Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Israel To Name Anti-Missile Facility for Pro-Israel Senator of Hawaii

Israel will name an Arrow anti-missile facility for Daniel Inouye, the longtime Hawaii senator who championed Israel in the U.S. Senate.

The Jerusalem Post first reported the naming last week, saying it was the first time that Israel had named a military facility for a non-Israeli. The naming will take place Jan. 14.

Inouye, who died in December 2012, was a Democratic senator for 50 years. He sold State of Israel Bonds in Hawaii in the 1950s before becoming a lawmaker and was active in pro-Israel issues during his long tenure in Congress.

For a time, Inouye considered conversion to Judaism. His interest in Israel stemmed from learning of the fate of the Jews in Europe after his own military service in Italy in the 442nd, a legendary unit of Japanese Americans, which earned him medals for his heroism.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee praised Israel for naming the base after Inouye, a top appropriator during his years in the Senate.

“The naming of this site after the late Senator Inouye is very appropriate since he deeply understood the importance of the U.S.-Israel relationship, and he worked tirelessly and effectively to ensure that America’s ally, Israel, had the necessary resources to defend her people, particularly in the area of missile defense,” said the group’s spokesman, Marshall Wittmann.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.