World: MIDDLE EAST: THE WAR AND THE WOMAN

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became her closest friends, Myerson her fiance. She was teaching in a Yiddish school when she was introduced to Ben-Gurion, then 30, who was touring the U.S. in behalf of Zionism. After the meeting, Golda joined the Labor Zionist movement. She and Myerson were married in 1917, and in 1921 she persuaded him to sail to Palestine with her as a member of the third aliyah, or wave of immigration. In the British mandate, they joined the kibbutz Merhavia, ten miles south of Nazareth, where she became an almond picker. Malaria was common. So was sniping from Arab villages.

No Hurry

Golda later moved to Jerusalem and tried to concentrate on raising her son Menachem and her daughter Sara. Unhappy in a purely domestic role, she went back to work as secretary of the Women's Labor Council. As the Jews pressed toward independence, Golda's apartment became a planning center for illegal immigration. Golda was sent to the U.S. to raise money for weapons. In less than three months she collected $50 million, and Ben-Gurion referred to her as "the Jewish woman who got the money that made the state possible." On the eve of Israel's nationhood, she went to Amman to see Jordan's King Abdullah. Dressed as an Arab woman, she secretly crossed the Arab lines. Abdullah asked her to delay proclaiming the state. She replied: "We have been waiting for 2,000 years. Is that hurrying?"

The Myersons were separated by 1945; he returned to the U.S., then moved back to Tel Aviv, where he died in 1951. When Ben-Gurion requested that his Cabinet members all take Hebrew names, Foreign Minister Golda Myerson chose Meir, which means "illuminates."

Mrs. Meir has served in many posts, from Israel's Minister in Moscow to Minister of Labor. She became best known as Ben-Gurion's Foreign Minister, supporting his philosophy of strong retaliation against Arab attacks with such ferocity that he called her "the only man in my Cabinet." One episode still rankles: in 1957, after Israel's sweep through the Sinai, she had to rise in the United Nations and announce that Israel would withdraw, as the great powers had demanded.

Deciding that "I want to be able to live without a crowded calendar," Mrs. Meir in 1966 gave up all assignments except the post of secretary-general of the Mapai, the Israeli labor party. She managed to spend more time with Daughter Sara and her family in the peach, pear and gladiolus-growing kibbutz of Rivivim near Beersheba, where the kibbutzniks recently presented their Premier with a two-room apartment. Son Menachem is a cellist who has studied with Pablo Casals and is now completing his studies at the University of Connecticut.

Crowded Calendar

The rural idyl ended last February when Levi Eshkol died. Mrs. Meir had kept close watch on party politics as secretary-general. "All government decisions," went one joke, "are cooked in Golda's kitchen." Mrs. Meir agreed to become Premier, but younger members of the party questioned her age. "Seventy is not a sin," said Golda flatly. As Premier, Golda happily went back to crowded calendars and 14-hour days. She runs her Cabinet like a front-line officer, thumping the table for order and making blunt and rapid decisions. "She listens to everyone," says an aide, "but she interrupts if they ramble. She has