evidence: On October 6, 1973, Egypt and Syria launched a coordinated surprise attack on Israeli forces in the Sinai and the Golan Heights. Israel ultimately repelled the attack and regained lost ground, but only after the United States made the decision to supply the Israeli military. This war ultimately compelled the Nixon administration to step up its efforts to settle the decades old dispute. [...] With negotiations stalled, Egyptian and Syrian forces attacked Israeli forces on October 6, 1973 in the Sinai and the Golan Heights in an effort to regain territory they had lost during the 1967 war. These attacks occurred on the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur, and took Israeli forces by surprise as Israeli intelligence had failed to detect the months of secret preparations by Egypt and Syria. During the first few days of the war, Egypt and Syria secured victories in the Sinai and the Golan. In the south, Egyptian forces crossed the Suez Canal and overran the Israeli military's extensive fortifications, forcing the Israelis back. The Israelis did not fare better in the Golan Heights. Israeli positions in the eastern Golan fell to the advancing Syrian army. With a lack of tanks and manpower, Israeli troops had to withdraw from many positions in the southern sector of the Golan Heights.