Ascending the Golan Heights Even Higher

Following our jeep ride, we ascended the Golan Heights toward Kuneitra, the abandoned Syrian city on the border. At Kibbutz El Rom, we viewed a film on the ’73 Yom Kippur War battle that raged about 1.5 miles from where we sat, called the ‘battle for the Valley of Tears.’ The story of the film was one of a battle when the Israelis were almost outmaneuvered, and the tanks actually were no match for some of the Russian technology that the Syrians used in those days: The Israelis had no night vision gear, where the Syrians did. The plot of the film was told through the remembrances and vision of the driver, the gunner, and an actress portraying all the widows who lost husbands in that battle.