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.
