This is a cartoon by the illustrator Adar Darian, published in the October 2, 1969 edition of the newspaper Davar. In the cartoon US President Richard Nixon is shaking hands with Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir. Meir is smiling and holding the hand of a little boy who is wearing a kova tembel (the hat worn by Israelis in the first half of the twentieth century), thus symbolising his Sabra status. Nixon is warmly greeting Meir, evident by the way he is using both hands in his handshake. The caption reads: “It was very nice to meet you, Mrs. Meir. Now I understand what a Yiddishe Mama is.” The cartoon was published at the end of the Golda Meir’s first state visit to the United States as prime minister. The meeting with Nixon took place on September 26, 1969. Meir spoke very warmly of Nixon, and during the meeting she achieved on an agreement for military aid in exchange for US political initiatives and recognition of the United States’ leading role in resolving the conflict in the region. The most significant achievements of her visit were the understandings reached on the nuclear issue and Nixon’s agreement to stop US pressure on Israel. The cartoon is accompanied by a brief and very sympathetic article about the prime minister and her important role in representing the interests of the State of Israel. During Golda Meir’s tenure as prime minister, Israeli relations with the United States were very close.
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Golda Meir – Golda Meir was Israel’s fourth prime minister. Born in Kiev in 1898, Golda moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin when she was eight years old. In Milwaukee, she became very active in a Zionist youth movement. She married Morris Myerson in 1921, and the couple moved to Israel to live on Kibbutz Merhavia. Golda was very involved in the Histradrut (the trade union movement) and took various leadership positions in the organisation. In the years leading up to Israel’s independence, Golda began to play a role in diplomacy, culminating in a secret trip, dressed as an Arab, to try to convince King Abdullah of Jordan to refrain from attacking Israel after the state was declared. In June 1948, Golda became Israel’s first ambassador to Russia and was elected to the Knesset for the Mapai party in the first Knesset elections in 1949. In 1956 she became Israel’s foreign minister, and later, after the death of Levi Eshkol in 1969, she became the prime minister and was then re-elected in 1973. The 1973 Yom Kippur War caught Golda Meir’s government and the IDF unprepared. Israel was victorious in the war, but the trauma of the initial shock caused much political unrest, and the Agranat Commission was appointed to investigate the war. The commission’s report did not directly blame Golda for the lack of preparation, but she nevertheless resigned as prime minister in 1974. Golda Meir died on December 8, 1978 and is buried on Mount Herzl.
