Golda (57 page)

1. Zionist Congress: Marie Syrkin,
   Way of Valor: A Biography of Golda Myer- son
   (New York: Sharon Books, 1955), pp. 100–102.
   

2. “This time, we asked nothing”: Menachem Meir,
   My Mother Golda Meir: A Son’s Evocation of Life with Golda Meir
   (New York: Arbor House, 1983), p. 55.
   

95 “The Jews should act as though”: Syrkin,
Woman of Valor
, p. 102.

95 “If war breaks out”: Golda to Menachem and Sarah, August 21, 1939, Ge- neva, reprinted in Menachem Meir,
My Mother Golda Meir,
pp. 55–56.

95 It was an impossible dilemma: Syrkin,
Way of Valor,
p. 103.

1. “It was a very nice slogan”: Meir,
   My Life,
   p. 165.
   

2. the steamer
   Atrato
   : Ehud Avriel,
   Open the Gates!: A Personal Story of “Ille- gal” Immigration to Israel
   (New York: Atheneum, 1975).
   

3. “There is no Zionism save”: Mapai Executive Committee Meeting, No- vember 1943, quoted in Syrkin,
   Way of Valor,
   p. 114.
   

4. “They fight like lions”: Golda Meir,
   My Life,
   p. 184.
   

1. “Our way in this country”: “This Is Our Strength,”
   D’var HaPoelet,
   May 5, 1939.
   

2. “You are a nice, peaceful, law-abiding lady”: Syrkin,
   Way of Valor,
   pp. 106–13.
   

101 “Zionism and pessimism are not compatible”: Ibid., p. 159.

1. “What can we do, first”: Quoted in Martin,
   Golda,
   p. 239.
   

2. “It’s bad enough that the rest of the world”: Menachem Meir,
   Golda Meir My Mother,
   p. 63.
   

102 a Histadrut emissary reported: Ibid.

1. “I could see in his worried”: Golda Meir,
   My Life.
   

2. “How can we, in Tel Aviv”: Va’ad Ha’Poel meeting, April 10, 1943, quoted in Syrkin,
   Woman of Valor,
   pp. 114–16.
   

3. “I have sometimes wondered how”: Golda Meir,
   My Life,
   p. 166.
   

   chapter seven
   

4. “At this solemn hour”:
   Palestine Post,
   May 10, 1945.
   

5. “Civilization has been appalled”: Excerpts of Bevin’s speech were printed by the
   New York Times,
   February 26, 1947.
   

6. “Jewish life is precious”: Meron Medzini,
   Ha-Yehudiyah ha-geah: Goldah Meir ve-hazon Yisrael
   (Tel Aviv: Edanim, 1990), chapter 7.
   

7. “The American people”: Released November 13, 1945. Dated August 31, 1945, President Harry S. Truman, Public Papers of the Presidents, Harry
   

   S. Truman, 1945.
   

8. Etzel, which had seceded: For an accessible history of the Irgun, see the Irgun site, written by Yehuda Lapidot at http://www.etzel.org.il/english
   / Irgun.
   

109 “liquidating the possibility”: Minutes of meeting of the political committee of Mapai, March 27, 1944.

109 “We have no alternative but to follow a new path”: Medzini,
Ha-Yehudiyah,

chapter 7.

111 “What’s wrong with workers from the Histadrut?” Ibid.

1. the Anglo-American Commission: The Commission report is online at http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/anglo/angtoc.htm.
   

2. spoke on behalf of the Histadrut:
   The Pioneer Woman,
   April 1946.
   

114 “cigarettes were permitted”: Marie Syrkin,
Way of Valor: A Biography of Golda Myerson
(New York: Sharon Books, 1955), pp. 152–54.

1. “If Shertok [Sharett] is guilty”: Quoted in ibid., p. 160.
   

2. “Maybe I wasn’t important enough”: Quoted by Abraham Rabinovich in
   

Newsday,
December 7, 1978.

117 “Kudos to a smart and energetic woman”:
The Pioneer Woman,
March 1947.

1. “A lovely lady, a good speaker”: Quoted in Ralph G. Martin,
   Golda: Golda Meir, the Romantic Years
   (New York: Scribner, 1988), p. 270.
   

2. setting up a
   Judenrat
   : Author interview with Chaim Hefer, December 14, 2004.
   

118 Shertok tried to calm: For examples of Sharett’s frustration, see Ya’akov Sharett, ed.,
Imprisoned with Paper and Pencil: The Letters of Moshe and Zipporah Sharett
[Hebrew] (Tel Aviv: Moshe Sharett Institute, 2000).

1. “What we want is complete independence”: Quoted in Martin,
   Golda,
   

   p. 270.
   

2. I never lived through a pogrom: Minutes of Jewish Agency Executive Com- mittee, Paris, August 2, 1946.
   

119 “We have hated death”: Speech at funeral at Kibbutz Givat Hayim, quoted in Syrkin,
Way of Valor,
p. 137.

1. “If we don’t do something active”: Meir interview with Rinna Samuel, Au- gust 4, 1973.
   

2. Unless Bevin agreed to release: Medzini,
   Ha-Yehudiyah,
   chapter 7.
   

1. “Golda is inflexible”: Sharett,
   Imprisoned with Paper and Pencil.
   

2. “For miles around, there was nothing”: Quoted in Martin,
   Golda,
   p. 261.
   

121 “You and Ben-Gurion are destroying”: Meir interview with Rinna Samuel, August 4, 1973.

121 “Look, you are afraid and I am afraid”: Ibid.

121 “She had this gift of propaganda”: Quoted in Martin,
Golda,
p. 278.

1. One afternoon, she fainted: Syrkin,
   Way of Valor,
   p. 136.
   

2. traveled to Basle: Ibid., pp. 165–68.
   

1. “what is our starting point?”: Medzini,
   Ha-Yehudiyah,
   chapter 7.
   

2. “Why are we NOW pressing”: Statement given in Yiddish, reprinted in English in Marie Syrkin, ed.,
   A Land of Our Own
   :
   An Oral Autobiogra- phy by Golda Meir
   (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1973), pp. 58–65.
   

chapter eight

125 They made an odd pair: The most thorough account of Golda’s meetings and the context in which they occurred is Avi Shlaim,
Collusion Across the Jordan: King Abdullah, the Zionist Movement, and the Partition of Pales- tine
(New York: Columbia University Press, 1988). See also Alec Seath Kirkbride,
From the Wings: Amman Memoirs 1947
–
1951
(London: Frank Cass, 1976). The
yishuv
view of the meetings was recorded most thor- oughly by Zeev Sharef in his
Three Days
(London: W. H. Allen, 1962).

125 United Nations Special Committee on Palestine: For information on UNSCOP, see, Jorge Garcia-Granados,
The Birth of Israel: The Drama as I Saw It
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1948).

125 “We don’t anticipate spilled blood”: Meron Medzini,
Ha-Yehudayah ha- geah: Goldah Meir v
.
a-hazon Yi´sra’el: Biyografyah polit
.
it
(Tel Aviv: Edanim, 1990), chapter 7.

129 “The struggle against terrorism cannot be divorced”:
New York Times,
Feb- ruary 11, 1947.

129 “We will not become a nation of informers”:
New York Times,
February 23, 1947.

129 “Even if it means armed struggle”: Menachem Meir,
My Mother Golda Meir: A Son’s Evocation of Life with Golda Meir
(New York: Arbor House, 1983), p. 90.

1. “Terrorism is assisting Palestine’s British”:
   New York Times,
   March 30, 1947.
   

2. “the right measure of independence”: Marie Syrkin,
   Way of Valor: A Biogra- phy of Golda Myerson
   (New York: Sharon Books, 1955), p. 162.
   

1. British detention centers in Cyprus: Ibid., pp. 171–76.
   

2. “We can hardly imagine a Jewish state”:
   New York Times,
   September 2, 1947.
   

1. “The Messiah hasn’t come”: Quoted in Ralph G. Martin,
   Golda: Golda Meir, the Romantic Years
   (New York: Scribner, 1988), p. 288.
   

2. “For two thousand years”: Ibid, p. 295.
   

1. “We will strangle”: Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre,
   O Jerusalem
   

   (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1972), p. 88.
   

2. “But how will I live if I’m blinded?”: Ibid., p. 299.
   

133 On December 27: Syrkin,
Way of Valor,
p. 189.

1. the police station in Jewish Hedera: Ibid., p. 190.
   

2. “What you can do here, I cannot do”: Peggy Mann,
   Golda: The Life of Is- rael’s Prime Minister
   (New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1971), p. 142.
   

134 “When she came here she stayed”: Jeff Hodes interview with Henry Mon- tor, October 14, 1975, Rome, Oral History Division Institute for Con- temporary Jewry (OHD), 34(128), p. 54.

1. Arriving on a Friday afternoon: The best information on Golda’s fund-rais- ing trip was gleaned from interviews available at the OHD with Mathilda Brailove, Lou Boyar, Henry Montor, Joe Mazer, William Mazer, Gott- lieb Hammer, Sam Feingold, Lee Horne, Ralph Wechsler, Leon Ger- ber, Sidney Lewine, Julius Livingston, Jeanne Daman, and Harry Beale.
   

2. Montor decided that Golda’s only chance: 128(34), OHD, 54–56.
   

135 “The nations of the world”: Her speech in Chicago was published as
A Re- port from Palestine
by the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds, General Assembly, Chicago, January 1948.

137 “Money is not any of your business”: United Jewish Appeal interview with Golda Meir, January 19, 1971.

137 “marrying a Negro”: Beale interview, OHD, p. 25.

1. “I was sure that they couldn’t care less”: Ibid. and Syrkin,
   Way of Valor,
   

   p. 210.
   

2. “we can’t save the Jewish people”: Montor interview, OHD, pp. 58–59.
   

138 “meet in Madison Square Garden”: Jeff Hodes interview with Meir, quoted in Martin,
Golda
, p. 321.

138 “Someday, when history will be written”: Golda Meir,
My Life
(New York: Putnam, 1975), p. 214.

140 to persuade them to remain: Mann,
Golda,
pp. 148–49.

144 “We need to go all the way”: Medzini,
Ha-Yehudiyah,
chapter 8.

144 “Golda is too inflexible”: Minutes of the meeting of Minhelet HaAm, May 12, 1948, ISA.

1. “I learned about the Declaration”:
   Jewish Newsweekly of Northern Califor- nia,
   June 5, 1998.
   

   chapter nine
   

2. “need much larger sums”: Menachem Meir,
   My Mother Golda Meir
   (New York: Arbor House, 1983), p. 121.
   

3. “We cannot go on without your help”: Golda Meir,
   My Life
   (New York: Putnam, 1975), p. 235.
   

4. twisting her right leg: Menachem Meir,
   Golda Meir My Mother,
   p. 123; and
   

New York Times,
July 2, 1948.

1. Sharett barraged Golda: Marie Syrkin,
   Way of Valor: A Biography of Golda Myerson
   (New York: Sharon Books, 1955), pp. 234–35.
   

2. “APPOINTMENT OF SARAH”: Peggy Mann,
   Golda: The Life of Israel’s Prime Minister
   (New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1971)
   ,
   p. 160.
   

1. schizophrenic world: For background on the Soviet position on partition, see Arnold Krammer, “Soviet Motives in the Partition of Palestine, 1947–48,”
   Journal of Palestine Studies
   2, no. 2 (winter 1973): 102–99.
   

2. “The Jews in the civilized world”: “Critical Remarks on the National Ques- tion,” written by Lenin in October–December 1913 and published the same year in the Bolshevik legal journal
   Prosveshcheniye,
   nos. 10, 11, and 12.
   

3. The Soviet Foreign Ministry had ordered: Gennadii Kostyrchenko, “Golda at the Metropol Hotel,”
   Russian Studies in History
   43, no. 4 (fall 2004), pp. 77–84.
   

4. “What were they thinking, sending an old”: Lov Kaddar, interview, (56)88, OHD.
   

1. Male diplomats, she was told: Ibid.
   

2. “From the moment they arrived in Moscow:” Uri Bialin, “Top Hat, Tuxedo and Cannons: Israeli Foreign Policy from 1948 to 1956 as a Field of Study,”
   Israel Studies
   7, no. 1 (2002): 1–80.
   

1. “Golda had nothing to do”: Kaddar, interview, (56)88, OHD.
   

2. Mordechai Namir . . . yanked the chain: Ibid.
   

3. “I would happily sacrifice my knowledge”: Mordechai Namir,
   Israeli Mis- sion to Moscow
   [Hebrew] (Tel Aviv: Am Oved, 1971) pp. 333–34.
   

156 A Jewish officer in the Red Army: Ibid., p. 336.

156 “[It is] as though the problem of Jewish immigration”: Namir,
Israeli Mis- sion to Moscow,
p. 60.

156 petitioned for exit permits: Ibid., p. 411.

1. One night a middle-aged Jew: Menachem Meir,
   Golda Meir My Mother,
   

   p. 132.
   

2. she urged him: Syrkin,
   Way of Valor,
   pp. 252–53.
   

157 she threw Friday: Kaddar, interview, (56)88, OHD.

1. submitted the first issue: Ibid.
   

2. Polina Zhemchuzhina: Namir,
   Israeli Mission to Moscow,
   pp. 83–84.
   

3. A savvy politician: Syrkin,
   Way of Valor,
   pp. 249–50.
   

159 “Let there be no mistake about it”:
Pravda,
September 21, 1948.

159 Rosh Hashanah: Kaddar, interview, (56)88, OHD.

161 “The words shook the sun”: Syrkin,
Way of Valor,
p. 252.

chapter ten

1. snapped Eliezer Kaplan: Dvora Hacohen,
   Immigrants in Turmoil: Mass Im- migration to Israel and Its Repercussions in the 1950s and After
   (Syra- cuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 2003).
   

2. “A Jewish state that aims at a high”: Address to workers’ delegation, Tel Aviv, July 25, 1950, in Henry Christman, ed.,
   This Is Our Strength: Selected Papers of Golda Meir
   (New York: Macmillan, 1952), pp. 50–51.
   

1. Golda faced her biggest hurdle: The debate over her plan was detailed in
   

   Palestine Post,
   August 9, 1949.
   

2. “We need cheap housing quickly”: Marie Syrkin,
   Way of Valor: A Biography of Golda Myerson
   (New York: Sharon Books, 1955), p. 264.
   

166 “I went to our Parliament two weeks ago”: Robert Slater,
Golda, the Uncrowned Queen of Israel
(Middle Village, N.Y.: Jonathan David, 1981), p. 98.