Several political leaders presented the parallels between the political climate in Shamir's time and today.
In a new memoir, Zalman Shoval recounts his early political life, working with David Ben-Gurion and serving at the UN and as US ambassador.
As defense minister under prime minister Shamir, Arens believed that Israel had to respond militarily to the Iraqi Scud missile attacks on Israel.
Now, as a perplexed America mourns its 41st president, six years after Israel buried its sixth prime minister, this odd couple appears to have actually had in common much more than they realized.