The minutes of the meetings held between the Israeli military and political commands during the first days of the October 1973 war require a thorough multifaceted reading. This is due to the fact that the issue cannot be limited to the ordering of the disclosure of these minutes by Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak on the thirty-seventh anniversary of the war, since the Israeli command probably needs to send a series of messages to the former and current rivals and enemies. Those joyously reading about the victory of the Egyptian and Syrian armies in the war, can settle for seeing the confusion that prevailed over the first ranks of the Israeli security-military institutions and the state of collapse and despair which affected some icons of the Hebrew state. They can also settle for the uncovering of the futility of the “legendary” Moshe Dayan who – following the 1967 Arab defeat – was inducted as a living personification of the Zionist project which proceeded from one victory to another. Indeed, the minutes showed that Dayan, the war minister during the 1973 war and the speaker about the imminent destruction of the state of the Jews, was a person who lost touch with reality and plunged into the metaphysical nonsense and apocalyptic prophecies. In the meantime, Prime Minister Golda Meir was alluding to the possible recourse to the “ultimate weapon” to avoid the impending disaster. On the other hand, through the publication of their minutes, the Israelis may have wanted to stress that their insanity stocks have not yet ran out around four decades after the war. They also wanted to say that although they may get confused during the first moments, they can still turn the table on their enemies - through their strategic alliance with the United States - on the political level and on the field, after reaching a distance of 101 kilometers away from Cairo via the Deversoire gap and besieging the third army (in a tragedy discounted by the current festivities), and reaching a distance of forty kilometers away from Damascus after absorbing the first wave of the Egyptian-Syrian attack. There is no coincidence in the Middle Eastern world of encrypted messages and symbols. The minutes were not disclosed at this point in time to have the Israeli recruits read that their “legendary” Defense Minister Dayan suggested leaving the wounded on the battlefield. It aimed at focusing on the regret felt toward the disregarding of the call of Chief of Staff David “Dado” Eliezer to address a preemptive strike to the Arab troops mobilized on the Suez Canal and the periphery of the Golan Heights. The Israelis are thus saying that they will never commit this mistake again, and will never wait until the warning signs become a lurking threat before acting. These messages acquire their true meaning when perceived against the backdrop of the tensions that are currently growing in the region, as well as the (unsurprising) failure of the direct negotiations with the Palestinians. One of those meanings is that Israel is still ready to resort to the craziest options to preserve what it considers as being vital interests. This is a message addressed to Iran, the Palestinians and the remaining Arabs. On the other hand, apart from a few memoirs (the most prominent of which probably being those of Field Marshal Mohamed el-Gamasy and General Saad el-Shazly), the Arab citizens and especially those who had not yet been born when war erupted – and they are a majority among the Arabs today – know nothing about the details of the consultations of the Arab political and military commands. Likewise, the Arab citizens know nothing worth mentioning about their governments' visions for the future on the political, security and developmental levels. Moreover, it seems from the way things are going that the Arabs are awaiting the release of additional Israeli documents in order to learn about their present, while they are leaving their future to the winds and the direction from which they are blowing.
