Amnon Kapeliouk - Not by Omission: The Case of the 1973 Arab-Israeli War

Not by Omission

Not by Omission

The Case of the
1973 ArabIsraeli War

Amnon Kapeliouk

Translated by Mark Marshall
Introduction by Noam Chomsky and Irene Gendzier

This English-language edition first published by Verso 2022

Translation Mark Marshall 2022

Originally published in Israel as Lo medal: ha-mediniut she-holicha le-milama

Amikam Gurevitz 1975

All rights reserved

The moral rights of the author have been asserted

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ISBN-13: 978-1-83976-596-4

ISBN-13: 978-1-83976-597-1 (UK EBK)

ISBN-13: 978-1-83976-598-8 (US EBK)

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Kapeliouk, Amnon, author. | Marshall, Mark (Translator), translator. | Chomsky, Noam, writer of introduction. | Gendzier, Irene L., writer of introduction.

Title: Not by omission: the case of the 1973 Arab-Israeli war / Amnon Kapeliouk; translated by Mark Marshall; introduction by Noam Chomsky and Irene Gendzier.

Other titles: Lo mehdal! English

Description: London; New York: Verso, 2022. | Translation of: Lo mehdal!: ha-mediniyut she-holikhah la-milhamah | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2022009740 (print) | LCCN 2022009741 (ebook) | ISBN 9781839765964 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9781839765988 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Israel-Arab War, 1973.

Classification: LCC DS128.1 .K3813 2022 (print) | LCC DS128.1 (ebook) | DDC 956.04/8--dc23/eng/20220331

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022009740

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022009741

Typeset in Minion by Biblichor Ltd, Edinburgh

Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon CR0 4YY

Contents

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Not by Omission: The Policy That Led to Warwas the English title Amnon Kapeliouk himself provided for the Hebrew version of this book, where it appeared on the inside of the cover page. Not by Omission is a quasi-literal translation of the Hebrew title, Lo medal!Not omission! For the English translation, the title has been modified to refer specifically to the 1973 war.

All the quotes that were originally in English appear in this translation in their original English form, except the following, the original English versions of which I was unable to locate:

: The Moshe Dayan interviews with the BBC on 14 May 1973 and 13 June 1967.

: Associated Press, 6 March 1974.

Israel Broadcasting appears in various places in the book. It is a translation of shidurei yisrael, which literally means Broadcasts of Israel. It is the term that was used at the time to refer to Israeli national broadcasts on both radio and television.

I have translated the Hebrew term rav-alufas lieutenant general. Some sources translate it as major general.

The following Hebrew letters (and their Arabic cognates) are transliterated as follows:

(alef): apostrophe ()

(et): h with a dot under it ()

(kaf): k

, (khaf and final khaf): ch

( c ayin): superscript c ( c )

, (tzadee and final tzadee): tz

(quf): q

For the rest, I rely on a common-sense approach.