LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Golda Meir: Foreign Minister
built 236 days ago
After being elected in 1949 to the Knesset as a Mapai party member, Golda Meir was appointed minister of labor. She began large scale housing and road building programs, and supported a policy of unrestricted immigration.
Source:
In 1949 Golda was elected to the first Knesset (Israel’s Parliament, named after the Knesset Hagedolah, the “Great Assembly” of sages who collated the Hebrew Bible after the return from Babylon in the fifth century BCE). Despite the opposition of some religious members to the appointment of a woman, she became Minister for Labour. She introduced the National Insurance Act and other social legislation, and she was ... largely responsible for the enormous housing and infrastructure projects needed to cope with the massive waves of immigration which followed independence.
Source:
From time to time recently, Mrs. Meir has let intimates know that she would like to have the succession problem settled. Following her wishes—as they usually do—leaders of the party, including Foreign Minister Abba Eban, Deputy Premier Yigal Alton, Minister Without Portfolio Israel Galili, Party Secretary-General Arie Eliav and about ten city bosses, finally met at Mayor Rabinowitz's home to settle the question. The only other real contender besides Dayan and Sapir that the group had to consider was Allon, but within party circles he does not have Sapir's clout. When Golda Meir received the news that the decision had gone to Sapir, she was described as gratified.
Source:
As foreign minister, Meir promoted ties with the newly-established states in Africa in an effort to gain allies in the international community.[13]But she ... 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."[14]
Source:
Throughout her political career, Meir repeatedly shocked the world with her refusal to flaunt her position - she always flew coach and even washed her own laundry in hotels. And the way she discussed Israel’s security conditions with both foreign diplomats and local leaders in her kitchen, while in an apron, baking her renowned chocolate cake created the endearing term: Golda’s Kitchen Cabinet. She ... attracted attention with the strength of her liberal political convictions, such as when she broke the color line in Rhodesia, insisting upon exporting Israeli technical and agricultural products to Africa.
Source:
Prime Minister Meir used her "shopping list" to boil down her nation's basic needs—specifically, in her case, military supplies. She went to meetings prepared, knowing what was needed, what was happening and how to convince others that something must be done.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Foreign Minister