Golda Meir

=== First phase of the war ===
[[File:חיפה - חגיגת יום הים - הגב' גולדה מאיר מברכת-JNF039656.jpeg|thumb|Golda Meir in Haifa, 1947]]
For most of the war, Meir reluctantly played what she felt was a minor role in Israel's activities. An article published by the Golda Meir institute said "she felt she was being pushed aside to a secondary arena".<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=Israel Midwife: Golda Meir in the Closing Years of the British Mandate |url=http://www.goldameir.org.il/index.php?dir=site&page=content&cs=297&langpage=heb |access-date=2023-02-18 |website=www.goldameir.org.il|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210102235455/http://www.goldameir.org.il/index.php?dir=site&page=content&cs=297&langpage=heb|archive-date=2021-01-02|url-status=dead}}</ref>

However, she played a critical role in fundraising. In January 1948, the Jewish agency needed to raise funds for the continuing war and the coming Israeli state. The treasurer of the Jewish Agency was convinced that they would not be able to raise more than $7 to $8 million from the American Jewish community. Meir raised over $30 million.<ref name=":2" /> Key to her success was an emotional speech she first delivered in Chicago on 22 January.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Speech that made possible a Jewish State - Jan. 2, 1948 |url=https://awpc.cattcenter.iastate.edu/2017/03/21/speech-that-made-possible-a-jewish-state-jan-2-1948/ |access-date=2023-02-18 |website=Archives of Women's Political Communication |language=en}}</ref> She toured dozens of cities in the United States and returned to Israel on 18 March.<ref name=":1" />

The funds were critical to the success of the war effort and the establishment of Israel; by comparison, the opposing Arab Higher Committee's annual budget was around $2.25 million, similar to Haganah's annual budget before the war.<ref>[[Henry Laurens (scholar)|Henry Laurens]], ''La Question de Palestine,'' vol.3 [[Fayard]] 2007 p.33.</ref> Ben-Gurion wrote that Meir's role as the "Jewish woman who got the money which made the state possible" would go down in history.<ref name="HA" />

However, upon returning home, she suffered a political setback. The Jewish Agency and National Council Executives excluded her from the 13-member cabinet of the [[provisional government of Israel]], and included her instead in the 37-member People's Council. Ben-Gurion protested this, saying "It is inconceivable that there shall be no adequate woman…it is a moral and political necessity, for the Yishuv, the Jewish world and the Arab world." At one point, he even considered offering her his spot on the cabinet.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Medzini |first=Meron |title=Golda Meir: A Political Biography |publisher=Walter de Gruyter GmbH |year=2017 |isbn=9783110492507 |edition=illustrated |pages=155}}</ref>

On 13 April, she was hospitalized in Tel Aviv due to a suspected heart attack. Ben-Gurion and the political department heads urged her to guard her health and come to Jerusalem as soon as she could. They asked her to be "the mother of this city", and that her "words to 100,000 residents will be a source of blessing and encouragement".<ref name=":1" /> However, she felt it was a secondary and temporary role.

Instead, on 6 May, she visited [[Haifa]] after its 22 April [[Battle of Haifa (1948)|occupation by Hagannah]]. This trip had a significant impact on her. There, she witnessed an elderly Arab woman emerging from a destroyed house, clutching to her few remaining belongings. When the two women made eye contact, they burst into tears. Meir went on to call the [[1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight|mass expulsion and flight of Arabs]] before the [[1948 Palestine war]] "dreadful", and likened it to what befell the Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/04/books/review/Margolick-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=review Margolick, David. "Endless War" ''New York Times'', May 4, 2008]</ref> She returned to Tel Aviv, and eventually to Jerusalem two weeks before the end of the mandate.<ref name=":1" />

On 10 May, Meir had a second meeting with Abdullah I. She travelled to Amman in secret, disguised as an Arab woman. He proposed that Palestine be absorbed into Jordan, with autonomy granted to majority-Jewish areas. Golda rejected the proposal. It then seemed likely that Abdullah I would invade.<ref name=":1" />