How Kyiv-born Golda Meir helped establish modern Israel
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Golda Meir, who was born in Kyiv 125 years ago, led the government of Israel when its forces won a hard-fought victory in the Yom Kippur War over 16 days.
Exactly 50 years later, Hamas, supported by other anti-Israeli forces, launched a new major war against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
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Meir became the Prime Minister of Israel in March 1969, less than two months before her 70th birthday. Positional battles with Egypt, known as the War of Attrition, were underway at that time, as the Israeli army had occupied the Sinai Peninsula during the Six-Day War two years earlier, and dug in on the east bank of the Suez Canal.
One of Meir’s first orders as head of government was to start getting reports of every soldier’s death immediately, even if it happened in the middle of the night.
“When President Nasser [Gamal Abdel, president of Egypt in 1956-1970] orders that he should be woken up in the middle of the night if an Egyptian soldier dies, peace will come,” Meir said.
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Israel then prepared offers to return the Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights to Egypt and Syria, respectively, in exchange for firm guarantees of peaceful coexistence. The United States volunteered to be a mediator in these negotiations. U.S. President Richard Nixon’s advisor on foreign affairs, Henry Kissinger, with whom Meir had long developed a friendly relationship, was personally engaged in the talks.
Once, when they were both responsible for foreign policy of their countries, Kissinger told Meir: “Look, you have a population of 4.5 million, and we have 140 million, but you talk to me as if you think you’re smarter.”
“Yes, but each of those 4.5 million considers themselves smarter than me,” Meir replied.
Nasser, who still aimed to destroy Israel, died suddenly of a heart attack in September 1970. Despite this, Kissinger could not appease Israel’s enemies in the Middle East, and three years later, on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur [Day of Atonement], Egypt and Syria attacked Israel.
“We suffered heavy losses on both fronts,” Meir recalled.
“The painful question was whether we should tell the people now what a difficult situation has developed? I never had to do anything more difficult in my life, because I knew that I couldn’t tell [about losing] everything.”
The very next day after the attack, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan came to Meir and submitted his resignation due to military failures. She categorically rejected his request. In addition, Dayan was known all over the world, as it was under his command that the Israelis captured the Sinai Peninsula in 1967, three times the size of Israel itself, as well as the Golan Heights in Syria, from which the enemy used to shell Israeli cities with Soviet artillery.
Meir immediately called Simcha Dinitz, her ambassador in Washington: “Where is the air bridge? Why isn’t it working yet?”
“I have no one to talk to now, Golda, it’s still night here,” Dinitz replied.
“I don’t care what time you have there!” Meir shouted back.
“Call Kissinger immediately, in the middle of the night. We need help today. Tomorrow may be too late.”
U.S. aircraft began delivering weapons to Israel on Oct. 14. A few days later, its soldiers crossed the Suez Canal and advanced towards Cairo. The belligerents announced a ceasefire on Oct. 24.
Life path
Meir was born in Kyiv on May 3, 1898, to carpenter Moshe Mabovitch and his wife Blume Neiditch. After a wave of anti-Jewish pogroms, the family moved to the city of Milwaukee, United States, in 1906. Having married Morris Meyerson, Meir and her husband moved to Palestine in 1921, which was then under a British mandate. With the appearance of Israel on the world map, she went to Moscow as the first ambassador of the new state to the Soviet Union.
Six months later, she was appointed Labor Minister in David Ben-Gurion’s government. He insisted that Golda change her husband’s surname from Meyerson to Meir (shining in Hebrew) when she became foreign minister in 1956. As soon as Meir became the head of Israeli’s government, the press immediately created an image of a “Jewish mother” for her, which she played into by wearing unfashionable dresses and heavy lace-up shoes. She resigned when the Supreme Court made public the findings about Israeli intelligence failures on the eve of the Yom Kippur War.
Meir’s Top 7 quotes
“Moses took us 40 years through the desert in order to bring us to the one spot in the Middle East that has no oil!”
“Peace will come when the Arabs love their children more than they hate us.”
“I’ve lived and worked with men all my life, but the fact that I’m a woman has never hindered me.”
“There used to be a joke in Israel that Ben-Gurion said that I was the only man in his office. It’s funny that he (or whoever came up with it) thought it was the best compliment you could give a woman. I doubt that any of the men would be happy if I told him that he was the only woman in the government.”
“I’m accused of leading state affairs with my heart, not my head. And if I didn’t do that?... Those who don’t know how to weep with their whole heart, don’t know how to laugh either.”
“I want to watch a movie and they send the Israeli army reserve to accompany me! What kind of life is this?”
“The world is cruel, selfish, and rude. It doesn’t notice the suffering of small nations. Even the most enlightened governments, democracies led by decent people representing decent people, aren’t too inclined to think about justice in international relations.”
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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
