ISRAEL’S Former Foreign and Defence Minister Moshe Arens, died on Monday at the age of 93. In addition to being a diplomat, minister and member of the right-wing Likud party, Arens was also an aeronautics engineer and professor.

He was born on Dec. 27, 1925, in Kovno, Lithuania.

His family emigrated to the United States in 1939.

There, he served in the army.

In 1948, Arens moved to Israel and joined the Zionist paramilitary organisation, the Irgun.

After having studied engineering at elite U.S. universities, Arens served as deputy director general of the Israel Aircraft Industries between 1962 and 1972, where he contributed to major developments.

Between 1982 and 1983 he served as Israel’s ambassador to the U.S.

Arens was Israel’s defence minister from 1983 to 1984 and from 1990 to 1992.

He served as Foreign Minister from 1988 to 1990, and as defence minister for a third brief time in 1999.

Arens was known to be a mentor to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who called him his “teacher’’ and described a deep bond between their two families.

Calling Arens by his nickname, Misha, he said he saw him “do amazing things to build up the standing of the state of Israel time and again as ambassador in Washington.

He was also a foreign minister, chairman of the Knesset foreign affairs and defence committee, and defence minister.’’

BE

-NAN

– Jan. 7, 2019 @ 12:35 GMT |