Golda Meir’s Leadership in the Yom Kippur War

In the first half of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Golda Meir and her colleagues demonstrated consistent leadership based on determination to provide the IDF with the necessary time, weapons and ammunition, and backing for operations to rescue Israel from the predicament in which it found itself during the first hours of the war, and to place it in a better position militarily in the negotiations expected after the war ended. She did not despair and give up even when it seemed that her efforts would come to nothing, when it seemed that the Security Council was about to declare a premature cease-fire, and when the American administration dragged its feet and refrained from sending arms shipments during the first week of the war. The policy of the Israeli political leadership largely achieved the goals at which it aimed–the IDF received the resources and the backing it needed, and succeeded in significantly changing the face of the campaign in Israel’s favor.