Commanders and leaders

Golda Meir, Israeli Prime Minister

Golda Meir, March 1973.

Born in Kiev in 1898, Golda Meir was the first woman to become Prime Minister of Israel.

In 1948, she was among the figures who signed the Declaration of Independence of the State of Israel. After serving as an ambassador to the USSR and the Minister of Labor from 1949 to 1956, she became Foreign Minister in the cabinet of David Ben-Gurion (Israeli politician, 1886-1973). She asked for permission to change her last name (Mabovitch) into the Hebrew name Meir, meaning “illuminate”.

In 1969, she became Prime Minister of Israel. Her term was marked by the Israeli victory and the extent of her conquests during the Six-Day War. Unfortunately, in 1973, the failure of Israeli intelligence to properly report the Arab attack during the Yom Kippur celebrations caused a major political upheaval. Indeed, while the agent Ashraf Marwan – it is still unclear today whether he was also working for Egypt – allegedly warned the director of the Mossad that an imminent attack was possible, the information was not directly transmitted. Feeling guilty for not triggering a preemptive attack, Golda Meir resigned on 11 April 1974, and Yitzhak Rabin (1922-1995) took over. Nicknamed the “grandmother of Israel”, she died in Jerusalem in 1978.

Anwar Sadat, Egyptian statesman

Anwar Sadat, January 1980.

Born in Egypt in 1918, Anwar Sadat was elected President of the Arab Republic of Egypt in 1970. Before him, his predecessor, Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein (1918-1970) had already intended to destroy the Jewish state. Wanting to achieve this aim, he set up a strategy to restore the Arab unity that had been undermined by the Six-Day War, in order to be stronger against Israel. To do this, Nasser Hussein decided to set up an Egyptian economic and military force. On his death, he was succeeded by Anwar Sadat. Unlike his predecessor, who led a defense policy centered on the Arab cause, the new Egyptian President primarily served the interests of Egypt as a nation.

In 1973, alongside Syria, he launched hostilities against Israel in an attempt to re-capture the Sinai, a territory which had been lost six years ago in the Six-Day War. Even though his country was defeated militarily and territorially at the end of the Yom Kippur War, for Anwar Sadat, the Arab honor lost during that year was restored anyway.

In 1977, he became the first Arab leader to visit Israel to meet with Prime Minister Menachem Begin (1913-1992), to find common ground. But many Arab authorities viewed the visit as a provocation. The following year, he participated in the signing of the Camp David Accords for peace in the Middle East: Arab unity against the Jewish state was thus broken. That same year, he received the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1979, the Camp David Accords were followed by the first peace treaty between Egypt and Israel.

On 6 October 1981, President Anwar Sadat was assassinated by members of the army belonging to the Egyptian jihad, who refused the agreement with Israel.