Moshe Arens’ life is an education in how and why Israel succeeded.

The Lithuanian-born and American-raised Israeli political icon, who died at the age of 93 on Jan. 7, was a veteran of both the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Irgun. Despite waiting until his 30s to settle in Israel, he became one of the Jewish state’s leading aeronautical scientists, as well as an ambassador, defense minister, and foreign minister. He also wrote a history of the right-wing Zionist Beitar youth movement’s role in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.