Moshe
Arens
(1925 - )
Moshe Arens (born December 27, 1925 in Kaunas, Lithuania) is an Israeli politician. He was a member of the Likud party, and served as Minister of Defense three times.
Arens immigrated to the United States with his family in 1939 and became an American citizen. In 1948, when Israel achieved its independence and began fighting wars with the Arabs, Arens immigrated to Israel and became a right-wing activist, joining the Irgun forces, which were led by Menachem Begin, a man who he would work with much in his political career. After the war he entered politics, eventually being elected to the Knesset and becoming chairman of its committee on foreign affairs and defense.
In 1981, Begin, who was prime minister at that time, appointed Arens to be the ambassador to the United States. He left that position in 1983 when he became defense minister for the first time, replacing Ariel Sharon. In 1984 he became minister without portfolio in the national unity government. In December 1988, in the government of Yitzhak Shamir, he became foreign minister until June 1990, when Shamir appointed him defense minister again. He held that position until 1992, when Likud lost the election. He continued to be a hardliner in Israel's relations with the Palestinians and Arabs.
Arens then retired from politics until 1999, when he challenged his protege Benjamin Netanyahu for leadership of Likud. Though he received only 18% of the vote, Netanyahu brought him into the government as defense minister in January 1999, sacking Yitzhak Mordechai. He retired from politics permanently later in 1999 when Likud lost the election.
Significance in the State and Likud
Moshe Arens is considered by many to have been the Likud's ideological anchor on the right. One of the founding members of Begin's Herut ("Freedom") Party in 1948, Arens helped Begin seize the mantle and inheritance of the founder of Revisionist Zionism, Vladimir Jabotinsky, who had died in 1940 unexpectedly and without a clear heir. Arens had been the representative in North America in the 1940s for the movement's youth organization Betar. He voted against the Camp David Accords, and was one of the chief opponents of the Wye Plantation Agreement.
When Begin resigned in 1983 from his position as premier of the State of Israel, a clear rivalry immediately took hold between Yitzhak Shamir and Arens, then still serving as ambassador in Washingoton. Shamir had always been considered the more seasoned political boss, whereas Arens had played the dignified statesman. Arens hoped to follow in the footsteps of another ambassador to the US who had jumped into the prime minister's seat, Yitzhak Rabin (1974-77, 1992-95). The fact that Rabin had pole vaulted over Shimon Peres, the Labour Party's equivalent of Shamir, also strengthened his chances.
But as chairman of the Knesset Shamir automatically was elected by the body to succeed Begin until the May 1984 general elections. This gave Shamir a leg up that he used to cement his already massive influence among Likud party bosses in nation's party branches, leading to his sweeping defeat of Arens in the party's primary vote. The Likud failed to retain complete control in the Knesset that year and was forced to share power with Peres' Labour Party.
Throughout the next year and a half Arens served as Minister of Defense. His work was impeded by continued problems resulting from Israel's occupation of southern Lebanon. He also met opposition to his work in revamping the Israeli Air Force by introducing the new IAI Lavi fighter jet, a project he had personally led since the 1980. Then-Deputy Chief of Staff Ehud Barak of Israel's armed forces, appointed in 1987, opposed the project. By that time the Lavi had cost the Defense Ministry 6.4 billion dollars in funding for a development that had yet to bear fruit. Eventually others in the political establishment were swayed to back the view, including Chief of Staff Dan Shomron.
In 1984 Arens' power shrank significantly while that of other grassroots and populist Likud bosses like David Levy and Moshe Katzav rose. This was partly due to their support of Shamir in the showdown for the Likud nomination. In both the Peres-led national unity coalition (1984-86) and the Shamir-led one (1986-88) Arens was a minister without portfolio.
In 1988 Arens once again failed in his challenge to Shamir. Nevertheless he was boosted by the election of his protege Netanyahu to the Knesset. Netanyahu had been one of Arens' most valuable assets in the embassy in Washington, and Arens had rewarded this by arranging the appointment of the young diplomat in 1983 as Israel's UN delegate.
Though always viewed as a more principled alternative to Shamir, Arens never materialized as a worthy opponent of his nemesis. Shamir still recognized him as a threat, and in fact responded to Netanyahu's entrance into politics by backing his own young protege Tzahi Hanegbi. Arens was threatened by the reputation he had as a hardliner, whereas many Likud voters felt that the settlement movement and other rightist enterprises could be better advanced by the more seasoned and pragmatic Shamir.
In 1988 Shamir won the election to become the uncontested prime minister, having rotated with Peres in the previous Knesset term. For Arens this meant becoming foreign minister, a position that he excelled at, though the challenge of fending of criticism of Israel's deterence policies in the First Intifadeh proved too challenging even for him. Arens also was harassed by the embarrassing Jonathan Pollard espionage fiasco, which steepened the already steady decline in relations between Israel and the US that had begun during the invasion of Lebanon in 1982.
In 1990, Arens surprisingly was thrust into the spotlight again when Minister of Finance Peres and Defence Minister Yitzhak Rabin both resigned and attended to organize a majority in the Knesset for the election of Peres as premier. Arens occupied Rabin's chair, a move that almost led to the retirement of Ehud Barak from the armed forces. Barak feared that Arens held a grudge against him for the Lavi affair, and would pass him over for chief of staff. Arens instead defied predictions and appointed Barak over his main competitor Yitzhak Mordechai. Relations between the two soon became excellent, despite their contrasting politics and Barak's clear preference of the Labour Party. In 1992 this successful period as Defence Minister came to an end when Rabin swept Labour into power in the general election and reoccupied the Defence Ministry. Arens' periods in the ministry can be remembered mostly for continuing Rabin's policies of revamping IDF combat units for urban warfare during the First Intifada.
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