Quicknation    Golda Meir

Images of Golda Meir: G Y AOL AV MSN Books of Golda Meir: B

Golda Meir ; May 3, 1898 – December 8, 1978) was one of the founders of the State of Israel. She served as the Minister of Labor, Foreign Minister, and as the fourth Prime Minister of Israel from March 17, 1969 to April 11, 1974. Golda Meir was the "Iron Lady" of Israeli politics years before the epithet was coined for Margaret Thatcher. David Ben-Gurion once described her as "the only man in the Cabinet." She is the first (and to date only) female Prime Minister of Israel, the third female Prime Minister in the worldspan (NOTE: Benjamin Netanyahu was never an American citizen; his family moved to the United States from Israel in his early teens and he moved back to Israel after graduate school).

table in Kiev, Ukraine, then part of Imperial Russia. Her earliest memories were of her father boarding up the front door in response to rumors of a pogrom. Her life there was tough; she was left with her two sisters (Sheyna and Tzipke) who often were hungry and cold. Her other 5 siblings had died while they were still children. Golda especially looked up to Sheyna. Her father left for the United States in 1903, and the rest of the family followed in 1906. They settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

In Milwaukee, Golda's father worked as a carpenter and her mother ran a grocery store. When Golda was only eight years old, she had to oversee the store for a short time each morning as her mother was buying supplies at the market.

When Golda was 14, her mother suggested that she give up school for work and to marry an older man. Golda rebelled and ran away. She went to Denver, where her older sister, Sheyna, was living. There she met Morris Myerson, a sign painter, who would later become her husband.

Golda returned to Milwaukee at the urging of her father when she was 18. While there, she was an active member of the youth movement, Habonim (which merged with the likeminded Dror in 1982 to form Habonim Dror). She participated in public speaking at meetings and in her speeches often advocated for Socialist Zionism. Often she hosted visitors from Palestine.

Upon her graduation from the Milwaukee State Normal School (now University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee) she taught in the public schools. She formally joined the Labor Zionist Organization in 1915. Golda and Morris married in 1917 and began planning to make aliyah (immigration to the land of Israel). The couple and her elder sister Sheyna emigrated to the British Mandate of Palestine in 1921.

Golda and Morris wanted to join a kibbutz. She applied to join Kibbutz Merhavia and was turned down at first, but eventually was accepted into the community. Her duties there included picking almonds, planting trees, caring for chickens, and running the kitchen. She also began to emerge as a leader. Her kibbutz chose her to represent them at Histadrut, the General Federation of Labor. By 1924, her husband had grown tired of the kibbutz life and they left.

They lived briefly in Tel Aviv, before settling in Jerusalem. There they had two children, son Menachem and daughter Sarah. In 1928, Golda was elected secretary of the Women's Labor Council of Histadrut. This required her to move to Tel Aviv, but her husband stayed in Jerusalem while the children stayed with her. Morris and Golda grew apart but never divorced. Morris died in 1951.

She grew increasingly influential in Histadrut, which evolved into a shadow government for the yet to be born nation of Israel. In 1946, the British cracked down on the Zionist movement in Palestine. They arrested many of its leaders. Golda, however, was never arrested. She gradually took charge over the organization. She negotiated with the British, but also kept in contact with the growing guerrilla movement.

Golda Meir was one of twenty-four people (and one of two women) who signed the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel on May 14, 1948. She later recalled, "After I signed, I cried. When I studied American history as a schoolgirl and I read about those who signed the Declaration of Independence, I couldn't imagine these were real people doing something real. And there I was sitting down and signing a declaration of independence."

The following day, Israel was attacked by joint forces from Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Transjordan and Iraq. Golda was issued Israel's first passport and went to the United States to raise money for the fledgling nation.

"September 10, 1948. Ceremony in Kremlin of the first Israeli ambassador Golda Meir handing certificates to the Soviet officials." September 10, 1948. Ceremony in Kremlin of the first Israeli ambassador Golda Meir handing certificates to the Soviet officials."Jewish High Holidays in Moscow, 1948. Golda Meir in the crowd (est. 50,000) of Soviet Jews who gathered to meet her" Jewish High Holidays in Moscow, 1948. Golda Meir in the crowd (est. 50,000) of Soviet Jews who gathered to meet her

When she returned, she was assigned to be the first ambassador to the Soviet Union. She served there briefly, leaving in 1949. During her stay in Moscow, she attended high holiday services and was mobbed by thousands of Jewish Russians chanting her name; Stalin's repression of Jewish identity in the Soviet Union made many observers wonder whether there was still a strong sense of community, and Meir's triumphant treatment by the crowd gave the answer. The picture on the back of Meir's Israeli Shekel banknote is that of the crowd in Moscow surrounding her and lifting her in happiness. She then entered the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) where she served continuously until 1974.

From 1949 to 1956, Meir was the Israeli Minister of Labor. In 1956, she became Foreign Minister under Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. Ben-Gurion asked Golda to change her name to a Hebrew name. She chose Meir, meaning .

In 1965, she resigned from the Cabinet citing illness and exhaustion of her years of service. At first, she returned to her modest life. But she was soon called back into service. She served as Secretary General of the Labor Party for eight months and retired again on August 1, 1968.

After Levi Eshkol died suddenly on February 26, 1969, the party chose her to succeed him as Prime Minister. Meir came out of retirement to take office on March 17 and served in that role until 1974. When Meir became Prime Minister, Israel was brimming with confidence, having won a decisive victory over the Arabs and capturing large areas of territory in the Six Day War. Nonetheless, Meir had to deal with the continuing Egyptian shelling of Israeli forces along the Suez Canal in the War of Attrition.

Following the 1972 Munich Massacre at the summer olympic games, Meir appealed to the world to "save our citizens and condemn the unspeakable criminal acts committed" [3]. Meir and the Israeli Defense Committee felt that the world did not adequately respond and therefore authorized the Mossad to kill Black September and PFLP operatives wherever they could be found (Morris 1999). Steven Spielberg's movie Munich (2005) was based on these events.

Israeli intelligence was never entirely sure if war was indeed impending or not. The day before the war was set to begin, Israeli intelligence was able to finally verify that war was indeed imminent. Six hours before the war was set to begin, Meir met with Moshe Dayan, and Israeli general David Elazar. While Dayan argued that the war may not even start, Elazer wanted to launch a pre-emptive strike on Syrian forces. Meir considered both options and then decided not to launch a pre-emptive strike. Meir chose this decision because she knew that Israel could not depend on European countries to supply Israel with military goods as European countries were under the threat of an Arab oil embargo and trade boycott. The only country in the world who would come to Israel's assistance would be the United States, and Meir feared that by launching a pre-emptive strike, the United States would be less likely to assist Israel if the need arose. This was a good decision, as the United States launched Operation Nickel Grass. Henry Kissinger verified Meir's fears by stating that if Israel had launched the pre-emptive strike, Israel would not have received "so much as a nail".

Following the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Meir's government was clouded by internal squabbles among the governing coalition and had to face serious questions over strategic misjudgments as well as the general lack of leadership that resulted in the unanticipated Yom Kippur War. On April 11, 1974, Golda Meir resigned leadership, to be succeeded by Yitzhak Rabin.

On December 8, 1978, Golda Meir died in Jerusalem, Israel of cancer at the age of 80. She was buried on Mount Herzl, in Jerusalem.

Golda Meir's story has been the subject of many fictionalized portrayals over the years. She has been portrayed by actresses as diverse as the late Swede Ingrid Bergman and the Australian Judy Davis on television, and the Jewish-American Tovah Feldshuh on Broadway. The Broadway show about her was mildly controversial in that it suggested she gave serious consideration to launching a first-strike nuclear attack during the Yom Kippur War.

Most recently, she was played by actress Lynn Cohen in the 2005 Steven Spielberg hit Munich.

  Female Prime Ministers before Golda Meir were Sirimavo Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka and Indira Gandhi of India  Meir was present at Ben Gurion International Airport in the fall of 1977 when President Anwar Sadat of Egypt arrived for a state visit, and greeted Sadat. It is unconfirmed if Sadat gave Meir a kiss on the cheek in greeting.