At about two A.M. on June 17, 1972, a security guard noticed that a piece of tape on the door between the basement stairwell and the parking garage was holding the door unlocked. He alerted police, who immediately dispatched three officers. The policemen arrived and surprised the intruders, who surrendered peacefully. The burglars were carrying "sophisticated [bugging] devices capable of picking up and transmitting all talk, including telephone conversations," as well as almost $2,300 in cash. Most strangely, the cash consisted of "$100 bills with the serial numbers in sequence."

At the courthouse the next day, 29-year-old reporter Bob Woodward, a cub reporter for the Washington Post, took notes. (The paper obviously didn't think the story was important enough to send out a more senior reporter.) The defendants already had lawyers representing them, unusual for common burglars, including a very upscale lawyer who claimed he was there just observing. More surprisingly, one of them admitted he had worked for the CIA...

Over the ensuing months, details of the "third-rate burglary" would unfold like a spy novel, transforming it into a scandal...

Woodward had reason to believe John Mitchell, the Attorney General of the United States ― i.e., the government's top legal adviser ― was involved. "Deep Throat" confirmed that Mitchell personally controlled a secret fund used to" finance widespread intelligence-gathering operations against the Democrats. Woodward wrote the story and the Post published it on September 29.

Mitchell, of course, denied it, but pieces of the puzzle were coming together. Professional burglars, some with links to the Republican Party, get caught wire-tapping Democratic Party headquarters. Twenty-five thousand dollars raised to re-elect Nixon is linked to one of the burglars. The U.S. Attorney General is discovered to have been in charge of a secret fund designed to undermine the opposition. All fingers were beginning to point toward the White House. But could it really be so?...

In January 1973, the original Watergate burglars and their immediate superiors (Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt) went to trial, and were convicted. However, the convictions not only failed to quell the scandal, but expanded it. The Senate initiated investigations of Nixon's staff, which soon led to the resignations of the President's most powerful aides, Bob Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, on April 30, 1973. That same day, Nixon fired White House counsel John Dean who, sensing that he would become the scapegoat, refused the President's request to compile a report on Watergate to deflect attention from Nixon's involvement.

Dean now became the key witness against Nixon. On June 25, he delivered condemning testimony against many administration officials, including himself, fund-raiser and former Attorney General John Mitchell, and Nixon.

Then, on July 13, the investigators discovered that Nixon had installed a secret tape system that automatically recorded every conversation in the Oval Office. Nixon had planned to use the tapes one day to document his place in history. They certainly would do that, but not in the way he had envisioned.

The investigators subpoenaed the tape recordings. Nixon refused to hand them over. This was virtually admitting guilt. If the President was telling the truth, why wouldn't he release the tapes about the key meetings? The tapes radically transformed the Watergate investigation; it was now clear to the public that the President had something to hide.

THE OCTOBER WAR

While America cringed over the newest scandal to their most sacred office of the presidency, on the other side of the world, the Arabs were planning a sneak attack on Israel, scheduled for the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur (October 6). Egyptian President Anwar Sadat had already openly threatened war with Israel in a Newsweek interview published April 9, 1973. Moreover, Israeli intelligence had noted ominous Egyptian troop movements throughout the summer, and had informed the legendary general, Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, who inexplicably decided that attack was not imminent. Just as remarkable, King Hussein of Jordan secretly flew to Tel Aviv to warn Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir of an impending Syrian attack. (He feared that the Arabs would lose and that the Israelis would annex territory, as they had done in 1967 when Jordan reluctantly joined the war.) Due in great part to a feeling of overconfidence in the Israeli military, all the warnings were ignored.

While Jews across Israel were fasting and praying, Syrians in the north and Egyptians in the south attacked, advancing almost unopposed. One story is told of a Syrian general who stopped his tank column because his advance was so swift and easy, he was positive it was an ambush. There was no ambush. The Israelis were caught unprepared.

In the north, Syria was close to cutting off the Jewish communities in the Galilee. In the south, the Israelis' counterattack on October 8 ended in disaster, with the loss of over 400 tanks. (This led Ariel Sharon to come out of retirement and take command of those forces.)

The media soon filled with talk about the imminent destruction of Israel, and a second Holocaust.

The biggest problem was that the Israelis were running out of ammunition. They were brave and well-trained, but could not survive a prolonged Arab assault. It was at this pivotal moment that the events of Watergate came into play.

BACK IN WASHINGTON

Back in Washington, President Nixon was beginning to crack physically and mentally. It wouldn't be until the following summer that the House Judiciary Committee would recommend beginning the process of impeachment, and not until August 9, 1974, that he would resign. However, as soon as the existence of the tapes became public knowledge, Nixon's physical and mental state deteriorated noticeably. He became paranoid and isolated himself, suspicious of even his closest friends. Amidst this deterioration, the crisis in Israel broke out.

Up until that date, U.S. military support of Israel had remained limited since the Six-Day War. Although the Soviets had supplied Egypt with tens of thousands of military personnel, including more than 100 pilots, as well as MiG fighter jets and sophisticated Surface-to-Air-Missile (SAM) sites after the Six-Day War, Washington kept a short leash on the amount of her supplies to Israel, and what the Israelis could do with them, fearing an escalation of war. As such, by the time the war began, the Soviets were airlifting thousands of tons of weapons to the Arabs, while the U.S. was supplying only limited amounts of ammunition and spare parts to Israel.

While U.S. politicians and militarists hemmed and hawed about helping the Israelis, Nixon surprisingly opened the floodgates and supplied the Israelis with more than they could have imagined. For instance, once it was agreed that the Israelis would be supplied, Nixon's military advisors suggested that the Israelis fly unmarked supply planes to the U.S. to fetch the weapons. Nixon insisted American planes be used. The advisors said that they could only send three planes' worth of supplies. Nixon asked how many supply planes the U.S. had.

"Twenty-five, Mr. President."

"Then fill up all 25 and send them all."

"But what about the political fallout?"

"They'll blame us just as much if we send three or 25."

TONS OF TANKS

Years later, when portions of Nixon's secret tapes were released to the public, it became obvious that the President was a closet anti-Semite. Racial slurs (albeit not only against Jews) and classic canards ― such as how Jews control everything and are inherently duplicitous ― rolled off his lips with regularity.

Yet today, history rightfully views Nixon as a friend of Israel. Why did Nixon come to Israel's defense during its time of need? What transformed this closet anti-Semite into such an ally? Obviously, the U.S.-Soviet conflict contributed greatly, since the U.S. always supplied the enemies of whomever the Soviets were supplying. However, the Watergate scandal was at its apex at that time, and Nixon, more than at any other time in his presidency, was concerned about his public image. Despite Israel's victory in 1967, the average American still viewed Israel as the David facing the Arab Goliath. (That view would generally hold true until the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982.) Here was a public relations bonanza lying at his feet. In one swoop, he could gain accolades with a public that identified with the underdog.

Consequently, between October 12 and November 14, 1973, the U.S. shipped 22,325 tons of tanks, artillery, ammunition and supplies to Israel. Resupplied, the Israelis stopped the Syrian advance, counterattacking and driving the invaders back to their original borders, and beyond. They moved within range of Damascus, shelling the outskirts of the Syrian capital.

In the south, Ariel Sharon pulled off one of the most audacious moves in military history, finding the weak link smack in the middle of the vast Egyptian army and crossing the Suez Canal behind them to the Egyptian side. He then held his ground until Israeli reinforcements came. They expanded their hold and trapped the entire Egyptian Third Army in Sinai, threatening them with annihilation. In sudden panic, the Arabs marched on the United Nations, insisting on a cease-fire.

When Israel balked, the Soviets threatened to intervene directly, i.e., use their own airborne divisions to rescue the Egyptian army. The Nixon government responded in turn that the Americans would not tolerate Soviet intervention and, shockingly, ordered the American forces on DEFCON 3, or global alert, which involved even the possibility of using nuclear weapons! Many Americans began to seriously worry about their President's mental stability.

The Soviets yielded to American pressure and World War III was averted. A cease-fire between Israel and Egypt was implemented, and Israel allowed the Egyptian Third Army to return home.

LESSONS

The Yom Kippur War taught many lessons. The Israelis, including their leaders, realized that they had relied too heavily on their military might. They could never again afford to be complacent.

The Arab world, despite their ultimate defeat, could pride themselves that they were not humiliated as they had been in 1967. They also learned about a more powerful weapon than Soviet-made tanks, missiles and planes: oil. And they used that weapon immediately after the war, placing a crippling oil embargo the U.S. and other countries that had supported Israel.

From a Torah perspective, the greatest lesson was that the Savior of Israel "neither sleeps nor slumbers." Jews needed to learn that "not with might and not with armies" is a Jewish army ultimately victorious; that there is no such thing as complete control; we are all, in the final analysis, "clay in the hands of our Maker." Learning this, as they did, on the Day of Judgment, sent ripples that are still reverberating through the generations.

The Watergate component of the Yom Kippur War should not be overlooked or downplayed. It pushed Nixon to the edge and caused him to act in a way that far exceeded anyone's wildest expectations, especially given his deeply-rooted dislike for and distrust of Jews. [As King Solomon,] the wisest of men said (Proverbs 21:1), "The heart of a king is like streams of water in the hand of Hashem. He directs it wherever He wishes..."