Golda (58 page)

166 Amun-Israeli Housing Corporation: For background on Amun-Israeli, see Charles Abrams, “Israel Grapples with Its Housing Crisis,”
Commentary
11, no. 4 (April 1951), pp. 347–54.

1. “We pray for the day”: Syrkin,
   Way of Valor,
   p. 287.
   

2. “If we have to choose”: Address before the Executive Council of Mapai, Je- rusalem, March 11, 1953.
   

3. made to send care packages: Syrkin,
   Way of Valor,
   pp. 287–88.
   

168 “any free ride”: Golda’s speech launching the bond drive was delivered on October 1950 in Washington, D.C. Pieces are reprinted in Menachem Meir,
My Mother Golda Meir: A Son’s Evocation of Life with Golda Meir
(New York: Arbor House, 1983), pp. 142–43.

168 “You had to be a little crazy”: Author’s interview with Ralph Goldman, January 12, 2005.

1. “cables from good American friends”: Quoted in Syrkin,
   Way of Valor,
   p. 288.
   

2. “Mapai does not promise a land”: Ibid., p. 282.
   

3. “immigration will have to be”: United Jewish Appeal Meeting, Chicago, June 1950, quoted in Syrkin,
   Way of Valor,
   p. 281.
   

1. In a new nation still teetering: The best analysis of the crisis was written by
   

   J. L. Teller, “The Israeli Voter Ponders the Moral Crisis,”
   Commentary
   

   11, no. 2 (February 1951).
   

2. “More immigrants or more shoes”: Syrkin,
   Way of Valor
   , p. 282.
   

1. “I’m prepared to go not only from meeting”: Peggy Mann,
   Golda: The Life of Israel’s Prime Minister
   (New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1971)
   ,
   p. 129.
   

2. Villa Harun al-Rashid: George Bisharat, “Golda Meir Lived in My Home,”
   

Ha’aretz,
January 4, 2004.

172 “A woman stands in the kitchen five hours”: Slater,
Golda:
p. 101.

1. the foundations were too high: Menachem Meir,
   My Mother Golda Meir,
   

   p. 140.
   

2. “a progressive country cannot”: Golda was speaking to the Second Na- tional Convention of the Union of Engineers, Architects and Survey- ors in Haifa, on August 22, 1949, as reported in the
   Palestine Post
   of that day.
   

173 “To make us a road is very kind”: Golda Meir,
My Life
(New York: Putnam, 1975), pp. 280–81; and Peggy Mann, p. 130.

1. head lice and gynecology: Dvora Hacohen,
   Immigrants in Turmoil.
   

2. “Golda doesn’t think in terms of hours of work”: Peggy Mann,
   Golda,
   

p. 127.

174 At Passover in 1950: Slater,
Golda,
p. 101.

1. “go to the
   balabusta
   ”: Ibid.
   

2. The birth of Meira Meyerson: The fullest background on Meira Meyerson is contained in Slater’s
   Golda
   , pp. 107–17. This section was based on author’s interview with Ari Rath, December 2004.
   

175 “Friends tried to mediate”: Author interview with Ari Rath.

1. “She was never the grandmother”: Author interview with Rolf Kneller, De- cember 2004.
   

2. “It is a momentous occasion”: Speech reproduced in Marie Syrkin, ed.,
   Golda Meir Speaks Out
   (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1973), pp. 86–88.
   

3. “The State of Israel will not tolerate”: Golda Meir,
   My Life
   , pp. 275–76.
   

4. Bill for Compulsory Service for Women: Syrkin,
   Way of Valor,
   pp. 291–97. For background on the dispute, see “National Service Law, 1953,” in
   

Joseph Badi, ed.,
Fundamental Laws of the State of Israel
(New York: Twayne Publishers, 1961), pp. 311–13.

178 “You will not force your way of life”: Speech on the floor of the Knesset, quoted in Syrkin,
Way of Valor,
pp. 196–97.

chapter eleven

181 The torment of Moshe Sharett: There are many accounts of the deteriora- tion in Ben-Gurion and Sharett’s relationship. This section relies heav- ily on Medzini’s
Ha-Yehudiyah,
chapter 11.

1. chief of operations of the Israel: Shabtai Teveth,
   Moshe Dayan: The Soldier, the Man, the Legend
   (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1973).
   

2. “But who will be foreign minister?”: Golda Meir,
   My Life
   (New York: Put- nam, 1975), p. 291.
   

182 “All a foreign minister does is talk”: Robert Slater,
Golda: The Uncrowned Queen of Israel
(Middle Village, N.Y.: Jonathan David, 1981), p. 118.

1. asked her to jump out: Yosef Almogi,
   Total Commitment
   (New York: Herzl Press, 1982).
   

2. “think it’s a cocktail party”: Author interview with Yitzhak Navon, Decem- ber 30, 2004.
   

183 “Golda didn’t take a single note”: Author interview with Ari Rath, Decem- ber 23, 2004.

183 “hard woman”: Anne Marie Lambert interview, March 4, 1981, Golda Meir Library Archives, University of Wisconsin–Milwankee (UWM), tape 17, collection 21.

183 “queen bee”: Author interview with Esther Herlitz, December 16, 2004.

1. “That makes two of us”: Simcha Dinitz interview, Golda Meir Library Ar- chives, UWM, tapes 8 and 9, collection 21.
   

2. Eleanor Roosevelt: From Roosevelt’s foreward to Henry M. Chrisman, ed.,
   

This Is Our Strength
(New York: Macmillan, 1962).

184 charmed the notoriously diffident: Golda Meir,
My Life
, p. 315.

184 After Argentina appealed: Speech delivered at the Security Council on June 22, 1960, and reprinted in Marie Syrkin, ed.,
Golda Meir Speaks Out
(London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1973), pp. 126–34.

184 “Former Milwaukee Schoolteacher Is”:
Montreal Gazette,
May 28, 1958.

184 “Israeli FM ‘Thinks Like a Man’ ”:
Boston Globe,
November 18, 1956,

1. “Grandmother-Diplomat”:
   New York Times,
   July 12, 1958.
   

2. “A 20-Hour Workday”:
   New York Tribune,
   October 17, 1961.
   

185 “What is the use or realism”: Address to the General Assembly, October 7, 1957.

185 “Like the Biblical Rachel”:
The Telegram,
October 12, 1962.

1. The first hint of the role: Abba Solomon Eban,
   Personal Witness: Israel Through My Eyes
   (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1992).
   

2. Four days after Golda took office: Interview with Michael Bar-Zohar, De- cember 21, 2004.
   

1. One of the first contacts Golda wanted: Matti Golan,
   Road to Peace: A Bi- ography of Shimon Peres.
   Translated by Akiva Ron. (New York: Warner Books, 1989).
   

2. “I told G[olda] that I am worried”: Diaries of David Ben-Gurion, July 12, 1957, Sde Boker.
   

1. floated on a boat down the Seine: Slater,
   Golda
   , p. 136.
   

2. skeptical about Peres’ rosy reports: Golda’s account of the meeting appears in Golda Meir,
   My Life,
   pp. 286–88, and Peres’ in his
   Battling for Peace: A Memoir
   (New York: Random House, 1995), pp. 102–14.
   

3. The British and French delayed bombing: Avi Shlaim,
   The Iron Wall
   (New York: W. W. Norton, 2001), p. 179.
   

1. “restrain the aggressors”: Quoted in Eban,
   Personal Witness: Israel Through My Eyes.
   

2. “Israel’s people went into the desert,”: Quote is from a speech delivered to the United Nations General Assembly on December 5, 1956, repro- duced in part in Marie Syrkin, ed.,
   A Land of Our Own: An Oral Auto- biography
   (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1973).
   

3. “It wasn’t just arrogance on Golda’s”: Author interview with Esther Herlitz, December 16, 2004.
   

191 When staff members showed up: Ibid.

1. “Had we waited”:
   Baltimore Sun,
   December 11, 1956.
   

2. “Let’s just have it printed”: Author interview with Esther Herlitz.
   

192 “you will be a traitor”: Ibid.

1. Golda called Ben-Gurion and begged for a delay: Slater,
   Golda,
   p. 126.
   

2. “washed my underwear”: Ibid., p. 128.
   

3. Isser Harel, Israel’s master spy: The story of the German scientists in Egypt is culled from “Nasser’s Hired Germans,”
   Saturday Evening Post
   248
   ,
   April 1976; Michael Bar-Zohar,
   Ben-Gurion: The Armed Prophet
   (New York: Prentice-Hall, 1968); and the coverage of the
   Jerusalem Post
   in 1963 and 1964.
   

194 Ben-Gurion and Peres were mollified: Golan,
Road to Peace;
and author interview with Bar-Zohar.

1. “There is no doubt that the motives”: Knesset debate, November 20, 1963, covered in following day’s
   Jerusalem Post.
   

2. in August:
   Jerusalem Post,
   August 15, 1965.
   

1. “If we’re serious about a special”: Author interview with Ari Rath, Decem- ber 23, 2004.
   

2. Anastasio Somoza: A good explanation of the Peres and Somoza fiasco is found in Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi,
   The Israeli Connection: Who Israel Arms and Why
   (New York: Pantheon, 1987).
   

196 “a catastrophe, colonialism, imperialism”: Ibid.

1. “Wait your turn”: Author interview with Ari Rath, December 23, 2004.
   

2. “She was extremely vindictive”: Author interview with Benny Morris, Janu- ary 2005.
   

197 female members of the ministry: Author interview with Esther Herlitz, December 16, 2004.

197 less than exact with his per diem: Author interview with Yaakov Nitzan, December 2004.

197 “I don’t care about people’s behavior at home”: Ibid.

197 “she went to Ben-Gurion”: Author interview with Esther Herlitz, December 16, 2004.

1. long feud over Dimona: Peres’ account of the Dimona plan appears in his autobiography
   Battling for Peace;
   pp. 115–24. For a more objective view, see Avner Cohen,
   Israel and the Bomb
   (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998).
   

2. installation of Léopold Senghor: Peres,
   Battling for Peace
   , pp. 199–20.
   

3. “Regarding Dimona, there is no need to stop the work”: From minutes of meeting of senior Foreign Ministry staff, June 13, 1963, Israel State Ar- chives.
   

4. during tough days of angry arguments: The trip was well covered on a daily basis by the
   Jerusalem Post,
   with key articles appearing on March 12, 24, and 27 and April 4.
   

1. “Independence came to us”: Golda Meir,
   My Life
   , p. 318.
   

2. “tell them about the mistakes we made”: Peggy Mann,
   Golda,
   p. 200.
   

201 “She mobilized top people”: Interview with Hanan Aynor, August 1987, Golda Meir Library Archives, UWM, tape 16, collection 21.

201 With a low investment, Golda reasoned: Ibid.

1. the 500 delegates: Ehud Avriel, “Israel’s Beginnings in Africa,” in Michael
   

   Curtis and Susan Gitelson,
   Israel and the Third World
   (New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Books, 1976) pp. 69–83.
   

2. “Back then, if you told a taxi driver”: Author interview with Shlomo Hillel, December 21, 2004.
   

1. She sat for an interview: The list is culled from the archives of the
   Jerusalem Post
   .
   

2. “We don’t want to hide the fact”: Meir interview with Martin Levin, June 6, 1963, transcript, Golda Meir Library Archives, UWM.
   

203 President David Dacko: Mordechai E. Krenin,
Israel and Africa: A Study in Technical Cooperation
(New York: Praeger, 1964).

1. “Imagine that instead of coming to see us”: Slater,
   Golda,
   p. 142.
   

2. “I can do without the Falls”:
   Jerusalem Post,
   October 30, 1964, and Golda Meir,
   My Life,
   p. 336.
   

204 South Africa: On Israel’s relationship with South Africa, see Michael Co- may interview, OHD, 6(24).

204 “have the right—and justly so”:
Jerusalem Post,
November 10, 1962.

204 “fight for liberty and freedom”:
Jerusalem Post,
November 13, 1962.

204 “The danger lurks”: “Israel and Africa,” For the Record, Cairo: Arab League Press and Information Department, no. 175, July 31, 1963.

1. Taking the long view: On the diplomatic impact of Israeli-African ties, see Krenin,
   Israel and Africa;
   and Tibor Rodin,
   Political Aspects of Is- raeli Foreign Aid in Africa,
   PhD dissertation, University of Nebraska, 1969.
   

2. During a 1964 visit to Nigeria:
   Jerusalem Post,
   October 29, 1964.
   

1. “You’ll forgive me—but”: Speech to Socialist International Council, Haifa, April 1960.
   

2. “the African delegates would all line up”: Author interview with Yaakov Nitzan, December 26, 2004.
   

   chapter twelve
   

3. leadership needed to be infused: All of the major biographies of Ben-Gur- ion discuss his sentiments on this regard. See, in particular, Dan Kurz- man,
   Ben-Gurion, Prophet of Fire
   (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1983), pp. 426–28.
   

4. “It’s not a question of age”:
   Jerusalem Post,
   December 19, 1967.
   

1. “complete intolerance”: Author interview with Uri Avnery, January 4, 2005.
   

2. When she was not displeased: Author interview with Miriam Eshkol, Janu- ary 12, 2005.
   

209 At the Mapai convention: Shabtai Teveth,
Moshe Dayan
:
The Soldier, the Man, the Legend
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1973), p. 287; and Naftali Lau-Lavie,
Moshe Dayan
:
A Biography
(London: Vallentine Mitchell, 1968), pp. 175–76.

1. At a meeting of the students’ club: Ibid.
   

2. would not serve in the cabinet: Teveth,
   Moshe Dayan,
   p. 293, and Yosef Almogi,
   Total Commitment
   (New York: Herzl Press, 1982).
   

210 Pinhas Lavon: One of the most contentious political struggles in Israeli his- tory, the Lavon Affair has been written about extensively. The most complete analysis is Shabtai Teveth,
Ben Gurion’s Spy: The Story of the Political Scandal That Shaped Modern Israel
(New York: Columbia Uni- versity Press, 1996).