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Israelis Must Finally Walk Away From the Trauma of the Yom Kippur War

The sudden wail of an air raid siren shattered the silence, a sound so shocking I wasn’t sure it was real. The 1973 war, which I covered as a young radio reporter, punctured the illusion of Israel's invincibility, but today's Israel can't remain captive to now out-of-date fears of extermination

Mark Lavie
Mark Lavie
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Mark Lavie
Mark Lavie

On the afternoon of October 6, 1973, I was sitting in the living room of the small apartment where I lived with my wife in Jerusalem. I was 26 years old, a recent immigrant to Israel, originally from Fort Wayne, Indiana. It was Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the holiest day of the year for Jews, marked by a twenty-five-hour fast. It was 2 p.m., and I was resting between morning and afternoon prayers.

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