MARTIN KRAMER: IN CAIRO AND DAMASCUS MUSEUMS OF “VICTORY” (??) IN OCTOBER 1973 WAR WITH ISRAEL
School groups, soldiers, and local and foreign tourists who visit these sites are told similar stories of triumphant victory, leaving no room for ambiguity as to the war’s outcome. A recent visitor described her experience at the Cairo attraction: “A vast panorama of lights and noise depicted the epic struggle to cross the canal. I saw no mention of the Israeli counterattack. It has been subsumed by myth and propaganda.” Another recent visitor to the Damascus panorama made this observation: “If you relied only on a visit to the Panorama for information about the war, you would not know a) that Egypt was also involved in the fighting, b) how long the war lasted, c) how many people died, or d) that Israel won.”
It is often said that the myth of the October “victory” made accommodation with Israel thinkable, by erasing the stigma of the 1967 defeat from Egyptian and Syrian consciousness. But a much more persuasive case can be made that Israel’s turning the tide of the 1973 war finally compelled Arab acceptance of Israel. Israeli forces overwhelmed Arab armies on two fronts, even from the most disadvantaged opening position. The lesson was not lost on the leaderships of Egypt and Syria, and it underpins their avoidance of war with Israel in the decades since.
In teaching the young only part of the story of 1973, these panoramas show much less than 360 degrees of the truth—and in some small way, erode the foundations of such peace as the Middle East enjoys. (They are also monuments to blind leader-worship, now challenged by the revolution in Egypt and the uprising in Syria.)
This photo gallery assembles nine photographs of each panorama, to which I append a few explanatory comments and links. View, share, and comment.
(Please note: Flickr galleries only allow display of photographs posted on Flickr by others. I didn’t take any of these photos. Many thanks to those who took and posted them. To view the context of any photo, just click on it. I may change the photographs in this gallery, as well as the text of my commentary. If you have uploaded a potentially relevant photograph to Flickr, please let me know.)
Short link to this gallery: bit.ly/1973panoramas
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—October 24, 2011
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