My Life: The Iron Lady of Israel, Golda Meir - XX

After being an elected Prime Minister she hoped that she could do something for growing socio-economic problems. The defence budget had to be maintained no doubt but she wanted to focus on the gap between the the people with a good lifestyle and those who were still lacking many things. The immigrants who came from the countries like Yemen, Middle East and North Africa,more was to be done for them. She described this situation as cooexistence of poverty and wealth. There was a class which led a lavish life style not matching the national economic capacity and the people who were underprivileged, but there were masses skilled hard working white-collar workers too. They deserved better lifestyle.


She had worked with Histadrut for a long time, she wanted see people on the lower pedestal paid better wages to survive. At the same time she never liked the idea of strike in essential services, specially when the country was in war.

"The government can't do everything all at once,"she told the nation. She did not mince her words,she expected the poor to be active and not turn passive objects and expected affluent class to help achieving social integration. She formed a committee which had distinguished experts from many sectors who worked voluntarily, suggested many things which were implemented too. The tax rise was paired by tax benefits to lower income groups and low-income housing was encouraged. All this was to be done along with actual war or terrorism, there was never time to focus on one problem only, there was never peace.

In August 1970 the ceasefire materialised,Nasser accepted it to last only for 3 months,but he died in September. Anwar Sadat became the President who sounded more reasonable and was probably not very comfortable with Russia. The king Hussein ( Jordan) who sheltered Palestinian terrorists for a long time, found himself threatened by them, thus chose to crushed them. Though Arab leaders still demanded total withdrawal of Israeli troupes, the talk about opening the Suez canal was to begin. The Arab leaders kept refusing to meet for the peace talk. Israel too stayed where it had reached.

Of course no inhuman and horrifying acts of terrorism were supported by the world. ( like public kidnapping of athletes and murder, and many more ) of course surrender to terrorism only led to more terrorism,she believed. There was constant possibility of death or letter bomb for Israeli official working abroad,or of turning a peaceful town into the scene of massacre. Some fed on hatred believed that this could drain Israel of the ability to stand firm in the face of 'grief and pain'. Golda wrote that Israel had learned to ' hold against terror,to protect the aircrafts and passengers , to turn the embassies into a small fortress and to patrol the schoolyards and city streets.' The country prepared hard to take these blows,but never did it think of surrendering or giving in. Terrorists were never described as freedom fighters,they remained criminals,each funeral would cause pain. Lasting peace was the only solution, she thought, she wanted to convince all that the stand taken by Israel was right. Arab nations never gave peace a chance.
Golda described how her visit to Rumania ( as spelled in the book ) could not be meaningful except the visit to Chorale synagogue in Bucharest. 10000 Jews reached from all over the country to meet her,wished her ' Shabbat shalom ' ,this made her visit worth. Hebrew songs were sung beautifully.

There was an interesting incident Golda narrated,when she was free for two days on her trip to Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Norway. She wanted to rest and be out of reach of all communications. She planned to go to Finnish Lapland,which belonged to a friend of Israel. Though it was too isolated and far away place and just 100 miles away from the Russian border,she went on with her plan. Some reporter noted mayor of the town with roses to welcome her ,not knowing who would land. The reporter identified who the VIP was and broke the news that Golda Meir went to the place to have a secret meeting with the Russians. The clarification was to be issued but Golda learned that it was difficult to go unnoticed.

In Israel there were many groups though small but very vocal, loudly said that the government was not doing enough. These groups wanted Jews to be allowed to settle in Hebron, King David's capital before he moved to Jerusalem. It was a town situated on the West Bank of Jordan river,it came under Jewish administration. Their methods were wrong but at the same time Golda thought that it would not mean that the territory would be returned to Jordan and Jews could be banned from visiting the holy land. After a lot of deliberation,in 1970 limited housing units were permitted to be built on the outskirts of Hebron and the settlement was named Kiryat Arba ( the Hebrew name, meaning was ' the town of the four ' ).

Relation between the Vatican and Zionist movement were delicately poised. When Theodor Herzl was granted audience ,he was conveyed that Vatican cannot prevent Jews from going to Jerusalem but it was not to get sanction as Jews had not recognised Lord Jesus,Vatican could not recgnise Israel. Later it gave its recognition.
When Golda was to visit France to attend annual meeting of socialist international in 1973,she was granted audience by the pope. It was fixed to be held on 16/1/1973. It started with telling her that Jews who suffered themselves should have mercy towards others. Golda could not bear the that her nation mistreated Arabs in the territory administered by Israel. She explained in detail what is the fact and there was not a single incident of brutality. She said that her earliest memory was waiting for a pogrom and her people knew about the real harshness and they learned about the mercy when they were being led to gas chambers of Nazis. She felt she was voicing the feelings of Jews as a community, alive or those who disappeared while Vatican maintained its neutrality in the second world war. It was a historic confrontation she wrote. They talked about the other issues too. She guaranteed that all the possible and required arrangements would be done to take care of holy places of all the religions but Jerusalem would remain the capital of israel.she wanted him to use his influence to bring the settlement in the region and for the return of Israeli prisoners. The verbal statement issued by Pope's spokesman did not portray the facts of meeting,rather it tried to appease the Arab states. She held a press conference in the embassy. It was ' interesting and intensely meaningful experience ' ,she observed.

After being the prime minister she worked for longer hours and travelled more. She thought she had to talk to people who wanted to talk to her,and listen to those who had something to convey.