Golda Meir

Golda Meir was a Kyiv-born, Milwaukee-raised Labour Zionist who became prime minister of Israel from 1969 to 1974, the first and so far only woman to lead its government. A founder of the state, she raised much of the money that financed its war of independence and served as labour and foreign minister before becoming premier. Her government was caught off guard by the Yom Kippur War of 1973, and she resigned the following year. She remains admired by many Israelis and criticised by others, notably for her 1969 denial that a Palestinian people existed.

Golda Mabovitch was born on 3 May 1898 in Kiev, then in the Russian Empire, the daughter of a carpenter. The family emigrated to the United States in 1906 and settled in Milwaukee, where her mother kept a grocery. In her teens Golda moved to her married sister in Denver, whose home was a centre of political debate, and returned to Milwaukee committed to Labour Zionism. She studied at the city's teacher-training college, taught at a Yiddish school, and in 1917 married Morris Meyerson on condition that they move to Palestine.

The couple arrived in British-ruled Palestine in 1921 and joined Kibbutz Merhavia in the Jezreel Valley, which chose her as its delegate to the Histadrut, the Jewish labour federation. From 1934 she sat on the Histadrut's executive and led its political department. In 1938 she attended the Évian Conference on Jewish refugees, where almost every country declined to take them in. When the British arrested many Zionist leaders in June 1946, she became acting head of the Jewish Agency's political department and chief negotiator with the British authorities.

In January 1948, as fighting spread in Palestine, Meir toured the United States and raised over $30 million, far more than the Jewish Agency had expected; David Ben-Gurion later credited her with getting the money that made the state possible. She met King Abdullah of Transjordan twice, the second time travelling to Amman disguised as an Arab woman, but failed to prevent his entry into the war. On 14 May 1948 she was one of 24 signatories of Israel's declaration of independence. She then served briefly as envoy to Moscow, where thousands of Soviet Jews mobbed her at the synagogue in October 1948.

Elected to the first Knesset in 1949, Meir was minister of labour until 1956, building housing, roads and the beginnings of a welfare state as immigrants poured in, many of them first housed in crude transit camps. On becoming foreign minister in 1956 she adopted the Hebrew surname Meir. In that post, which she held until 1966, she took part in planning the Suez Crisis with France and built close ties with newly independent African states. Diagnosed with lymphoma, she retired from the ministry in 1966 but remained a party leader.

After Levi Eshkol's death, Meir became prime minister on 17 March 1969. That June she told The Sunday Times that "there was no such thing as Palestinians", a remark often cited as the best-known instance of Israeli denial of Palestinian identity. After the Munich Olympics massacre of 1972 she ordered the Mossad to hunt down those it held responsible. Critics argue that she rebuffed Egyptian peace overtures that required a full withdrawal from Sinai. On 6 October 1973 Egypt and Syria attacked; that morning Meir ordered full mobilisation but, fearing loss of American support, rejected a pre-emptive strike. The Yom Kippur War began with severe Israeli losses and left the public angry at the government.

The Agranat Commission cleared Meir of direct responsibility for the failures before the war, but her coalition was weakened in the December 1973 election, and she resigned on 11 April 1974; Yitzhak Rabin succeeded her. She published her memoir, My Life, in 1975, and in 1977 welcomed Anwar Sadat to the Knesset. She died of lymphoma in Jerusalem on 8 December 1978 and was buried on Mount Herzl.

Our 1938 map shows British-ruled Palestine in her Histadrut years, and the 1960 map shows the young state of Israel she helped found.