Mr. Biden and Begin once clashed, in a private June 1982 session with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Mr. Biden, 39, lectured the 68-year-old Begin over Israeli settlements, jabbing his finger at the prime minister and banging his fist on the desk. Mr. Biden warned that eroding support for Israel threatened U.S. aid. Israel was at war in Lebanon and far more dependent on American assistance than it is today.

Begin wouldn't be cowed. "Don't threaten us with cutting off aid to give up our principles," he shouted back, according to Time magazine. Former Sen. Bob Packwood of Oregon later recalled that Begin went further: "I'm not a Jew with trembling knees," he reminded Mr. Biden.

In the lore that has since developed, Begin's response supposedly continued: "I am a proud Jew with 3,700 years of civilized history. Nobody came to our aid when we were dying in the gas chambers and ovens. Nobody came to our aid when we were striving to create our country. We paid for it. We fought for it. We died for it. We will stand by our principles. We will defend them. And, when necessary, we will die for them again, with or without your aid."

We don't know exactly what Begin said in the closed session. But the meeting was fiery. "I've never seen such an angry session with a foreign head of state." said Massachusetts Sen. Paul Tsongas.

"It was a lively discussion," Mr. Begin told the press afterward. "If you want to use other adjectives . . ." He paused, then reconsidered: "Lively is enough."