October…. A lesson from the past to build the future Hossam Badrawi

October…. a lesson from the past to build the future
Hossam Badrawi
As usual, in the month of October, I communicate with young people who dream of tomorrow, including the youth of my family and those who work with me in my NGOs, especially the Takatof and Education First Association, and the Association for Spreading Culture and Knowledge, in addition to my students at the university.
In my last conversation with them on Zoom, in which we talked about the great October victory, I said to them: The sixth day of October is the greatest day of my life, because he who has not experienced the humiliation of defeat (67) cannot taste the beauty, impact and value (73).
I was a bachelor of medicine in Kasr al-Aini, and each of us had a brother, father, friend, or relative in the army who fought for the dignity of the country. We would huddle around the radio chilling as we heard real sober military statements, unlike in ’67. The media learned from the mistakes of the past and was honest with the people, and the country’s leaders learned from the great Egyptian people and they were at the level of responsibility.
One of the young men who were born more than thirty years after this day told me: You are not so strong, Dr. Hossam. There are books and articles saying that Egypt did not win this battle in the first place. Who do we believe?! Another said: What you also said about war (56) and it appeared in the other that it was not a victory, and that Israel occupied Sinai after that had it not been for the intervention of the United States and forcing it to withdraw.
I said: This is incorrect talk, because the war battle results are known by the one who imposed his will on the other. In (56) Egypt imposed its will on England, France and Israel, and each country used its armies and diplomacy to achieve the purpose.
At the end of the war, Egypt imposed its control over the Suez Canal and regained Sinai, so the outcome of the war was a victory for Egypt, and the resignation of the Prime Minister of Great Britain.
As for (73), we basically believed, and the whole world confirms, the impossibility of crossing the Suez Canal and penetrating the Bar Lev line, which was considered at the time the strongest line of defense in the history of world warfare, with the technological and strategic superiority of the Israeli air force. The world’s belief was that this was a situation Absolutely will not change.
What happened in the end was the crossing of our forces with wise organization and leadership, changing the stable military situation, then negotiating from a position of strength and not defeat.. All that happened after that was the opening of the Suez Canal to global navigation, the return of the displaced people of Port Said, Ismailia and Suez, and the recovery of Sinai. The October War was part of an integrated strategy to restore dignity and land, in agreement with military, diplomatic and legal action to recover the last point in Taba, and Sinai became fully in the possession of Egypt once again.
They said: But the number of our forces in Sinai was determined, and the recovery of Sinai in this way was considered incomplete.
I said: You and I go to Taba, Sharm El-Sheikh, St. Catherine, and every inch of Sinai, and until the ISIS Brotherhood terrorism began after 2011, we used to go to Arish and tour Sinai as we wanted.
Every gain has a price, and we must understand that and realize that the Golan is still under absolute occupation after nearly fifty years, and that the East Bank is likewise. Rather, Israel brazenly announced the annexation of the Golan Heights to it, and the world began to recognize Israel’s ownership of it, and here is America announcing that as well.
Do not let the frustrated, who only see defeat, transfer their negative energy to you.. Egypt won, through war and negotiation, and we changed a geographical and historical reality that could have become a fait accompli until now.
They said: We doubt the truth about the many bids about the events we live in, so how about the events of the past!!!!.
I said: You have a right, and you have a duty… I agree with you that media bidding, fanning victory and hiding mistakes as if we are angels and Superman question the facts. Rather, some of the discourse that conditioned victory and attributed it to angels who descended to stand with the army, as if the glory of victory belongs to non-officers who planned, soldiers who executed, and a people who secreted the best in it to achieve victory.
Our duty is also to research, read the memoirs of our heroes and enemies, and work our minds. The truth is that our army and people have triumphed after defeat, and we have not surrendered, and we have regained the land after (6) years of Israeli occupation, and the people have repeated their civilized stance by rejecting the occupation.
The Brotherhood returned to the country forty years later, on June 30, and we thought it was eternal, God forbid.
The truth is that the army sought help from the higher qualifications of the civil society, so its level of performance increased, and science entered its branches, and that the people, despite their anxiety, impatience, and the internal emigration of a quarter of their population, supported their soldiers, overcame their pain, and triumphed.
I would like to remind you once again that October 6 is truly the greatest day in my life, when we were surprised that our army crossed and achieved victory, and my feeling of pride and arrogance I will never forget. Everyone volunteered according to their capabilities, and Egypt really won.
Another young man said: Do you believe, Doctor, that many of our colleagues do not even know the map of the lands still occupied by Israel? I said: Your remark made me remind you that whenever I read a statement about the Arab lands that are still under the Israeli occupation, I find them diminishing in the memory of the daily and periodic media. Only the West Bank is mentioned, while the Golan and recently all of Jerusalem, the headwaters of the Jordan River, villages from southern Lebanon, and the rest of the villages and valleys of Palestine, which have expanded and are being expanded upon by the Israeli settlements. – I say it almost – unfortunately, has fallen out of the media’s memory. Indeed, there is a division taking place in Syria itself between Turkey and Israel and the ethnic divisions. The Golan Heights is out of sight, and it could have happened to Sinai as well.
Whoever lived and remembers October 1973 must now be over fifty years old, and the teaching of the October War in educational curricula must be based on a scientific vision and not verbal jurisprudence with outbids that make students not believe the facts after that.
There are heroics that are not talked about much, such as the heroism of the Egyptian people, whose army returned from a severe and humiliating defeat in 67, which forced the country’s president to resign as a result of failure. The people did not accept the resignation as an endorsement of the person, as I saw it at the time, but rather as a symbol of their non-acceptance of defeat. And I remember jokes and mockery of the Egyptian army in the whole world and in the country