Golda Meir

(1898-1978)

Golda Meir - labor Zionist leader, diplomat and Israel's fourth Prime Minister - was born Golda Mabovitch in Kiev (Ukraine) in 1898. When she was eight years old, her family immigrated to the United States due to economic hardship. She was raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In high school she joined the Zionist group, "Poalei Zion" (Workers of Zion). She immigrated to British Mandate Palestine in 1921 with her husband, Morris Myerson, and settled in Kibbutz Merhavya.

In 1924 the Meyersons moved to Jerusalem, and Golda began a series of positions as an official of the Histadrut - General Federation of Labor, and became a member of its "inner circle." Over the next three decades, Golda Meir was active in the Histadrut, first in trade union and welfare programs, then in Zionist labor organization and fund-raising abroad, and later still in political roles. She was appointed chief of the Histadrut's political section - designed to use the Histadrut's growing power to advance Zionist aims such as unrestricted Jewish immigration. When, in 1946, most of the Jewish community's senior leaders were interned by the British authorities, Golda Meir replaced Moshe Sharett as acting head of the political department of the Jewish Agency until the establishment of the state in 1948. From then on she played a part both in internal labor Zionist politics and in diplomatic efforts - including her ultimately unsuccessful secret meeting with Jordan's King Abdullah on the eve of the Arab invasion of Israel in 1948, in an attempt to reach agreement and avoid war.

In June 1948 Golda Meir was appointed Israel's first ambassador to the Soviet Union, a position she filled for less than a year. She was elected as a Member of Knesset in the 1949 elections, and served as Minister of Labor and National Insurance from 1949 to 1956 - years of social unrest and a high rate of unemployment, caused by mass immigration. She enacted enlightened social welfare policies, provided subsidized housing for immigrants and orchestrated their integration into the workforce.

During the following decade (1956-66), Golda Meir served as Minister of Foreign Affairs. She initiated Israel's policy of cooperation with the newly independent nations of Africa, introducing a cooperation program based on Israel's development experience, which continues to this day. At the same time, she endeavored to cement relations with the United States and established extensive bilateral ties with Latin American countries. Between 1966 and 1968 she served as Secretary-General first of Mapai and then of the newly formed "Alignment" (made up of three Labor factions).

Upon the death of Prime Minister Levi Eshkol in 1969, Golda Meir - the "consensus candidate" - was chosen to succeed him. In the October 1969 elections, she led her party to victory.

Shortly after she took office, the War of Attrition - sporadic military actions along the Suez Canal which escalated into full-scale war - ended in a cease-fire agreement with Egypt. Though the cease-fire was broken time and again by the advancement of Egyptian missiles on the Suez Canal front, it did bring a three-year period of tranquillity, shattered only in October 1973 by the Yom Kippur War.

As Prime Minister, Golda Meir concentrated much of her energies on the diplomatic front - artfully mixing personal diplomacy with skillful use of the mass media. Armed with an iron will, a warm personality and grandmotherly image, simple but highly-effective rhetoric and a "shopping list," Golda Meir successfully solicited financial and military aid in unprecedented measure.

Golda Meir showed strong leadership during the surprise attack of the Yom Kippur War, securing an American airlift of arms while standing firm on the terms of disengagement-of-forces negotiations and rapid return of POWs. Although the Agranat Commission of Inquiry had exonerated her from direct responsibility for Israel's unpreparedness for the war, and she had led her party to victory in the December 1973 elections, Golda Meir bowed to what she felt was the "will of the people" and resigned in mid-1974. She withdrew from public life and began to write her memoirs, but was present in the Knesset to greet Egyptian President Anwar Sadat on his historic visit to Jerusalem in November 1977.

Although she and the Labor Party won the elections (postponed due to the war until December 31, 1973), she resigned in 1974 in favor of Yitzhak Rabin. She passed away in December 1978 and was buried on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem aged 80.