Golda Meir role for Israel

In January 1948, the treasurer of the Jewish Agency was convinced that Israel would not be able to raise more than $7-8 million from the American Jewish community.[3] Meir traveled to the United States and managed to raise $50 million, which was used to purchase arms in Europe for the nascent state.[3] Ben-Gurion wrote that Meir's role as the "Jewish woman who got the money which made the state possible," would go down one day in the history books. [3]

On May 10, 1948, four days before the official establishment of the state, Meir traveled to Amman disguised as an Arab woman for a secret meeting with King Abdullah of Transjordan at which she urged him not to join the other Arab countries in attacking the Jews. Abdullah asked her not to hurry to proclaim a state. Golda, known for her acerbic wit, replied: "We've been waiting for 2,000 years. Is that hurrying?"[9]
In 1956, she became Foreign Minister under Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. Her predecessor, Moshe Sharett, had asked all members of the foreign service to Hebraicize their last names. Upon her appointment as foreign minister, she shortened "Meyerson" to "Meir," which means "illuminate." As Foreign Minister, Meir promoted ties with the newly-established states in Africa in an effort to gain allies in the international community.[14] But she also believed that Israel had experience in nation-building that could be a model for the Africans. In her autobiography, she wrote: "Like them, we had shaken off foreign rule; like them, we had to learn for ourselves how to reclaim the land, how to increase the yields of our crops, how to irrigate, how to raise poultry, how to live together, and how to defend ourselves." Israel could be a role model because it "had been forced to find solutions to the kinds of problems that large, wealthy, powerful states had never encountered."[15]
Meir sided with Dayan, citing Israel's need for foreign aid. She believed that Israel could not depend on European countries to supply Israel with military equipment, and the only country that might come to Israel's assistance was the United States. Fearing that the U.S. would be wary of intervening if Israel were perceived as initiating the hostilities, Meir decided against a pre-emptive strike. She made it a priority to inform Washington of her decision. Then-U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger later confirmed Meir's assessment by stating that if Israel had launched a pre-emptive strike, Israel would not have received "so much as a nail."[citation needed]
Biographer Elinor Burkett comes to a different interpretation of Meir; she says that Meir was the real hero of the war and not the Minister of Defense Moshe Dayan, who considered surrender. [21]

3^ a b c d e f g h i Mother of a nation, but not much of a mother Haaretz, 7 July 2008

9 ^ "Golda Meir: Peace and Arab Acceptance Were Goals of Her 5 Years as Premier", The New York Times (1978-12-09).

14
^ a b c d e Golda Meir, Encyclopedia Britannica, Micropedia, 1974, 15th edition, pp.762
15
^ Golda Meir, My Life, (NY: Dell Publishing Co., 1975), pp. 308-309
21
^ "How Golda Meir won the Yom Kippur war". The Sunday Times (2000-09-22).