By Kelleigh Nelson
October 8, 2023
No one has ever become poor from giving. —Anne Frank
too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around. —Leo Buscaglia
Those who are happiest are those who do the most for others. —Booker T. Washington
No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted. —Aesop
In October of 1973, President Nixon was awakened in the middle of the night by a call on his private line from Israel’s Prime Minister Golda Meir. She made an anguished plea for American support in the form of armaments. But Nixon knew acceding to this request would be ignoring the request of the cabinet and the Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger.
Israel was under attack on their Holiest Day of the year, Yom Kippur. History records what Israel was up against.
The Nixon Foundation writes:
To demonstrate what Israel was up against: 180 Israeli tanks faced over 1400 Syrian tanks; closer to the Suez Canal, a mere 436 Israeli infantry were poised to fight over 80,000 Egyptian soldiers – this even after Israel’s military buildup. The attacks by Egypt and Syria were backed by nine Arab states – as well as one non-Arab state: the Soviet Union.
In 1973, Israel was unprepared when Egypt and Syria both launched massive attacks.
President Nixon saved Israel from devastating attack. He knew the threat an Arab victory posed, and he also knew that the Soviet Union was providing arms to the Arabs in an attempt to spread their influence throughout the region.
Taking the Israeli Defense Forces by surprise, Egyptian troops swept deep into the Sinai Peninsula, while Syria struggled to throw occupying Israeli troops out of the Golan Heights. Israel counterattacked and recaptured the Golan Heights.
To rid the region of the communist propaganda and takeover, Nixon knew Israel needed American arms to defeat the Syrians and Egyptians. Both he and Secretary of State Kissinger wanted to conduct the airlift, but the urgency was there with Nixon. He said to them, “You get the stuff to Israel. Now. Now!”
The Nixon Administration initiated Operation Nickel Grass, an American airlift to replace all of Israel’s lost munitions. This was huge – planeload after planeload of supplies literally allowed munitions and materiel to seemingly re-spawn for the Israeli counter effort. 567 missions were flown throughout the airlift, dropping over 22,000 tons of supplies. An additional 90,000 tons of materiel were delivered by sea. According to Abraham Rabinovich, “while the American airlift of supplies did not immediately replace Israel’s losses in equipment, it did allow Israel to expend what it did have more freely.”
Nixon’s initiated aerial resupply operation to Israel started on 13 October. Nicknamed NICKEL GRASS, the airlift soon proved the value of maintaining a responsive and efficient military airlift system. For the next 32 days, MAC C-141 and C-5 cargo transports streamed steadily into Lod International Airport at Tel Aviv from onload points throughout the United States carrying urgently needed war materials.
The war spanned nearly three weeks, from Oct. 6 through Oct. 25, 1973. Most fighting had ended by October 26. But it was the swift and certain actions of America’s president that gave Israel a fighting chance and allowed her to defeat the enemies who attacked her.
Israel’s victory came at the cost of heavy casualties, and Israelis criticized the government’s lack of preparedness. In April 1974, Prime Minister Golda Meir (1898-1978), stepped down.
The Rest of the Story
Yes, it does all come back to mothers, and Hannah Nixon was that special mother. William Ross Wallace wrote these words twenty years before Hannah Nixon was born, “For the hand that rocks the cradle Is the hand that rules the world.” Yet, he might well have been talking of President Richard Nixon’s mother.
When Golda Meir’s call came in Nixon remembered his mother’s words. He said, “I could almost hear my mother’s voice. She would tell me stories and read to me from the Old Testament, the heroes of the Bible. And one afternoon, she said, ‘Richard, someday you’re going to be in a position where you can help save the Jewish people. And when that day comes, you must do everything in your power.’”
Yes, Nixon became God’s angel for Israel when he remembered his mother’s voice from long ago.
Hamas Attack
The unexpected attack on Israel early on the morning of October 7th, 2023, is reminiscent of the Yom Kippur attack. We still don’t know how Israel’s intelligence team failed to know the attack was coming. We do know however, that $6 billion was released to Iran by Biden and that money was most likely used to fund Hamas.
Israeli’s have been abducted, children kidnapped, and families murdered. They need the help of the United States who has gained so many innovative developments from Israel. The U.S.-Israeli alliance now contributes more than ever to American security, as bilateral cooperation to deal with both military and nonmilitary challenges has grown in recent years.
But this time their own security is in jeopardy and America’s president is silent.
I highly suggest you write your congressional representatives and senators and tell them we need to help Israel.
And we need to help them now!
© 2023 Kelleigh Nelson – All Rights Reserved
E-Mail Kelleigh Nelson: proverbs133@bellsouth.net
