Golda Meir

Résumé du document

Golda Meir is originally from Russia, where she lived eight years, before moving to America. But actually, she does not remember it very well. Her first memories are quite sad and hard for a young girl : « the terrible hardships my family suffered, with poverty, cold, hunger and fear, and I suppose my recollection of being frightened is the clearest of all my memories » (Meir 13). She was born to a traditional family, but not religious.

Golda's parents had trouble to earn money, and at some point they decided that her father, Moshe Yitzhak Mabovitch, would go to America, « to the goldene medina, the land of gold » (Meir 17), meanwhile Sheyna, Golda's older sister, became more and more involved in the socialist-Zionist movement. She introduced Golda to Zionism, and consequently influenced her a lot. In 1906, Blume and her three daughters could get to Moshe in Milwaukee, America.

The changing was huge for the family, while Moshe was already an American Jew, took part of the Jewish community and behaved like an American (Meir 31).

Extraits

[...] The rest of the world seems to be grouped into blocs that have sprung up because geography and history have combined to give common interests to their people (Meir 317). She was attracted to Africa because like Israel, African countries were new and had the same dreams and admirations than Israel. Throughout the 1950s, Golda made numerous trips to the continent where she was received like royalty. She made sure that the relationships that were forged between Israel and the African countries were to be mutual, each country benefiting. [...]

[...] In 1966, Golda retire from the Foreign Ministry, due to her bad health, but continued to serve her political party, Mapaï. On February Levi Eshkol the Prime Minister of Israel died of a sudden heart attack, and Golda was elected by her party to succeed him by a unanimous vote. She accepted the position with reluctance, thinking that a seventy year old grandmother was hardly the perfect candidate to head a twenty year old state (Meir 378). She had to immediately deal with the impending issues facing Israel, most notably defence. [...]

[...] Martin describes Golda and her husband's first time in Jerusalem, quoting Golda the Wall was there as a fortress of guarantee that the land will be there when the Jews come back, to me it was everything. It is almost something alive (Martin 114). Golda was deeply impressed by the city, saying that the orthodox bearded once no longer had the shuffling gait of the old ghetto. Now they had sprightly prance, an eager attitude (Martin 114). But what she was most impressed with was the use of Hebrew everywhere. She would always resent her accent while speaking Hebrew. Her Hebrew in the beginning took some time to develop, but eventually she reach fluency. [...]

[...] After she decided she would live in Palestine, Morris accepted to follow her, and they got married in December 1917. In 1921, Golda and Morris made Aliyah and they were two of 9,140 immigrants. The trip to Palestine was really hard and they had to face different obstacles. They finally got to Tel Aviv and did not except to confront such a hard life. Sheyna volunteered to go to the market to buy some fruit for the children. In a little while she was back, filled with gloom. [...]

[...] Immediately, Golda and the rest of the leaders of the Yishuv had to think of a response. She speaks about how the declaration of the White Paper did not strike her as a big surprise, stating that while she liked and respected the British, as an American, she could not always trust them fully. The Zionist congress was held in Geneva later that year, where the slogan was we shall fight Hitler as if there were no White Paper, and fight the White Paper as if there were no Hitler (Meir 167). [...]