Golda Meir was the first female Prime Minister of Israel, serving from 1969 to 1974. She was known as the Iron Lady and played a crucial role in fundraising and negotiations for the state of Israel. She was also the first ambassador to the Soviet Union and served as Minister of Labor and Foreign Minister before becoming Prime Minister. Meir resigned after the Yom Kippur War, but continued to play a role in Israeli politics until her death in 1978.
Golda Meir was the fourth Prime Minister of Israel. She lived from 1898 to 1978, holding office for five years, between 1969 and 1974. She was known as the Iron Lady, a term that would later be used to describe British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. To date, Golda Meir is the only woman to have served as Prime Minister of Israel, and she was the third female Prime Minister in the world and the first to reach that position without any familial influence.
Golda Meir was born in Kiev, in what is now Ukraine and was part of the Russian Empire at the time. She left for the United States at the age of eight and she and her family settled in Wisconsin. From an early age Golda Meir was an organizer and a brilliant woman, organizing fundraisers for her classes and graduating as valedictorian at her high school.
By the age of 16, Golda Meir had been introduced to Zionism and had become active in the socialist Zionist movement. Golda Meir married at 19 and hoped to move to Palestine soon after as part of the first Zionist settlement, but the outbreak of World War I interrupted that plan, and instead she devoted her energies to fundraising in the United States to support the Zionist movement abroad.
After the war, Golda Meir went to Palestine with her husband in 1921 to join a kibbutz. She was soon appointed the kibbutz representative to the Federation of Labor, starting the more political side of her life. A few years later she was elected secretary of the Women’s Workers’ Council, and after a few years she joined the Executive Committee, eventually becoming head of the Political Department.
In 1938 Golda Meir was the representative of Palestine at the meeting convened by President Roosevelt to discuss the Nazi persecution of the Jews. After hearing the bullying and apologies made by representatives of several governments as to why they could not help the Jews, but nevertheless expressing their sympathy, Golda Meir famously remarked: “There is only one thing I hope to see before I die and it is that my people should no longer need expressions of sympathy.”
In view of the state of Israel after the war, Golda Meir played an important role in both negotiations and fundraising. She traveled to the United States to raise funds and raised more than eight times what most people expected. She also disguised herself as an Arab woman, just days before Israel declared itself a state, to visit the king of Transjordan, to encourage him not to join other Arab states if they declared war on Israel. She demanded that she not rush to declare a Jewish state, to which she Golda Meir famously replied: “We have been waiting for 2,000 years. Are you in a hurry?”
Golda Meir was one of the twenty-four signers of the Israeli Declaration of Independence in 1948 and was the first ambassador to the Soviet Union. The following year she was elected to the Knesset and served as Minister of Labor until 1956. In 1956 she became Foreign Minister, under Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, who would later be one of her greatest admirers.
In 1969 Golda Meir was elected Prime Minister of Israel, and she remained in office until 1974. In 1973, secret services began to appear suggesting that Syria was planning an attack against Israel. Input was mixed, as were recommendations given to Golda Meir. One camp wanted a preemptive strike on Syria, while the other noted that this would surely alienate the United States and cut off any military aid Israel might expect. In the end, Golda Meir decided to wait with a high level of preparation, but not to start an attack. In the wake of the Yom Kippur War, allegations of mishandling of the situation have come from all sides.
Meir was eventually cleared of any responsibility for mishandling the situation by an investigation, and the party she belonged to won the election, but she resigned anyway, citing a feeling it was the will of the people. Meir continued to play a role in Israeli politics until her death from cancer in 1978 at the age of 80. She remains one of the most monumental and memorable figures in Israeli history and an iconic figure in politics around the world.
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