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Who is Golda Meir and what were his achievements from the beginning until her death part 2
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00:00Who is Golda Mare and what were his achievements from the beginning until her death?
00:05Part 2. Golda Mare, the Iron Lady of Israel, a remarkable life.
00:09Today, we're diving into the extraordinary life of a woman who left an indelible mark on history.
00:14Golda Mare, often referred to as the Iron Lady of Israel, will explore her early life,
00:19her role in the founding of Israel, and her impactful years as Israel's prime minister.
00:23Golda Mare was born on May 3, 1898, in Kiev, Ukraine, which was part of the Russian Empire
00:29at the time. Her birth name was Golda Mabovich. Her family immigrated to the United States,
00:34and she grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Golda was exposed to a strong sense of community
00:39and the values that would shape her future political career.
00:42As a young woman, Golda became involved in Zionist activities, advocating for a Jewish
00:47homeland in Palestine. She married Morris Mayerson and moved to Palestine in 1921,
00:52where they helped establish a kibbutz, a collective community. Golda's political
00:56career took off during the tumultuous times leading up to the founding of Israel in 1948.
01:01She played a vital role in diplomacy and fundraising, even meeting with U.S.
01:06President Truman to secure support for the newly proposed state.
01:09On May 14, 1948, David Ben-Gurion declared the establishment of the State of Israel.
01:15Golda Mare was one of the signatories of Israel's Declaration of Independence.
01:19Golda Mare's most significant impact came when she became Israel's fourth prime minister in 1969,
01:24making her the world's third female head of government. During her tenure, she navigated
01:29through challenging times, such as the Munich Olympics massacre and the Yom Kippur War.
01:33Her leadership was marked by a no-nonsense approach, earning her the nickname, the Iron Lady.
01:38Golda Mare retired from politics in 1974 and passed away in 1978. Her legacy endures as an iconic
01:45figure in Israeli history, and she remains an inspiration for women and leadership around the
01:50world. Golda Mare's life is a testament to the power of determination and leadership.
01:54She rose from humble beginnings to shape the history of a nation and inspire generations to come.
01:59Now let's start talking in a little detail. While in Milwaukee, she embraced the labor Zionist
02:04movement. In 1921, Mare and her husband emigrated to mandatory Palestine, settling in Merhavia,
02:10later becoming the kibbutz's representative to the Histadra. In 1934, she was elevated to the
02:16executive committee of the trade union. Mare held several key roles in the Jewish agency during and
02:21after World War II. She was a signatory of the Israeli Declaration of Independence in 1948.
02:26Mare was elected to the Neset in 1949 and served as labor minister until 1956, when she was appointed
02:33foreign minister by Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. She retired from the ministry in 1966 due to ill
02:39health. In 1969, Mare assumed the role of prime minister following the death of Levi Eshkol.
02:44Early in her tenure, she made multiple diplomatic visits to Western leaders to promote her vision of
02:49peace in the region. The outbreak of the Yom Kippur War in 1973 caught Israel off guard and
02:54inflicted severe early losses on the army. A controversial figure in Israel, Mare has been
02:59lionized as a founder of the state and described as the Iron Lady of Israeli politics, but also
03:04widely blamed for the country being caught by surprise during the War of 1973. In addition,
03:10her dismissive statements towards the Palestinians were widely scorned. Most historians believe Mare was
03:15more successful as Secretary of Labor and Housing than as Premier. Mare's father, Mare, left the country
03:20to find work in New York City in 1903. In his absence, the rest of the family moved to Pinsk
03:25present-day Belarus to join her mother's family. In 1905, Mare moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in search
03:32of higher-paying work, and found employment in the workshops of the local railroad yard. The following
03:37year, he had saved up enough money to bring his family to the United States. Golda along with her mother
03:42and sisters landed in Quebec and traveled to Milwaukee by train. Mare's mother ran a grocery
03:47store on Milwaukee's north side. By age 8, Mare was often put in charge of watching the store when
03:52her mother went to buy supplies. She attended the 4th Street Grade School now Golda Mare School
03:57from 1906 to 1912. Belied her early on, she and a close friend, Regina Hamburger, organized the
04:03American Young Sisters Society, a fundraiser to pay for her classmates' textbooks in 1908.
04:08As part of the organization's activities, she rented a hall and scheduled a public meeting for
04:13the event. Despite frequent tardiness due to having to work in her mother's store,
04:17she graduated as valedictorian of her class. In 1912, she began studying at North Division High
04:23School and worked part-time. Her employers included Shester's Department Store and the Milwaukee Public
04:29Library. Her mother wanted Golda to leave school and marry, but she declined. On 17 February 1913,
04:36Mare took a train to live with her married sister, Shana Korngold, in Denver, Colorado.
04:41The Korngolds held intellectual evenings at their home, where Mare was exposed to debates on Zionism,
04:46literature, women's suffrage, trade unionism, and more. In her autobiography, she wrote to the extent
04:52that my own future convictions were shaped in given form. Those talk-filled nights in Denver played a
04:57considerable role. She attended the Teachers College Milwaukee State Normal School now University of
05:02Wisconsin, Milwaukee in 1916, and likely part of 1917. In 1917, she took a position at a Yiddish-speaking
05:10folks' shul in Milwaukee. There, she further embraced labor Zionism. On 9 July 1917, Golda became
05:17a naturalized U.S. citizen, as her father had naturalized, and at that time children of naturalized
05:22citizens under the age of 21 received citizenship by descent. On 24 December 1917, Mare and Merson married.
05:30However, Mare's precondition for marriage was to settle in Palestine. She had intended to make
05:35Aliyah immigration to Israel straight away. But her plans were disrupted when all transatlantic
05:40passenger services were canceled due to the entry of the United States into the First World War.
05:45She then threw her energies into Pole Zion activities. A short time after their wedding,
05:49she embarked on a fundraising campaign for Pole Zion that took her across the United States.
05:54In 1921, after the conclusion of the war, the couple moved to Palestine,
05:58then part of the British Mandate, along with Mare's sister Shana, Shana's daughter,
06:03and Mare's childhood friend Regina. They sailed on the SS Poccahontas, from New York to Naples,
06:08then from there to Tel Aviv by train. Mare's parents subsequently moved to Palestine in 1926.
06:14They were eventually accepted into Kibbutz Merhavia in the Jezreel Valley after an initial
06:18rejected application. Her duties included picking almonds, planting trees, working in the chicken
06:23coops, and running the kitchen. Recognizing her leadership abilities, the Kibbutz chose her as
06:28its representative to the Histodrat, the General Federation of Labor. In 1924, the couple left the
06:34Kibbutz and lived briefly in Tel Aviv before settling in Jerusalem. There, they had two children,
06:39a son Menesham in 1924 and a daughter Sarah in 1926. Mare returned to Merhavia for a brief period in 1925.
06:47In 1928, Mare was elected Secretary of Mozart HaPolat Working Women's Council. She spent two years
06:531932,193 for in the United States as an emissary for the organization and to get expert medical
07:00treatment for her daughter's kidney illness. In 1934, when Mare returned from the United States,
07:05she joined the Executive Committee of the Histodrat and moved up the ranks to become the head of its
07:09political department. This appointment was important training for her future role in Israeli leadership.
07:14In July 1938, Mare was the Jewish observer from Palestine at the Evian Conference,
07:20called by President Franklin D. Roosevelt of the United States to discuss the question of Jewish
07:24refugees fleeing Nazi persecution. Delegates from the 32 invited countries repeatedly expressed their
07:30sorrow for the plight of the European Jews, but refused to admit the refugees. The only exception was
07:36the Dominican Republic, which pledged to accept 100,000 refugees on generous terms. Mare was
07:41disappointed at the outcome and she remarked to the press,
07:44There is only one thing I hope to see before I die and that is that my people should not need
07:48expressions of sympathy anymore. Throughout World War II, Mare served several key roles in
07:53the Jewish Agency, which functioned as the government of British Palestine. In June 1946,
07:58Mare became acting head of the political department of the Jewish Agency after the British arrested
08:03Mos Sherat and other leaders of the Yishev as part of Operation Agatha. This was a critical moment in
08:08her career. She became the principal negotiator between the Jews in Palestine and the British
08:12mandatory authority. After his release, Sherat went to the United States to attend talks on the
08:18unpartitioned plan, leaving Mare to head the political department until the establishment of
08:22the state in 1948. In 1947, she traveled to Cyprus to meet Jewish detainees of the Cyprus internment camps,
08:29who had been interned by the British after being caught trying to illegally enter Palestine,
08:34and persuade them to give priority to families with children to fill the small quota of detainees
08:38allowed into Palestine. She was largely successful in this task. For most of the war,
08:43Mare reluctantly played what she felt was a minor role in Israel's activities.
08:47An article published by the Golda Mare Institute said she felt she was being pushed aside to a
08:52secondary arena. However, she played a critical role in fundraising. In January 1948, the Jewish
08:58Agency needed to raise funds for the continuing war and the coming Israeli state. The treasurer of the
09:03Jewish Agency was convinced that they would not be able to raise more than $7 to $8 million from the
09:09American Jewish community. Mare raised over $30 million. Key to her success was an emotional speech
09:14she first delivered in Chicago on the 22nd of January. She toured dozens of cities in the United
09:19States and returned to Israel on the 18th of March. The funds were critical to the success of the war
09:24effort and the establishment of Israel. By comparison, the opposing Arab Hire Committee's
09:29annual budget was around $2.25 million, similar to Hagen's annual budget before the war.
09:35Ben-Gurion wrote that Mare's role as the Jewish woman who got the money which made the state
09:39possible would go down in history. However, upon returning home, she suffered a political setback.
09:44The Jewish Agency and National Council executives excluded her from the 13-member cabinet of the
09:49Provisional Government of Israel and only included her in the 37-member People's Council.
09:54Ben-Gurion protested this, saying it is inconceivable that there shall be no adequate
09:59woman it is a moral and political necessity for the Yishav, the Jewish world and the Arab world.
10:04At one point, he even considered offering her his spot on the cabinet.
10:07On the 13th of April, she was hospitalized in Tel Aviv due to a suspected heart attack.
10:12Ben-Gurion and the political department heads urged her to guard her health and come to Jerusalem
10:17as soon as she could. They asked her to be the mother of this city and that her words to 100,000
10:21residents will be a source of blessing and encouragement. However, she felt it was a secondary
10:26and temporary role. Instead, on the 6th of May, she visited Haifa after its 22nd of April occupation
10:32by Hagan. This trip had a significant impact on her. There, she witnessed an elderly Arab woman
10:38emerging from a destroyed house, clutching to her few remaining belongings. When the two women made
10:43eye contact, they burst into tears. Mare went on to call the mass expulsion and flight of Arabs before
10:48the 1948 Palestine War dreadful and likened it to what befell the Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe.
10:53She returned to Tel Aviv and eventually to Jerusalem two weeks before the end of the mandate.
10:59On the 10th of May, Mare had a second meeting with Abdullah I. She traveled to Amman in secret,
11:04disguised as an Arab woman. He proposed that Palestine be absorbed into Jordan,
11:08with autonomy granted to majority Jewish areas. Golder rejected the proposal.
11:13It then seemed likely that Abdullah I would invade. On the 14th of May 1948, Mare became one of 24
11:18signatories including two women of the Israeli Declaration of Independence.
11:22She later recalled,
11:24After I signed, I cried. When I studied American history as a schoolgirl and I read about those
11:29who signed the U.S. Declaration of Independence, I couldn't imagine these were real people doing
11:34something real. And there I was sitting down and signing a Declaration of Establishment,
11:38a day after independence. The second phase of the war began.
11:41Mare also suddenly lost her job and administrative responsibilities,
11:45as the political department became the provisional ministry of foreign affairs.
11:49And her leadership role in Jerusalem was taken over by Dav Yosef.
11:53On the 18th of May, she embarked on a second and even more successful fundraising tour in which
11:58she raised around $50 million. In total, her fundraising efforts raised around $90 million,
12:04around a third of the cost of the war $275 million. During preparations for this trip,
12:09she was issued the first Israeli passport. Over the 10 weeks that she was gone,
12:13Israel was battered by the war and changed drastically. On the 25th of June, while still
12:18in the United States, Mare was appointed by Sherat, then the Minister of Foreign Affairs,
12:23as the Minister Plenipotentiary to the Soviet Union, which recently recognized Israel.
12:27Mare was displeased by the offer. She spoke no Russian and feared being lonely in Moscow.
12:32She said at last we have a state. I want to be there. I don't want to go thousands of miles away.
12:37Why do I always have to go away?
12:38Her return to Israel was delayed due to a car crash in which she tore a ligament and fractured
12:43a bone. Soviet officials refused to believe she was in hospital and wanted an Israeli envoy as soon
12:48as possible. Thus she ignored doctors' orders to rest and return to Israel on the 29th of July.
12:54Years later, her leg would frequently pain her. Mare served as Minister Plenipotentiary to the
12:59Soviet Union from the 2nd of September 1948 to the 10th of March 1949. She was reportedly
13:05impatient with diplomatic niceties and using interpreters. She did not drink or ballroom
13:10dance and had little interest in gossip and fashion, according to her interpreter.
13:14When asked by a Russian ambassador how she traveled to Moscow, she responded tell His
13:18Excellency the ambassador that we arrived riding on donkeys. This was an important and difficult role.
13:23Good relations with the Soviet Union impacted Israel's ability to secure arms from Eastern
13:28European countries. In turn, Joseph Stalin and Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov saw its
13:34relationship with Israel as a means of furthering the Soviet position in the Middle East. However,
13:39Soviet-Israeli relations were complicated by Soviet policies against religious institutions and
13:44nationalist movement made manifest in actions to shut down Jewish religious institutions as well
13:49as the ban on Hebrew language study and the prohibition of promoting emigration to Israel.
13:55Just 20 days after her term began, antisemitic crackdowns began in response to an article by
14:00Soviet Jewish writer Ilya Ehrenberg. Mayer and the other Israeli representatives responded by making
14:05a point of visiting Russian Jewish businesses, synagogues, and performances. On the 3rd of October,
14:11during Rosh Hashanah celebrations at the Moscow Choral Synagogue, she was mobbed by thousands of Russian
14:16Jews chanting in Russian Nasha Golda, meaning our Golda. In her autobiography she said I felt as though
14:22I had been caught up in a torrent of love so strong that it had literally taken my breath away and
14:26slowed down my heart. This event was commemorated by the Israeli 10,000 shekel ban note issued in
14:31November 1984. It bore a portrait of Mare on one side and the image of the crowd greeting her in
14:36Moscow on the other. To her close friends, she admitted she had little to do in Moscow and felt
14:41isolated from Israeli politics, despite being a socialist that was born in Ukraine. Her Jewish
14:46side caused friction with the Soviets that made progress difficult. By the end of her term,
14:51she felt she had accomplished little. She reportedly felt guilty for not achieving more for the Russian
14:56Jews, as she would have been in their situation if her father had not moved to the United States.
15:00She planned to run for the first Neset elections on the 25th of January 1949. The month before the
15:06elections, she returned to Israel and campaigned for Mapai. Mapai won 35% of the votes and formed a
15:12coalition, and Ben-Gurion invited her into the cabinet. She was sworn in on the 8th of March,
15:17and continued to serve in the Neset until 1974. Ben-Gurion initially offered Mare the position of
15:23Deputy Prime Minister, which she rejected. She found the title and responsibilities vague,
15:28and disliked the idea of needing to coordinate with so many government departments. Instead,
15:33she took the role of Labor Minister, which she held from the 10th of March 1949 to the 19th of June 1956.
15:39Mare enjoyed this role much more than her previous, calling it her seven beautiful years.
15:44In particular, she enjoyed the ability to act quickly and with little friction from others.
15:48She was also one of the most powerful Israeli politicians at the time. The main source of
15:53friction in the role was funding, especially to deal with the millions of immigrants arriving in
15:57the new state. In October 1950, Mare announced in Washington a three-year plan for Israel's
16:03development and stated a price tag of $15 billion over the next 15 years. The Israeli government
16:08managed to secure a loan from the United States government and American Jews that secured 40%
16:13of the budget. The newly created Israel bonds only provided a small amount, although years later
16:18they would contribute billions to the Israeli economy. Mare assisted in building over a hundred
16:23ma'aberat temporary immigrant camps with crude tin-roofed huts and tents for housing.
16:27She drew criticism from many new immigrants and contemporary politicians due to this,
16:32but responded by pointing to her limited budget and the time needed to construct proper housing.
16:36In 1953, she assisted in an effort to eliminate the ma'aberat.
16:40By 1956, two-thirds were eliminated, and 120,000 families moved to permanent housing.
16:47Mare considered herself highly productive during this period. She carried out welfare state policies,
16:52orchestrated the integration of immigrants into Israel's workforce, and introduced major housing
16:57and road construction projects. From 1949 to 1956, 200,000 apartments and 30,000 houses were built,
17:05large industrial and agricultural developments were initiated, and new hospitals, schools and roads
17:11were built. Despite the complaints of her colleagues in the finance ministry, Mare worked to establish
17:16social security, maternity benefits, work-related accident insurance, benefits to widows and orphans,
17:22and even burial costs. In 1954, she sided with Ben-Gurion against Pinhas Lavon in the Lavon Affair.
17:28In the summer of 1955, Mare reluctantly ran for the position of mayor of Tel Aviv on request of her party.
17:34At the time, Mare's were elected by the city council and not directly.
17:38She lost by the two votes of the religious bloc who withheld their support on the grounds that
17:42she was a woman. While angered by the sexism she encountered, she was happy to rejoin her
17:46colleagues in the cabinet. On 3 August 1955, she was again hospitalized after complaining of chest pains
17:53and was diagnosed with her hythmia. In October 1955, Ben-Gurion appointed Mare as foreign minister,
17:59replacing Sherrod. Mare planned and coordinated with the French government and military
18:03prior to the start of the invasion. During United Nations debates about the crisis,
18:08Mare took charge of the Israeli delegation. After the fighting started, the United States,
18:13the Soviet Union, and the United Nations forced the three invaders to withdraw.
18:17As foreign minister, Mare promoted ties with the newly established states in Africa in an effort to
18:22gain allies in the international community. She also believed that Israel had experience in
18:26nation-building that could be a model for the Africans. In her autobiography, she wrote,
18:31She also devoted much effort to convincing the United States to sell Israel weaponry.
18:35One success in this area came in 1962, when the White House quietly agreed to sell Hawk missiles to
18:41Israel. Israel's relationship with the Soviet Union remained frosty during her tenure.
18:46On 29 October 1957, Mare's foot was slightly injured when a Mills bomb was thrown into the debating
18:52chamber of the Nesat. David Ben-Gurion and Mosh Carmel were more seriously injured.
18:56The attack was carried out by 25-year-old Mosch Dweck, born in Aleppo. His motives were attributed
19:02to a dispute with the Jewish agency, but he was described as being mentally unbalanced.
19:07In 1958, Mare praised Pope Pius XII's assistance of the Jewish people shortly after his death.
19:12The Poniff's legacy as a wartime pope has continued to be controversial into the 21st century.
19:17The same year, during the wave of Jewish migration from Poland to Israel,
19:21Mare sought to prevent disabled and sick Polish Jews from immigrating to Israel.
19:25In a letter sent to Israel's ambassador in Warsaw, Katriel Katz, she wrote,
19:30A proposal was raised in the Coordination Committee to inform the Polish government that
19:34we want to institute selection in Alia, because we cannot continue accepting sick and handicapped
19:39people. Please give your opinion as to whether this can be explained to the Poles without hurting
19:43immigration. In late 1965, 67-year-old Mare was diagnosed with lymphoma. In January 1966,
19:51she retired from her role as foreign minister, citing exhaustion and ill health.
19:55Although she continued to serve in the Neset and as Secretary General of Mapai.
19:59During the 1960s, Mare lived in a flat on the upper level of a house that was once known as
20:03Villa Haran al-Rashid. The house was built in 1926 by Hannah Bicharet and later rented to British
20:09officers. The house was later given to Zionist militias, due to the prominent view from the roof.
20:14According to Hannah Bicharet's grandson George Bicharet, Mare had the tiles on the house's front
20:19sandblasted to obliterate the Villa Haran al-Rashid and thereby conceal the fact that she was living in an
20:24Arab home. Prime Minister Levi Eshkol died suddenly on 26 February 1969, leading to the appointment of
20:31Yigal Allen as interim prime minister and an election to replace him. Before the vote,
20:35most suspected that Mare would be elected. On 7 March 1969, the party's central committee
20:41voted Mare as the new party leader. 71-year-old Mare had mixed feelings due to her health concerns,
20:47but eventually agreed, saying that she would honor the party's decision just as she had honored all of
20:51the party's past decisions. Mare served as prime minister from the 17th of March 1969 to the 3rd of
20:57June 1974. She maintained the national unity government formed in 1967 after the Six-Day War,
21:04in which MAPAI merged with two other parties Rafi and Adet Ha'a voted to form the Israeli Labour Party.
21:09Six months after taking office, Mare led the reconfigured alignment, comprising Labour and MAPAM,
21:15into the 1969 general election. The alignment managed what is still the best showing for a single party
21:21or faction in Israeli history, winning 56 seats. This is the only time that a party or faction has
21:26approached winning an outright majority in an election. The national unity government was retained
21:31in 1969 in the early 1970s. Mare met with many world leaders to promote her peace settlement idea,
21:38including Richard Nixon 1969, Nikolai Sosyscu 1972 and Pope Paul VI 1973. In 1973,
21:46she hosted the Chancellor of West Germany, Willy Brandt, in Israel. In August 1970, Mare accepted a
21:52U.S. peace initiative that called for an end to the war of attrition and an Israeli pledge to
21:57withdraw to secure and recognized boundaries in the framework of a comprehensive peace settlement.
22:02The Gahal Party quit the national unity government in protest. But Mare continued to lead the remaining
22:07coalition. In June 1969, on the two-year anniversary of the Six-Day War, Mare stated in an interview that
22:13there was no such thing as Palestinians, a comment later described by Al Jazeera as one of her defining
22:19and most damning legacies. This phrase is considered to be the most famous example of Israeli denial of
22:25Palestinian identity. The interview entitled Who Can Blame Israel was published in the Sunday Times
22:30on June 15, 1969, and included the following exchange. Frank Giles, do you think the emergence of
22:36the Palestinian fighting forces, the Fedayeen, is an important new factor in the Middle East?
22:41Goldamer, important? No. A new factor, yes. There was no such thing as Palestinians.
22:47When was there an independent Palestinian people with a Palestinian state? It was either southern
22:51Syria before the First World War and then it was a Palestine including Jordan. It was not as though
22:56there was a Palestinian people in Palestine considering itself as a Palestinian people and we
23:01came and threw them out and took their country from them. They did not exist. In the wake of the
23:05Munich massacre at the 1972 Summer Olympics, Mare appealed to the world to save our citizens and
23:11condemned the unspeakable criminal acts committed, outraged at the perceived lack of global action.
23:16She ordered the Mossad to hunt down and assassinate suspected leaders and operatives of Black September
23:21and the PFLP. During the 1970s, about 200,000 Soviet Jewish emigrants were allowed to leave the
23:27Soviet Union for Israel by way of Austria. When seven of these emigrants were taken hostage at the Austria,
23:32Czechoslovakia border by Palestinian militants in September 1973. The Chancellor of Austria, Bruno Kreski,
23:40closed the Jewish agency's transit facility in Skano, Austria. A few days later in Vienna,
23:45Mare tried to convince Kreski to reopen the facility by appealing to his own Jewish origin
23:50and described his position as succumbing to terrorist blackmail. Kreski did not change his position,
23:55so Mare returned to Israel, infuriated. A few months later, Austria opened a new transition camp.
24:01A common criticism of Mare is that she could have avoided the Yom Kippur War in 1973.
24:06For months preceding the attack, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat made repeated overtures
24:11for peace in exchange for a full Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai. But these gestures were rebuffed by
24:16Mare, who had offered previously to discuss ceding most of the Sinai, but was not willing to restore
24:21the pre-1967 borders, and Egypt had no interest in peace talks under Mare's conditions.
24:26As the nation's leader during this short war, her main goal was deciding on the timing of
24:31preliminary operations and providing the IDF with the necessary time and munitions to pull off a
24:36victory. In the days leading up to the Yom Kippur War, Israeli intelligence could not conclusively
24:42determine that an attack was imminent. However, on 5 October 1973, Mare received information that
24:48Syrian forces were massing on the Golan Heights. She was alarmed by the reports and believed that the
24:53situation was similar to what preceded the Six-Day War. However, her advisors counseled her not to
24:58worry, saying they would have adequate notice before any war broke out. This made sense at the
25:03time. After the Six-Day War, most in the Israeli intelligence community considered the Arabs
25:08unprepared to launch another attack. Consequently, although the Neset passed a resolution granting her
25:13power to demand a full-scale call-up of the military instead of the typical cabinet decision Mare did not
25:18mobilize Israel's forces early. Soon, though, the threat of war became very clear.
25:22Six hours before the outbreak of hostilities, Mare met with Minister of Defense Moshe Dayan and
25:27General David Elazar. While Dayan continued to argue that war was unlikely and favored calling up
25:32the Air Force and only two divisions, Elazar advocated full-scale army mobilization and the
25:37launch of a full-scale preemptive strike on Syrian forces. On October 6, Mare approved full-scale
25:43mobilizing but rejected a preemptive strike, citing concerns that Israel might be perceived as
25:48initiating hostilities, which would hurt Israel's access to crucial foreign aid and military support,
25:53in particular from the United States. In the resulting conflict, she made it a priority to
25:58inform Washington of her decision. U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger later confirmed Mare's
26:03assessment by stating that if Israel had launched a preemptive strike, Israel would not have received
26:08the backing of the United States. Following the Yom Kippur War, Mare's government was plagued by
26:13in fighting and questions over Israel's lack of preparation for the war. The Agronat Commission
26:18appointed to investigate the war-cleared Mare of direct responsibility, it said about her actions
26:23on Yom Kippur morning. She decided wisely, with common sense and speedily, in favor of the full
26:28mobilization of the reserves, as recommended by the Chief of Staff, despite weighty political
26:33considerations, thereby performing a most important service for the defense of the state. Her party won the
26:38elections in December 1973, but the coalition lost seats and was unable to form a majority.
26:44Mare resigned as prime minister on 11 April 1974, and gave up her Neset seat on 7 June 1974.
26:52She never held office again. She believed that was the will of the people and that she had served
26:56enough time as premier. She believed the government needed to form a coalition. She said,
27:00Five years are sufficient. It is beyond my strength to continue carrying this burden.
27:05Yitzhak Rabin succeeded her on June 3, 1974. On 8 December 1978, Mare died of lymphatic cancer
27:12lymphoma in Jerusalem at the age of 80. She was buried on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.
27:17Until next time, stay curious, stay informed, and keep exploring the world's incredible stories.
27:22I stop at this point today.
27:25Thank you for watching. I hope I added something to you.
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