Golda Meir

== Premiership (1969–1974) ==
[[File:Dan Hadani collection (990044361270205171).jpg|thumb|upright|right|alt=PM Golda Meir during a visit Tel Aviv, July, 1969|PM Golda Meir in Tel Aviv, July, 1969]]
Prime Minister [[Levi Eshkol]] [[death in office|died]] suddenly on 26 February 1969, leading to the appointment of [[Yigal Allon]] as interim prime minister and an election to replace him.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/7/newsid_4205000/4205843.stm 1969: Israel elects first female leader] BBC News</ref><ref name="Consents">{{cite web |title=Golda Meir Consents to Lead Israel |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/377622415 |work=The Baltimore Sun| via=Newspapers.com |access-date=19 July 2022 |language=en |url-access=subscription}}</ref> Before the vote, most suspected that Meir would be elected. On 7 March 1969, the party's central committee [[1969 Israeli Labor Party leadership election|voted Meir as the new party leader]]. Now age 71, Meir had mixed feelings due to her health concerns, but eventually agreed, saying that she would honor the party's decision just as she had honored all of the party's past decisions.<ref name="Consents"/><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kenig |first1=Ofer |title=Democratizing Party Leadership Selection in Israel: A Balance Sheet |journal=Israel Studies Forum |date=2009 |volume=24 |issue=1 |pages=62–81 |jstor=41805011 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41805011 |access-date=25 January 2022 |issn=1557-2455}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Party Chiefs Back Mrs. Mier; Thant Fears Suez Outburst |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/179905865 |publisher=The Philadelphia Inquirera |via=Newspapers.com |agency=The Associated Press |access-date=19 July 2022 |language=en |url-access=subscription |date=4 Mar 1969}}</ref>

Meir served as prime minister from 17 March 1969 to 3 June 1974. She maintained the national unity government formed in 1967 after the [[Six-Day War]], in which Mapai merged with two other parties ([[Rafi (political party)|Rafi]] and [[Ahdut HaAvoda]]) to form the [[Israeli Labor Party]].<ref name="micropedia" /> 

Six months after taking office, Meir led the [[Alignment (political party)#Second Alignment|reconfigured Alignment]], comprising [[Israeli Labor Party|Labor]] and [[Mapam]], into the [[1969 Israeli legislative election|1969 general election]]. The Alignment managed what is still the best showing for a single party or faction in Israeli history, winning 56 seats. This is the only time that a party or faction has approached winning an outright majority in an election. The national unity government was retained.

In 1969 and the early 1970s, Meir met with many world leaders to promote her peace settlement idea, including [[Richard Nixon]] (1969), [[Nicolae Ceaușescu]] (1972) and [[Pope Paul&nbsp;VI]] (1973). In 1973, she hosted the chancellor of West Germany, [[Willy Brandt]], in Israel.<ref name="micropedia" />

In August 1970, Meir accepted a U.S. peace initiative that called for an end to the [[War of Attrition]] and an Israeli pledge to withdraw to "secure and recognized boundaries" in the framework of a comprehensive peace settlement. The [[Gahal]] party quit the national unity government in protest, but Meir continued to lead the remaining coalition.<ref>"Golda Meir" ''Encyclopaedia Judaica'', Keter, Jerusalem, 1972, pp. 1242–44.</ref>

On February 28, 1973, during a visit in Washington, D.C., Meir agreed with [[Henry Kissinger]]'s peace proposal based on "security versus sovereignty": Israel would accept Egyptian sovereignty over all [[Sinai Peninsula|Sinai]], while [[Egypt]] would accept Israeli presence in some of Sinai's strategic positions.<ref name="Rabin1996p215" /><ref name="Kissinger2011p252" /><ref name="Kumaraswamy2013p105" /><ref name="Parker2001p64" /><ref name="Spiegel1986p237" />

==="There was no such thing as Palestinians"===
{{Main|There was no such thing as Palestinians}}
[[File:Golda Meir 03265u.jpg|thumb|upright|Meir in 1973]]
In June 1969, on the two-year anniversary of the [[Six-Day War]], Meir stated in an interview that "[[there was no such thing as Palestinians]]", a comment later described by [[Al Jazeera Arabic|Al Jazeera]] as "one of her defining – and most damning – legacies."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Said |first=Edward |date=1998 |title=Fifty years of dispossession |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1080/03064229808536356 |journal=Index on Censorship |language=en |volume=27 |issue=3 |pages=76–82 |doi=10.1080/03064229808536356 |issn=0306-4220}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Soussi |first=Alasdair |date=2019-03-18 |title=The mixed legacy of Golda Meir, Israel's first woman PM |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2019/3/18/the-mixed-legacy-of-golda-meir-israels-first-female-pm |access-date=2024-02-17 |website=Al Jazeera |language=en}}</ref> This phrase is considered to be the most famous example of Israeli denial of [[Palestinians|Palestinian identity]].<ref name=Waxman>{{cite book |last= Waxman |first= D. |title= The Pursuit of Peace and the Crisis of Israeli Identity: Defending/Defining the Nation |page= 50 |publisher= Palgrave Macmillan US |year= 2006 |isbn= 978-1-4039-8347-3 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=oUHIAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA50 |access-date= 2021-11-22}}</ref>

The interview entitled ''Who can blame Israel'' was published in ''[[The Sunday Times]]'' on June 15, 1969, and included the following exchange:
* Frank Giles: Do you think the emergence of the Palestinian fighting forces, the [[Palestinian fedayeen|Fedayeen]], is an important new factor in the Middle East?
* Golda Meir: Important, no. A new factor, yes. There was no such thing as Palestinians. When was there an independent Palestinian people with a Palestinian state? It was either [[southern Syria]] before the First World War and then it was a Palestine including Jordan. It was not as though there was a Palestinian people in Palestine considering itself as a Palestinian people and we came and threw them out and took their country from them. They did not exist.<ref>{{cite news|author=Frank Giles|title = Golda Meir: 'Who can blame Israel'|newspaper=Sunday Times|date=June 15, 1969|page=12}}</ref>

===Munich Olympics (1972)===
{{Main|Mossad assassinations following the Munich massacre}}
[[File:Nixons with Golda Meir.gif|thumb|upright|right|Meir (center) with [[Pat Nixon|Pat]] and President [[Richard Nixon]] in Washington, DC, in 1973.]]
In the wake of the [[Munich massacre]] at the [[1972 Summer Olympics]], Meir appealed to the world to "save our citizens and condemn the unspeakable criminal acts committed".<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20050316234049/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2Fcampaigns%2Fmiddle_east%2Fmidmun.xml Hostages killed in gun battle] ''Daily Telegraph'', September 5, 1972</ref> Outraged at the perceived lack of global action, she ordered the [[Mossad]] to hunt down and assassinate suspected leaders and operatives of [[Black September (group)|Black September]] and the [[Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine|PFLP]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Morris |first=B. |url=https://archive.org/details/righteousvictims00morr_0 |title=Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist–Arab Conflict, 1881–2000 |publisher=[[Vintage Books]] |year=2001 |isbn=0-679-74475-4 |location=New York |orig-year=1999}}</ref>

===Dispute with Austria (1973)===
During the 1970s, about 200,000 Soviet Jewish emigrants were allowed to leave the [[Soviet Union]] for Israel by way of Austria. When seven of these emigrants [[Schoenau ultimatum|were taken hostage]] at the Austria–[[Czechoslovakia]] border by [[Palestinian people|Palestinian]] militants in September 1973, the [[Chancellor of Austria]], [[Bruno Kreisky]], closed the Jewish Agency's transit facility in [[Schönau an der Triesting|Schönau]], Austria. A few days later in Vienna, Meir tried to convince Kreisky to reopen the facility by appealing to his own Jewish origin, and described his position as "succumbing to terrorist blackmail". Kreisky did not change his position, so Meir returned to Israel, infuriated.{{sfn|Avner|2010|page=219}} A few months later, Austria opened a new transition camp.<ref>Kathrin Bachleitner, "Golda Meir and Bruno Kreisky–A Political and Personal Duel." ''Israel Studies'' 23.1 (2018): 26-49.</ref>

===Yom Kippur War (1973)===
{{Main|Yom Kippur War}}
[[File:President Nixon, Henry Kissinger and Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, meeting in the Oval Office 1973.gif|thumb|US President [[Richard Nixon]] and Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir meeting on March 1, 1973, in the Oval Office. Nixon's National Security Advisor [[Henry Kissinger]] is to the right of Nixon.]]
A common criticism of Meir is that she could have avoided the [[Yom Kippur War]] in 1973. For months preceding the attack, Egyptian President [[Anwar Sadat]] made repeated overtures for peace in exchange for a full Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai, but these gestures were rebuffed by Meir, who had offered previously to discuss ceding "most of the Sinai", but was not willing to restore the pre-1967 borders, and Egypt had no interest in peace talks under Meir's conditions.<ref name="TOIGM">{{cite web|url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/new-biopic-seeks-to-counter-notion-that-golda-chiefly-to-blame-for-yom-kippur-war/|title='Golda' biopic aims to counter notion that PM was chiefly to blame for Yom Kippur War|work=The Times of Israel|accessdate=28 August 2023|date=26 August 2023}}</ref> As the nation's leader during this short war, her main goal was deciding on the timing of preliminary operations, and providing the IDF with the necessary time and munitions to pull off a victory.<ref>Hagai Tsoref, "Golda Meir's Leadership in the Yom Kippur War." ''Israel Studies'' 23.1 (2018): 50-72.</ref> 

In the days leading up to the Yom Kippur War, Israeli intelligence could not conclusively determine that an attack was imminent. However, on 5 October 1973, Meir received information that Syrian forces were massing on the [[Golan Heights]]. She was alarmed by the reports, and believed that the situation was similar to what preceded the Six-Day War. However, her advisers counseled her not to worry, saying they would have adequate notice before any war broke out. This made sense at the time; after the [[Six Day War]], most in the Israeli intelligence community considered the Arabs unprepared to launch another attack.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Riedel |first1=Bruce |title=Enigma: The anatomy of Israel's intelligence failure almost 45 years ago |url=https://www.brookings.edu/articles/enigma-the-anatomy-of-israels-intelligence-failure-almost-45-years-ago/ |website=Brookings |publisher=Brookings Institution |access-date=29 August 2023 |date=25 September 2017}}</ref> Consequently, although the Knesset passed a resolution granting her power to demand a full-scale call-up of the military (instead of the typical cabinet decision), Meir did not mobilize Israel's forces early. Soon, though, the threat of war became very clear. Six hours before the outbreak of hostilities, Meir met with Minister of Defense [[Moshe Dayan]] and General [[David Elazar]]. While Dayan continued to argue that war was unlikely and favored calling up the air force and only two divisions, Elazar advocated full-scale army mobilization and the launch of a full-scale preemptive strike on Syrian forces.<ref>[http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/9565.html Interview with Abraham Rabinovich: The Yom Kippur War as a Turning Point], History News Network</ref>

On October 6, Meir approved full-scale mobilizing but rejected a preemptive strike, citing concerns that Israel might be perceived as initiating hostilities, which would hurt Israel's access to crucial foreign aid and military support, in particular from the United States, in the resulting conflict. She made it a priority to inform Washington of her decision. U.S. Secretary of State [[Henry Kissinger]] later confirmed Meir's assessment by stating that if Israel had launched a preemptive strike, Israel would not have received the backing of the United States.<ref name=ml/><ref>[http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB98/octwar-10.pdf "The October War and U.S. Policy"], National Security Archive, declassified archival records, George Washington University</ref>

===Resignation (1974)===
[[File:Голда Меїр.JPG|thumb|Golda Meir Memorial Plaque on the building where she was born (5-A Baseina Street, [[Kyiv]])]]
Following the Yom Kippur War, Meir's government was plagued by infighting and questions over Israel's lack of preparation for the war. The [[Agranat Commission]] appointed to investigate the war cleared Meir of "direct responsibility". It said about her actions on Yom Kippur morning:

{{quote|She decided wisely, with common sense and speedily, in favour of the full mobilization of the reserves, as recommended by the chief-of-staff, despite weighty political considerations, thereby performing a most important service for the defence of the state.<ref name="ml">{{Cite book |last=Meir |first=Golda |url=https://archive.org/details/mylifemeir00meir |title=My Life |publisher=G. P. Putnam's Sons |year=1975 |isbn=9780399116698 |url-access=registration}}</ref>}}

Her party won the elections in December 1973, but the coalition lost seats and was unable to form a majority. Meir resigned as prime minister on 11 April 1974, and gave up her Knesset seat on 7 June 1974. She never held office again. She believed that was the "will of the people" and that she had served enough time as premier. She believed the government needed to form a coalition. She said, "Five years are sufficient&nbsp; ... It is beyond my strength to continue carrying this burden."<ref name=ml/><ref>[http://www.zionism-israel.com/bio/golda_meir_biography.htm Biography of Golda Meir], Zionism and Israel</ref> [[Yitzhak Rabin]] succeeded her on June 3, 1974.