'cavalry charge' was stopped by the Egyptian guided anti-tank missiles.  The 'Arabs' got into trouble when the IDF concentrated on the Syrians before finishing off the Egyptians.  The Egyptians had planned on establishing themselves in the Sinai, and then 'attritioning' the IDF by forming a strong defensive position and holding in the face of the expected IDF counterattacks.  This worked initially, however, this strategy was frustrated when the IDF switched to concentrating on the Syrian front.  Once the Syrians got into trouble the Egyptians were 'pressured' into taking the offensive, which cost them heavily.  Once Syria was finished off the Egyptian front was broken.  I strongly disagree that the ceasefire favoured Israel.  Also not that this conflict was something of a 'proxy war' between the Soviets and the Americans.  Yes, the US was rushing in supplies for Israel.  However, the Soviets were also supplying Egypt and Syria.  The Arabs did not 'win' the war in a military sense.  However, they had fought well and inflicted significant losses on the IDF.  It did change the dynamic to the advantage of Egypt in particular, as Israel was forced to realize that they no longer held the huge military advantage that had existed previously, and they could not afford to fight against these Arab armies repeatedly.  So Israel was thereafter willing to return the Sinai to Egypt to gain 'peace' with Egypt.  The 1973 War forced Israel to accept that Egypt was a legitimate threat and that simply holding the Sinai and remaining in a state of 'conflict' with Egypt was not viable in the long term.