Also by Francine Klagsbrun Too Young to Die: Youth and Suicide Voices of Wisdom: Jewish Ideals and Ethics for Everyday Living Free to Be…You and Me (editor) Married People: Staying Together in the Age of Divorce Mixed Feelings: Love, Hate, Rivalry, and Reconciliation Among Brothers and Sisters Jewish Days: A Book of Jewish Life and Culture Around the Year The Fourth Commandment: Remember the Sabbath Day Contents Cover Also by Francine Klagsbrun Title Page Copyright Epigraph Dedication Cast of Characters Introduction: “Call Me Golda” Part One: Stubborn Roots Chapter 1: The Carpenter’s Daughter Chapter 2: An American Girl Chapter 3: “Dearest Gogo” Chapter 4: The Path to Palestine Part Two: Ascent Chapter 5: “New Jews” Chapter 6: The Dark Years Chapter 7: A Star Is Born Chapter 8: Pioneer Woman Chapter 9: Black Clouds Rising Chapter 10: “And the Heart Breaking” Chapter 11: Life and Death Chapter 12: Ein Breira—No Alternative Chapter 13: “Nevertheless: A Woman” Chapter 14: 1947: The Turning Point Chapter 15: “The Time Is Now” Part Three: Madam Minister Chapter 16: Moscow Chapter 17: “Either Immigrants or Shoes” Chapter 18: The Politician Chapter 19: “Golda Meir” Chapter 20: Conflict and Charisma Chapter 21: “A Mutual Distancing” Chapter 22: Seat of Power Part Four: Premier Chapter 23: The Chosen Chapter 24: A Different Kind of War Chapter 25: “What Has Happened to Us?” Chapter 26: Terror, Territories, and the Palestinian Question Chapter 27: Premier Meir and President Sadat Chapter 28: “I Will Never Again Be the Person I Was” Chapter 29: An “Irrevocable” Decision Chapter 30: “My Only Fear Is to Live Too Long” Endings: “I’ve Always Been a Realist” Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Illustrations What a lioness was your mother Among the lions! Crouching among the great beasts, She reared her cubs. —Ezekiel 19:2 For Sarah and Eric, Eliana, Benji, and Ari. And for Sam. Cast of Characters ABDULLAH BIN HUSSEIN. First king of Jordan, 1946–1951. YIGAL ALLON. Israeli general during the 1948 Israeli-Arab War; held a variety of ministerial positions during the 1960s and 1970s, including deputy prime minister and minister of education and culture in Golda’s government; architect of the Allon Plan for territories captured during the 1967 Six-Day War. SHULAMIT ALONI. Feminist and civil rights advocate; member of the Knesset and founder of the Ratz Party; held a variety of ministerial positions in the 1990s. MEIR AMIT. Director of the Mossad, 1963–1968. YASSER ARAFAT. Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, 1969–2004; leader of the Fatah political party. ZALMAN ARANNE. Labor leader; minister of education and culture, 1955–1960, 1963–1969; close colleague of Golda’s. MOTTI ASHKENAZI. A captain in the Israel Defense Forces who led a protest movement against Golda’s government after the 1973 Yom Kippur War. HAFEZ AL-ASSAD. President of Syria, 1971–2000. SHAUL AVIGUR. Commander of Mossad l’Aliyah Bet, which smuggled Jews into mandatory Palestine; a founder and head of Nativ, an underground organization that maintained contact with Soviet Jews. MENACHEM BEGIN. Leader of the right-wing political parties Herut, Gahal, and Likud; Israel’s sixth prime minister, 1977–1983. DAVID BEN-GURION. Chairman of the executive committee of the Jewish Agency in pre-state Israel; first prime minister of Israel, 1948–1954 and 1955–1963; considered its founding father. RACHEL YANAIT BEN-ZVI. Zionist leader in pre-state Israel and together with her husband, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi (Israel’s second president, 1952–1963), an important early influence on young Golda. ERNEST BEVIN. British Labour Party leader; foreign secretary during the last days of the British mandate in Palestine. WILLY BRANDT. Chancellor of West Germany, 1969–1974. HANNA CHIZICK. Pioneer and agricultural laborer in pre-state Israel; member of the kibbutz Merhavia; wife of Meir Dubinsky. SIR ALAN CUNNINGHAM. The last British high commissioner in mandatory Palestine, 1945–1948. MOSHE DAYAN. Charismatic Israeli general; minister of defense in the governments of Levi Eshkol (during the Six-Day War) and Golda Meir (during the Yom Kippur War). SIMCHA DINITZ. Close aide to Golda; director general of the prime minister’s office, 1969–1973; ambassador to the United States, 1973–1979. MEIR DUBINSKY. Member of the Milwaukee Poalei Zion; ardent early suitor of Golda’s. ABBA EBAN. Diplomat and Israeli spokesman; Israel’s first ambassador to the United States and the United Nations; minister of foreign affairs, 1966– 1974. ILYA EHRENBURG. Soviet Jewish journalist. ADOLF EICHMANN. Nazi war criminal captured by Israel in 1960; executed following trial in 1962. DAVID “DADO” ELAZAR. Chief of general staff of the Israel Defense Forces during the Yom Kippur War; forced to resign in its aftermath. ARIE LOVA ELIAV. Secretary-general of Israel’s Labor Party; proponent of Palestinian nationalism. LEVI ESHKOL. Third prime minister of Israel, 1963–1969. ISRAEL GALILI. Chief of staff in the pre-state Haganah; minister without portfolio in Golda’s government and one of her closest advisers. LEONARD GARMENT. American attorney who served in the Nixon and Ford administrations; liaison between the government and the American Jewish community during the 1970s. MORDECHAI GAZIT. Director general of the prime minister’s office during Golda’s premiership. NAHUM GOLDMANN. President of the World Jewish Congress, 1948–1977. ELIYAHU GOLOMB. Leading statesman in pre-state Israel; a founder of the Haganah and commander in it. REGINA HAMBURGER-MEDZINI. Golda’s best childhood friend; immigrated to mandatory Palestine with her and maintained lifelong ties. DAG HAMMARSKJÖLD. United Nations secretary-general, 1953–1961. ISSER HAREL. Director of Mossad, 1952–1963; replaced by Meir Amit. HUSSEIN BIN TALAL. King of Jordan, 1953–1999. VLADIMIR “ZEEV” JABOTINSKY. Right-wing Zionist leader and theoretician; founder of the Revisionist Party in 1925. LOU KADAR. Golda’s assistant, secretary, and confidante for almost thirty years. BERL KATZNELSON. Visionary and moral authority in pre-state Israel. HENRY KISSINGER. U.S. national security adviser and secretary of state during the Nixon and Ford administrations. ABRAHAM ISAAC KOOK. First Ashkenazi chief rabbi of mandatory Palestine and influential religious thinker. ZVI YEHUDAH KOOK. Son of Abraham Isaac Kook and the spiritual force behind the Gush Emunim settler movement. YOSSEL KOPILOV. Philosopher-barber, close friend in Golda’s youth, immigrated to mandatory Palestine with her and remained a family friend until his death. SHEYNA MABOVITCH KORNGOLD. Golda’s older sister (1889–1972). BRUNO KREISKY. Chancellor of Austria, 1970–1983. PINHAS LAVON. Served in several ministerial positions in the 1950s; as minister of defense was accused of running a failed covert operation in Egypt that became known as the Lavon Affair. BLUMA NAIDITCH MABOVITCH. Golda’s mother (1867–1951). MOSHE YITZHAK MABOVITCH. Golda’s father (1864–1944). ADA MAIMON-FISHMAN. Politician, feminist leader in pre-state Israel; head of Women Workers’ Council; director of Girls’ Training Farm at Ayanot. AYA PINKERFELD MEYERSON (MEIR). Menahem’s second wife; mother of Amnon, Daniel, and Gideon. CHANA LUTSKY MEYERSON (MEIR). Menahem’s first wife; mother of Meira.