In high school she joined the Zionist group, "Poalei Zion" (Workers of
Zion). She immigrated to British Mandate Palestine in 1921 with her
husband, Morris Myerson, and settled in Kibbutz Merhavya.
Moving to Tel Aviv in 1924, she became an official of the Histadrut
Trade Union and served in a managerial post with the union's
construction corporation, Solel Boneh. Between 1932 and 1934 she worked
as an emissary in the United States, serving as secretary of the
Hechalutz women's organization; she also became secretary of the
Histadrut's Action Committee, and later of its policy section.
When the pre¬state British Mandatory Authorities imprisoned most of the
Jewish community's senior leadership in 1946, she replaced Moshe Sharett
as head of the Jewish Agency's Political Department, the chief Jewish
liaison with the British. Elected to the Executive of the Jewish Agency,
she was active in fundraising in the United States to help cover the
costs of the Israeli War of Independence, and became one of the State's
most effective spokesmen.
In 1948, David Ben-Gurion appointed Golda Meir to be a member of the
Provisional Government. A few days before the Declaration of
Independence, Ben¬Gurion sent her disguised as an Arab on a hazardous
mission to persuade King Abdullah of Jordan not to attack Israel. But
the King had already decided his army would invade the Jewish state
following the British departure.
In June 1948, Meir was appointed Israel's Ambassador to the Soviet
Union. Elected to the Knesset as a Mapai member in 1949, she served as
Minister of Labor and National Insurance until 1956. In June 1956, she
became Foreign Minister, a post she held until January 1966. As Foreign
Minister, Meir was the architect of Israel's attempt to create bridges
to the emerging independent countries of Africa via an assistance
program based on practical Israeli experience in nation building. She
also endeavored to cement relations with the United States and was
successful in creating extensive bilateral relations with Latin American
countries.
Between 1966 and 1968, she served as Secretary¬General of Mapai, and
then as the first Secretary¬ General of the newly formed Labor Party.
When Prime Minister Levi Eshkol died suddenly in early 1969, the 71¬
year ¬old Meir assumed the post of Premier, becoming the world's third
female Prime Minister (after Sirimavo Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka and
Indira Gandhi of India).
As Prime Minister she inherited Eshkol's second National Unity
Government administration, but this broke up over the question of
continuing the cease-fire with Egypt in the absence of a peace treaty.
She then continued in office with the Alignment (Labor & Mapam), the
National Religious Party and the Independent Liberals.
The major event of her administration was the Yom Kippur War, which
broke out with massive coordinated Egyptian and Syrian assaults against
Israel on October 6, 1973. As the postwar Agranant Inquiry Commission
established, the IDF and the government had erred seriously in their
assessment of Arab intentions.
Although she and the Labor Party won the elections (postponed due to the
war until December 31, 1973), she resigned in 1974 in favor of Yitzhak
Rabin. She passed away in December 1978 and was buried on Mount Herzl in
Jerusalem.
