At the Israel Hayom Forum for US-Israel Relations at the Davidson Center in Jerusalem on Thursday, the late Defense Minister and Israeli Ambassador to the US Moshe Arens, who died in January, was honored posthumously.
Arens was born in Lithuania in 1925 and moved to the United States in 1939. After serving in the US Army, he moved to the Jewish state shortly after its founding in the late 1940s.
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Entering the Knesset in 1974, he quickly became a prominent Likud lawmaker and served in various high-profile positions in Israeli politics.
Arens' ally early in his career was fellow Likud MK Yitzhak Shamir (who would go on to serve four terms as prime minister). A year later, when then Prime Minister Menachem Begin offered Arens the defense portfolio, he refused, saying he didn't want to be in charge of dismantling Jewish settlements in the Sinai Peninsula as part of the peace treaty.
In 1982, he was tapped for the position of ambassador to the United States, and in 1983 he became defense minister after Ariel Sharon had to step down over his conduct in Operation Peace for the Galilee.
As defense minister, he also pushed forward the IAI Lavi project, which would have allowed Israel to manufacture its own fighter jet. Although the project was ultimately terminated before completion, it helped Israel obtain important technological know-how.
He would go on to serve as a minister without portfolio (in charge of minority affairs) and then foreign minister before returning to the Defense Ministry in 1990.
Arens studied aeronautical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and ultimately became a professor at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. He was also awarded the Israel Defense Prize.
Israel Hayom publisher Dr. Miriam Adelson presented a citation of honor to Arens' daughter, Aliza.
Aliza accepted the award in its velvet-lined box, and in a brief speech told the audience that US-Israel relations had always been close to her father's heart.
"My father devoted himself to helping the young Israeli democracy base itself," she said, adding that he had always been proud of Israel and proud of his service.
"It is an honor to accept, in the name of my family – in Jerusalem, the city where I was married – this award," she said.
Aliza thanked Dr. Miriam Adelson and her husband, Sheldon Adelson, for their close relationship over the years.
"I'm sure my father is smiling with satisfaction," Aliza said, "and looking down and saying, 'Keep up the good work.'"
