My attention wandered as I struggled to follow him with my limited Hebrew, and I noticed in the distance, across a patchwork of cultivated fields of an Israeli kibbutz, a pall of smoky haze gathering over the low buildings of Old Quneitra, the Syrian town just across the border. A Russian-made Syrian tank, a compact block of steel that somehow looks like an enormous Matchbox toy, still rests on the spot where it was stopped 43 years ago, at the edge of what’s now a memorial pavilion.Īs we gathered on the hilltop, a retired soldier who had played an instrumental role at El Rom reminisced about the battle. El Rom is where the tide of the battle was turned back in Israel’s favor. In the Yom Kippur War of October 1973, Syrian tanks had barreled across a valley practically to the summit in what would be their deepest penetration, as they tried, initially with great success, to recapture land Israel had taken in 1967. Last spring, I went hiking in the Golan Heights with a group of Israelis who had arranged a break on a hilltop called El Rom. His work has appeared in the Atlantic, Haaretz and the New York Times, among others. Todd Pitock is an award-winning writer who has reported stories across the Middle East.
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