"Golda" looks back at Israel's controversial former PM
August 24, 2023
Highlights from the GZERO World with Ian Bremmer weekly television show.
It’s hard to imagine today, but for a tense few hours in 1973, it looked like the country of Israel might cease to exist. Half a century later, Israeli-American filmmaker Guy Nattiv has made a new film about Israel's prime minister at the time, Golda Meir, and those fateful few days during the Yom Kippur War. He speaks with GZERO World's Alex Kliment about why he wanted to reframe the former PM's story, who is played by Helen Mirren.
In October 1973, as most Israeli Jews were resting or fasting for the holiest Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, Egypt, and Syria launched a joint invasion from the South and North, nearly overpowering Israel’s badly unprepared defense forces. The war quickly became a proxy conflict between the US and the Soviet Union.
Meir was the country’s first and still only female leader. Meir took charge over a staff of bickering advisers and commanders and managed to turn the tide, saving Israel from destruction and even laying the groundwork for an eventual peace with Egypt.
But the shock of those days remained. The damage was done. Just six months later, after an official inquiry into her conduct of the war, Meir resigned in disgrace. But what really happened, and who was to blame? The film offers a new perspective on this period of Israel's history and the woman at the center of it.
Every week on GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, Ian explains the key global stories of the moment, sits down for an in-depth conversation with the newsmakers and thought leaders shaping our world.
Watch GZERO World on US public television and on GZERO's YouTube channel. GZERO WORLD with Ian Bremmer is a local public television program presented by THIRTEEN PBS.
Keep up with what’s going on around the world - and why it matters.