Eighteen Days in October: The Yom Kippur War and How It Created the Modern Middle East

"[Kaufman] tells the story brilliantly. Anyone interested in the Middle East or military history will appreciate Kaufman's work."
--Senator Joseph I. Lieberman

"A stimulating and insightful...will no doubt find a permanent place on the Arab-Israeli bookshelf."
--Michael Oren, New York Times bestselling author of Six Days of War

October 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, a conflict that shaped the modern Middle East. The War was a trauma for Israel, a dangerous superpower showdown, and, following the oil embargo, a pivotal reordering of the global economic order. The Jewish State came shockingly close to defeat. A panicky cabinet meeting debated the use of nuclear weapons. After the war, Prime Minister Golda Meir resigned in disgrace, and a 9/11-style commission investigated the "debacle."

But, argues Uri Kaufman, from the perspective of a half century, the War can be seen as a pivotal victory for Israel. After nearly being routed, the Israeli Defense Force clawed its way back to threaten Cairo and Damascus. In the war's aftermath both sides had to accept unwelcome truths: Israel could no longer take military superiority for granted--but the Arabs could no longer hope to wipe Israel off the map. A straight line leads from the battlefields of 1973 to the Camp David Accords of 1978 and all the treaties since. Like Michael Oren's Six Days of War, this is the definitive account of a critical moment in history.

Author: Uri Kaufman
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 08/29/2023
Pages: 400
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.41lbs
Size: 9.37h x 6.22w x 1.18d
ISBN: 9781250281883


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 05/22/2023
Kirkus Reviews 06/15/2023

About the Author
A graduate of New York University School of Law, Uri Kaufman is an award-winning real estate developer, specializing in adaptively restoring historic buildings. He has worked on Eighteen Days in October for over twenty years, visiting the battlefields, speaking to participants and reviewing literally thousands of pages of material. He lives with his family in Lawrence, New York.