Helen Mirren Prepares for War as Israel's 'Iron Lady' Golda Meir

On Oct. 6, 1973, Egypt and Syria simultaneously invaded Israel from the east and west during the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur. Supported by every other Arab nation and the Soviet Bloc, their goal was to retake the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights that Israel had captured in the 1967 Six-Day War.

Israel's prime minister that day was both the only woman ever to hold the office and to lead a Middle Eastern country: Golda Meir. Despite having only a few hours to prepare for the invasion, she would turn an existential threat to Israel into a crushing defeat for the Arab coalition.

Filmmaker Guy Nattiv's new biopic about Meir, "Golda," is set during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Award-winning actress Helen Mirren ("1923") portrays Meir as she navigates a war that would kill 2,600 Israeli troops and wound another 11,000.

"Surrounded, isolated, and frustrated by the infighting of her all-male cabinet, with little hope of rescue, one woman is in a race against time to save millions of lives on both sides of the conflict," reads the film's official description.

Without Meir, known as the "Iron Lady," there would likely be no Israel today. As the Jewish population of Mandatory Palestine fought to create a Jewish state during the1948 independence movement, Israeli leaders found themselves low on the funds needed to continue fighting. Looking toward America's Jewish population, Israeli leaders believed they could only raise a disappointing $7 million for the war effort. Meir brought home $30 million.

When Meir took office as Israel's fourth prime minister in 1969, Israel controlled the Sinai Peninsula, captured during the 1967 Six-Day War. The negotiated end of the war didn't do anything to actually end the fighting. For more than three years, Egypt, Jordan, Syria and the Palestine Liberation Organization attacked Israeli positions in the Sinai and on Israel's eastern border.

Meir's strategy during this "War of Attrition" was to respond to Arab attacks with disproportionately large counterstrikes. When Egyptian commandos raided an Israeli outpost in the Sinai, Israel special forces completely destroyed Egypt's military base on Green Island. After Egypt's Navy sank an Israeli fishing boat, Meir ordered the air force to launch a bombing campaign all along the Suez Canal, sinking two Egyptian warships. This kind of retaliation carried on until 1970.

Despite Egypt and Syria's surprise attack during Yom Kippur in 1973, Israel halted their advance after just three days. A counteroffensive on the Syrian front pushed the fighting all the way to Damascus within the first week. On the Egyptian front, an Israeli counterattack forced the Egyptians back across the Suez Canal. The Israelis followed, leading to the complete encirclement of Egypt's Third Army and an advance on Cairo.

That advance was stopped some 62 miles away from the Egyptian capital after an international ceasefire ended the fighting. The entire war lasted just 19 days, but left thousands killed and wounded on both sides.

The Yom Kippur War "is the Vietnam of Israel ... So you didn't get a sweet, clean picture ... it's a very tough and hard look at the war," director Guy Nattiv said in a press conference at the Berlin Film Festival. "Every soldier that dies, Golda takes it to her heart."

Bleecker Street's "Golda," starring Helen Mirren and Liev Schreiber, is due to open in theaters everywhere Aug. 25, 2023.

-- Blake Stilwell can be reached at blake.stilwell@military.com. He can also be found on Facebook, Twitter, or on LinkedIn.

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