Operation Spark (

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

: מבצע ניצוץ) was a deception operation led by

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

and

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

, aimed towards deceiving Israel of their intention to retake the Israeli-occupied

Golan Heights The Golan Heights, or simply the Golan, is a basaltic plateau at the southwest corner of Syria. It is bordered by the Yarmouk River in the south, the Sea of Galilee and Hula Valley in the west, the Anti-Lebanon mountains with Mount Hermon in t ...

and the

Sinai Peninsula The Sinai Peninsula, or simply Sinai ( ; ; ; ), is a peninsula in Egypt, and the only part of the country located in Asia. It is between the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Red Sea to the south, and is a land bridge between Asia and Afri ...

respectively, in 1973.Dunstan 2003, p. 7. The operation succeeded in that Israeli intelligence was not, as a whole, able to inform a nationwide alert that war was imminent and that mobilisation should proceed apace; the established 48-hour warning had proved advantageous to Israel in previous wars, most notably the

Six-Day War The Six-Day War, also known as the June War, 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states, primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan from 5 to 10June ...

. However, a number of Israeli generals, including General

David Elazar David "Dado" Elazar (; 27 August 1925 – 15 April 1976) was an Israeli senior military officer who was the ninth Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), serving in that capacity from 1972 to 1974. He was forced to resign in the afterma ...

, caught on to the fact that the Syrians and the Egyptians were mobilising their forces behind the ceasefire lines, preparing for offensive actions. Importantly, and arguably the fact that prevented liberation of the Golan Heights by Syrians, was the ordering of the 7th Armoured Brigade to the area, even though this was a blatant disregard of the spirit of the Israeli High Command's current directives. Nevertheless, when war started, clearly Israel as a whole was surprised. Therefore, Operation Spark was a success, a preamble to Syrian and Egyptian initial success in the

Yom Kippur War The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was fought from 6 to 25 October 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states led by Egypt and S ...

. However, as said, the initiative of some Israeli generals meant that some preparation was in place to try and resist the Arab advance.

Notes

References

External links

* Yom Kippur War Deception operations {{syria-hist-stub