US Vice President Joseph Biden, addressing the Knesset memorial of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Monday, said that Sharon's north star was the survival of the State of Israel and the Jewish people wherever they resided.
Biden quoted Sharon as saying "Before and above all else I am a Jew. My thoughts are dominated with the Jewish future."
The vice president also quoted the Book of Genesis "Arise and walk the length and breadth of the land" and Sharon did just that.
When a country that has been tested as much as Israel loses someone like Sharon, it is like a death in the family, Biden said.
"We'll never know what the ultimate arc of Sharon's life had been if he had been able to pursue his goal of peace," he said.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu addressed the funeral procession saying Sharon was one of the greatest military men of the Jewish people and the IDF, who was in the founding generation of the state.
"The establishment of Israel depended on a generation of brave fighters to rebuild a legacy of Jewish bravery that seemed to have disappeared. Ariel Sharon had a central role in rebuilding this legacy." Netanyahu said.
"As a minister and a prime minister Sharon stood for our right to defend ourselves and live with security," he said.
President Shimon Peres addressed the funeral procession earlier, saying that Sharon was the shoulder on whom Israel's security rested.
"Your footprints are imprinted on every hill and in every valley. You cultivated the land with your scythe and defended it with your sword," Peres said.
Former British prime minister Tony Blair said at the memorial that Sharon was both a man of war and of peace.
"The state he fought for from the age of fourteen had to be protected. When that meant fighting he fought. When that meant peace he sought peace, Blair said.
Blair shared his general impression of Israeli leaders saying: "All Israeli leaders I've encountered have something unusual and precious - true love of country, state and land."
Settler leader Ze'ev Zambish, who parted ways with Sharon after the former prime minister's decision to withdraw from Gaza also addressed the memorial.
"Your disengagement from your path was painful and difficult, but I have great love for you," Zambish said, in reference to the Gaza withdrawal.
"I had the privilege to work with a hero who built our land," Zambish said.