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I finished reading My Life, the autobiography of Golda Meir.
It may have changed my political views of Israel.
I certainly understand better the internal motivation of Israel's aggressive
defense of its land and people.
I had already understood it in my head, but now I have a more emotional
grasp of what is going on in the psyche of the Zionists.
Golda Mabovitch was born in Russia and spent a few years there. Then her parents moved to Milwaukee where Golda grew up and was educated. She became Golda Meyerson when she married, and later changed her name to the Hebrew name Meir. She became interested in the Socialist/Zionist Movement when she was pretty young. In her twenties she took the radical step of moving to Palestine to live in a kibbutz. The kibbutz communities were socialist experiments where everyone pooled their money and possessions and shared the work. She loved it. But eventually she was invited to join official structures of the 'government' and had to leave the kibbutz.
This is a great history book, telling the story of the making of the State of Israel, it's challenges, its survival, and its sense of peoplehood. It's also the story of a great national leader from her own point of view. She writes about her relationship with other national leaders, especially David Ben-Gurion, but also President Nixon, Kissinger, de Gaulle, and many others.
This 450 page book is written with such clarity and smoothness that it's a joy to read. Meir has a wonderful way of describing the positive characteristics of her co-workers, but at the same time relating how she sometimes disagreed with them and had spats from time to time.
Little Israel (about the size of New Jersey) is surrounded by 20 hostile Arab neighbors. Several of those surrounding countries have tried to destroy Israel in its short history (having become a Nation is 1948). The only way Israel can survive is to be aggressive in its retaliation and sometimes preemptive in its military actions.
I suppose I have a more balanced view of Israel's relationship with its neighbors after reading this book. It is obviously written with a slanted point of view. But it comes from the heart.
There is still the issue of how Israel treats the Palestinians as a question of justice. Israel is a secular State. It doesn't pretend to be a religious State. And as a secular State we shouldn't expect it to follow in the line of the prophetic tradition of the Hebrew Bible. Nations operate on the basis of security and self-interest, not on any spiritual motivation. So, Israel is no different than the USA or any other country in regard to it foreign policies or strategies for survival.
This book is in our church library, though I bought my own used copy. The Middle East situation needs to be understood by hearing from all sides, and seeing it through the eyes of those who are there.
Golda was a spunky leader.
