US President Joe Biden often talks about
his friendship with former Israel Prime Minister Golda Meir with pride. Biden
claimed he met her in 1973. In 2015, he described the meeting as “one of the
most consequential meetings I’ve ever had in my life.”

Also Read: Russia could begin Ukraine offensive in early 2022: US intelligence

But parts of the version of the story Biden
told on Wednesday, at a White House menorah lighting for the Jewish holiday of
Hanukkah, were found to be incorrect.

Most of the things in Biden’s Wednesday
account were very similar to the details in his previous accounts. Biden said
former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was present at the meeting, and
Meir wished to take a photo with Biden. The US President also claimed Meir
apprised him of Israel’s security situation but then assured him that Israel
had a “secret weapon” in its conflicts with its neighbours: “We
have no place else to go.”

But two things in Biden’s Wednesday account
were different from previous accounts, and both of these changes were
incorrect. While one of the falsehoods was obviously an accidental slip; the
other was more substantial.

Also Read: Israel halts use of controversial phone tracking technology to trace omicron cases

“And during the Six-Day War, I had an
opportunity to — she invited me to come over because I was going to be the
liaison between she and the Egyptians about the Suez, and so on and so forth,”
Biden began his speech on Wednesday. Later in the story, he suggested that Meir
had referred to him during the meeting as “Mr. Ambassador.”

Biden
was a 30-year-old senator in 1973

A fact check carried out by CNN stated that
what Biden said about when his meeting with Meir occurred was not correct. The
meeting originally took place about five weeks before the Yom Kippur War in
1973, not during the Six-Day War in 1967. More significantly, Biden misplaced
his importance to Israel at the time. There is no evidence that Meir had any
intention of using him as any sort of “liaison” between Israel and
Egypt.

Also Read: Reports of Kamala Harris getting sidelined emerge amid Symone Sander’s exit

Another fact that clearly showed that Biden
was wrong in his statement was Biden was still a student and Meir was not the
Prime Minister at the time of the six-day war in 1967.

While Biden did visit Egypt in 1973 just
before he visited Israel and told Meir what Egyptian officials had told him,
there is zero indication that Meir wanted to use a 30-year-old American who had
had never previously been to Israel and who had been a senator for only nine months
as an intermediary in a complicated and critical conflict. In fact, an Israeli
government official’s written summary of the meeting said Biden had seemed
inexperienced and that Meir had vehemently rejected his proposal for Israel to
unilaterally withdraw from certain territories as a step toward peace.

An Israeli version of the meeting

Meir died in 1978, and it was impossible to
know precisely what was discussed between her and Biden 48 years ago. But the
Israeli summary of the 100-minute meeting, an internal memo was written by a
government official at the time, provides useful information.

Also Read: As Ukraine tensions grow, Joe Biden, Vladimir Putin to speak on video call

The summary, which was discussed in the
Israeli media in 2020 and is available online in Israel’s state archives, said
Biden acknowledged he was not an expert on Egypt, said Biden was greeted warmly
on his trip to Egypt but had met with only second-tier officials, and said Meir
made extended remarks in which she argued against Biden’s proposal for Israel
to pursue peace by withdrawing from certain territories he didn’t think had
strategic value. (The summary didn’t identify the territory Biden was talking
about but said it wasn’t the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights or Sharm el-Sheikh.)