Historical Figure
Golda Meir
1898–1978
Prime Minister of Israel from 1969 to 1974
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"Israel Bonds Hanukkah Address" — 1973
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Biography
Golda Meir was the prime minister of Israel from 1969 to 1974. She was Israel's first and, to date, only female head of government.
Timeline
The story of Golda Meir, told in moments.
Born Golda Mabovitch in Kiev, then part of the Russian Empire. Her earliest memory is her father boarding up the front door during a pogrom. The family emigrates to Milwaukee in 1906. She is eight.
Immigrates to Mandatory Palestine with her husband Morris Meyerson. They join Kibbutz Merhavia in the Jezreel Valley. She raises chickens, works in the kitchen, and learns Arabic from the local bedouins.
Disguises herself as an Arab woman and crosses into Transjordan to secretly meet King Abdullah. She tries to persuade him not to join the Arab invasion of the new Jewish state. He says his hands are tied. She reports back: "War is inevitable."
Appointed Foreign Minister by Ben-Gurion. She Hebraizes her name from Meyerson to Meir. Over the next decade, she builds diplomatic relationships across Africa, sending Israeli experts to help newly independent nations.
Becomes Prime Minister of Israel at 70 after Levi Eshkol dies in office. She is the world's third female head of government, after Sirimavo Bandaranaike and Indira Gandhi.
The Yom Kippur War. Egypt and Syria launch a surprise attack on Israel's holiest day. The army suffers devastating losses in the first 48 hours. Israel recovers but the intelligence failure destroys Meir's government. She resigns five months later.
Dies of lymphoma in Jerusalem at 80. She'd been secretly battling the disease for 12 years, including through the entire Yom Kippur War.
In Their Own Words (20)
I don’t know why you use a fancy French word like détente when there’s a good English phrase for it — cold war.
As quoted in Newsweek (19 January 1976), 1976
It is not only a matter, I believe, of religious observance and practice. To me, being Jewish means and has always meant being proud to be part of a people that has maintained its distinct identity for more than 2,000 years, with all the pain and torment that has been inflicted upon it.
My Life (1975), p. 459, 1975
To be or not to be is not a question of compromise. Either you be or you don’t be.
When questioned on Israel's future, in The New York Times (12 December 1974), 1974
Pessimism is a luxury that a Jew can never allow himself.
The Observer (29 December 1974), 1974
Let me tell you something that we Israelis have against Moses. He took us 40 years through the desert in order to bring us to the one spot in the Middle East that has no oil!
At a dinner honoring West German Chancellor Willy Brandt, as reported in The New York Times (11 June 1973, p. 3), 1973
Artifacts (15)
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