To commemorate the 41st anniversary of the October 1973 war, Israel State Archives has made public a series of recently declassified telegrams exchanged between Prime Minister Golda Meir’s office and the Israel embassy in Washington just before and during the outbreak of what would prove a decisive and traumatic conflict. Awakened at 3:50 a.m. on the morning of October 6, Meir received intelligence of a planned Egyptian and Syrian attack that evening. From the timeline provided by the Archives:
At 10:15 a.m. Golda Meir met with the American ambassador in Israel, Kenneth Keating, and updated him on the situation. In reply to a direct question, Golda promised that Israel would not initiate a pre-emptive strike, “although it would make the situation much easier for us”; but Egypt and Syria should be aware that Israel knew of their plans and would repel the attacks and hit back hard. She expressed confidence in Israeli victory, and suggested that the US should still try to talk to the Egyptians and the Soviets in order to prevent the outbreak of war, as reported in a telegram to the embassy in Washington.
Read more on Israel's Documented Story: http://israelsdocuments.blogspot.com/2014/10/despite-minor-successesthe-situation-is.html