On June 20, 1956, Golda Meir replaced Moshe Sharett as Israel’s foreign minister, and on the Fourth of July, the 180th anniversary of American independence, she wrote a letter to Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, still signing with her old name of Golda Myerson. Israel’s leaders usually sent formal greetings for the Fourth of July to the Administration, but this time Golda used the opportunity to approach Dulles on a subject which greatly occupied the minds of the Israeli leaders – the search for arms to counter the major Czech-Egyptian arms deal in September 1955.
The U.S. government had sold Israel only outmoded or defensive weapons and Sharett met twice with Dulles in October 1955 to request American arms. Dulles was reluctant to change policy, as he still hoped to win over the Egyptian leader, Gamal Abdel Nasser, to the side of the West in the Cold War, and to prevent an arms race with the USSR.
In March 1956, Dulles encouraged France and Italy to supply Israel with arms, but the process was slow, and Golda hoped to convince Dulles to directly supply American arms to Israel. U.S. policy remained unchanged until the mid-1960s when President Johnson agreed to openly provide offensive weapons – tanks and planes – to Israel. Meanwhile, Nasser remained hostile toward the United States and nationalized the Suez Canal, provoking the 1956 Suez War.
Source: Israel State Archives