Golda Meir

Golda Meir (May 3, 1898 - December 8, 1978) was the fourth Prime Minister of Israel from March 17, 1969 to 1974.

Born Golda Mabovitz in Kiev, Russia (now in Ukraine), she emigrated with her family to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1906. There, she graduated from teachers' college and taught in the public schools. She joined the Poalei Zion (Labor Zionist Organization) in 1915 and emigrated to Palestine with her husband, Morris Myerson, in 1921. He died in 1951. She adopted the Hebrew name Meir ("to burn brightly") in 1956.

She moved to Tel Aviv in 1924 where she was employed in a variety of posts in the trade union movement and civil service before being elected to the Knesset in 1949. She served as Minister of Labor (1949-1956) and Foreign Minister (1956-1966) in successive governments.

Upon becoming Prime Minister following the death of Levi Eshkol, her government was clouded by internal squabbles among the governing coalition, and serious questions over strategic misjudgments and general lack of leadership that resulted in the unanticipated Yom Kippur War. Golda Meir resigned leadership, to be succeeded by Yitzhak Rabin.

Golda Meir died in Jerusalem and was buried on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.

Quotations

"Moses dragged us through the desert for 40 years to bring us to the one place in the Middle East where there was no oil."

"There will be peace in the Middle East when the Arabs love their children more than they hate the Jews"

"There was no such thing as Palestinians, they never existed. Before 1948, we were the palestinians." (June 15, 1969)

"I can honestly say that I was never affected by the question of the success of an undertaking. If I felt it was the right thing to do, I was for it regardless of the possible outcome."

"A leader who doesn't hesitate before he sends his nation into battle is not fit to be a leader."

"We do not rejoice in victories. We rejoice when a new kind of cotton is grown and when strawberries bloom in Israel."

"Don't be humble. You aren't that great."

"Whether women are better than men I cannot say, but they are certainly no worse."

"Those who don't know how to weep with their whole heart, don't know how to laugh either."