ABSTRACT
The outcome of the Yom Kippur War was determined on the first day of combat when the Egyptians crossed the Suez Canal and the Syrians broke through on the Golan Heights. The entire Israel Defense Force (IDF) campaign on both fronts, after the first day of this long war, was focused on a solitary aim: to minimize the extent and impact of the Egyptian and Syrian military successes. The operational military aim of the Egyptians and the Syrians was to conquer limited territorial footholds in the Sinai and on the Golan Heights and to wear down the IDF as much as possible. In the strategic and operational sense the blocking battle is either an original IDF invention or a term borrowed from football, or perhaps from unprofessional journalese. On the northern front, the IDF counterattack was progressing slowly, but the Syrians were not collapsing, and intelligence reported the movement of Iraqi expeditionary forces toward the front.
