Born in Lithuania in 1925, Moshe Arens moved to the United States with his parents in 1939 - narrowly evading the tragedy that was to befall the friends and family that he left behind. As a young man, in the aftermath of those harrowing years, Moshe Arens was given the opportunity to build a new life amid the post-war prosperity of the United States - and no one could have blamed him had he chosen to stay. But his heart, and life's ambitions, lay elsewhere. He chose instead - first to join the Irgun, to participate in Israel's War of Independence in 1948 - and then later to move to Israel, and establish a new life in the struggling, youthful Jewish State. As Moshe Arens would later acknowledge,
"My father wasn’t happy about me going to Israel, and he wanted me to stay in the United States and become a millionaire. But this was something that I had to do. When people of a certain age ask me why I went to Israel in 1948, I reply, 'Why didn’t you?' I came out of Lithuania and Latvia where the Germans destroyed everything. Ninety-five percent of the Jews there didn’t survive. In 1948 this was our last stand after the Holocaust; this was the chance that Jews had to show they would survive."[1]Graduating from MIT with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering in 1947, Arens would earn a Master of Science in Aeronautical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 1954 - going on to work at the Curtiss-Wright Corporation before returning to Israel in 1957 serve as a professor in Israel's newly established aeronautics faculty at Haifa's Technion. It was here that he would teach and mentor the generation of Israeli engineers, who would go on to found and develop much of Israel's indigenous aeronautics industry.
Arens would become Israel Aircraft Industries' Vice President of Engineering in 1962, going on to oversee the launch of the Kfir fighter development effort - a feat for which he would be awarded the Israel Defense Prize in 1971. Indeed, as he would acknowledge years later, it was this role that "had filled me with the greatest pride and given me the greatest satisfaction."[2]
Transitioning to politics, as a member of Israel's Likud party, Moshe Arens would be elected to the Knesset for the first time in 1974, serving as Israel's Ambassador to the United States from 1982-1983, as Minister of Defense from 1983-1984, from 1990-1992, and again in 1999, and as Foreign Minister from 1988-1990.
It would be possible to write at great length about Moshe Arens' many accomplishments, both in and out of government. About how he successfully lifted the U.S. embargo on aircraft weapons technologies that had been imposed in the aftermath of the 1982 Lebanon War - accomplished within days of taking office as Defense Minister. About how he championed Israel's Lavi fighter program and supported the development of Israel's indigenous defense industries at every opportunity, or of how decades later as Defense Minister, Moshe Arens would secure the delivery of over a hundred specially outfitted F-16I fighters to Israel - aircraft that would form the backbone of Israel's fighter fleet for the next two decades and beyond. We could enumerate these and many other examples of his contributions to Israel's defense industry and national security. But that is not what Moshe Arens is remembered most for.
What Moshe Arens is most remembered for, was that he was at all times a man who stood by his convictions. Whatever position Moshe Arens took, you could be sure that he could never be bought and never be sold. He was driven not so much by ambition, as by his own moral compass, sound reasoning, and his own deeply held beliefs. He passed up on his first opportunity to become Defense Minister in September of 1980, because he did not want to be remembered by history as the Defense Minister who presided over Israel's withdrawal from the Sinai. Decades later he would resign from Israel's Cabinet, in September of 1987, in protest over the decision to cancel the Lavi fighter program. As Minister of Defense and later as a Minister Without Portfolio, Moshe Arens would campaign to encourage Israel's Arab citizens to volunteer for service in Israel's armed forces - and lobby for budget to be allocated towards improving Israel's Arab communities - because "as Israeli citizens they owed Israel loyalty, and Israel in turn owed them full equality."[3]
At every turn, Moshe Arens took a stand based upon what he perceived to be true and right - for the defense of Israel, for the security and future of the Jewish people, and for the peace and prosperity of all of Israel's citizens.
Moshe Arens passed away on Monday 7 January, at the age of 93. He is survived by his wife Muriel, sons Yigal and Raanan, and daughters Rut and Aliza - as well as numerous grandchildren.
Israel has lost one of its greatest statesmen, one of its most vital leaders this week. A man who lived by his beliefs and never wavered from them. We are all diminished by his passing.
References
[1] Bernard Weinraub, "Plain-Spoken Hard-Liner for Israel," New York Times, Feb. 15, 1983, Part 1, 8.
[2] Moshe Arens, In Defense of Israel (Brookings Institute Press, Washington, 2018), 50.
[3] Moshe Arens, Broken Covenant (Simon & Schuster, New York, 1995), 20.
