Moshe Arens (; 27 December 1925 – 7 January 2019) was an Israeli aeronautical engineer, researcher, diplomat, and Likud politician. A member of the Knesset between 1973 and 1992 and again from 1999 until 2003, he served as Minister of Defense three times and once as Minister of Foreign Affairs. Arens also served as the Israeli ambassador to the U.S. and was a professor at the Technion in Haifa.

Early life and education

Arens was born in Kaunas, Lithuania, to a Jewish family. His father was an industrialist and his mother was a dentist. When he was a year old, his family moved to Riga, Latvia, where he attended elementary school. In 1939, Arens and his family emigrated to the United States, where his father had business interests. The family settled in New York City, where Arens attended George Washington High School.

Arens was a leader in the Betar youth movement, and during World War II served in the United States Army Corps of Engineers as a technical sergeant. He studied aeronautical engineering at MIT, graduating in 1947. Following the Israeli Declaration of Independence in 1948, Arens emigrated to Israel and joined the militant group Irgun.

In 1951, he returned to the United States for graduate studies in aeronautical engineering at the California Institute of Technology, where he was a student of Qian Xuesen. He then worked for a time in the aircraft industry.

Academic and research career

In 1957, Arens became professor of aeronautics at the Technion, serving in this position until 1962. After retiring from the government, he devoted himself to researching and commemorating the story of the Jewish Military Union (ŻZW), which fought alongside the better known Jewish Combat Organization (ŻOB) in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Arens has written several articles and a book, Flags over the Warsaw Ghetto, on the revolt. The book has been published in Hebrew, Polish, and English.

Arens was chairman of the International Board of Governors of Ariel University Center of Samaria.

Political career

thumb|Arens meeting with [[United States Secretary of Defense|U.S. Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger in 1983]]

After the Yom Kippur War, Arens entered politics and was elected to the Knesset as a member of Likud in the 1973 elections. After being re-elected in 1977, he became chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. He voted against the Camp David Accords and the Egypt–Israel peace treaty. In 1980, Prime Minister Menachem Begin offered Arens the post of Minister of Defense, but he turned it down due to his disagreement over the terms of the Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty. Arens did not oppose peace with Egypt, but was opposed to certain aspects of the treaty, and thus did not want to have to oversee Israel's evacuation from the Sinai. In an article for Fathom Journal, Arens stated that he was a critic of unilateral withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza, accusing its proponents of suffering from "unilateral withdrawal syndrome".

Personal life

While living in the United States, Arens married Muriel F. Eisenberg from New York City, and she moved to Israel with him. The couple had four children, two boys and two girls: Yigal, Aliza, Raanan, and Ruth. Streets in Ramla, Herzliya and Beit Shemesh are named after him.

Published works

  • Optimum staging of cruising aircraft. Haifa: Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Department of Aeronautical Engineering, 1959.
  • Some requirements for the efficient attainment of range by air-borne vehicles. Haifa: Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Department of Aeronautical Engineering, 1959.
  • A hypersonic ramjet using a normal detonation wave. Jerusalem: Weizmann Science Press of Israel, 1960.
  • Moshe Arens, Statesman and Scientist Speaks Out. (With Merill Simon) New York: Dean Books, 1988.
  • Broken covenant: American foreign policy and the crisis between the U.S. and Israel. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995.
  • Flags Over the Warsaw Ghetto: The Untold Story of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Jerusalem: Gefen, 2011.
  • In Defense of Israel: A Memoir of a Political Life. Washington, D.C.: Brookings, 2018.

Awards and recognition

In 1971, Arens won the Israel Defense Prize. In 2016, Nefesh B'Nefesh awarded him the Bonei Zion Prize.

References

Further reading

  • Moshe Arens, statesman and scientist, speaks out, Merrill Simon, with a foreword by Daniel K. Inouye; edited by Judith Featherman. Middle Island, N.Y.: Dean Books, 1988.
  • Charlie Rose – Moshe Arens
  • Moshe Arens Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs