Binyamin Ben-Eliezer
Binyamin Ben-Eliezer | |
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Labor Party | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 12 February 1936 Basra, Kingdom of Iraq |
| Died | 28 August 2016 (aged 80) Tel Aviv, Israel |
Binyamin "Fuad" Ben-Eliezer (
Biography
Ben-Eliezer was born in Basra in southern Iraq to an Iraqi-Jewish family, the son of Saleh and Farha Elazar. His name at birth was Fuad Elazar.[1] He immigrated to Israel in 1950, where his name was Hebraized to Binyamin Ben-Eliezer. He was drafted into the Israel Defense Forces in 1954 and became a career soldier.
He lived in Rishon LeZion and was married with five children. Some of his granddaughters live in the United States. He was fluent in Hebrew, Arabic and English.
Military career
Ben-Eliezer was drafted into the IDF in 1954 and served in the
Political career
After retiring from the army, Ben-Eliezer was briefly a member of the Tami Party, a grouping of Israeli Jews of "Mizrahi" or Middle Eastern origin.[3] Ben-Eliezer was first elected to the
Re-elected again in 2003, Ben-Eliezer served as Minister of National Infrastructure from 10 January 2005 until 23 November, when Labor left the government. In the Labor Party leadership election on 9 November 2005, he came third with 16.8% of the vote, behind Amir Peretz and Shimon Peres. He retained his seat again in the 2006 elections, and was appointed Minister of National Infrastructure in Ehud Olmert's government.
In March 2007, Ben-Eliezer was forced to cancel a trip to
He contracted pneumonia in March 2011 and was put into a medically induced coma, eventually making a full recovery.[6] He was re-elected in the 2013 elections, but resigned from the Knesset for health reasons in December 2014, and was replaced by Raleb Majadele.[7]
Ben-Eliezer was a candidate to succeed Shimon Peres as President of Israel in 2014, but withdrew after allegations of corruption surfaced against him.[8]
Views and opinions
Ben-Eliezer was considered a hawk on foreign policy and was one of the main architects of the invasion of Lebanon as well as a strong proponent for Operation Defensive Shield. He advocated halting peace talks with Palestinians until there was an end to violence against Israelis, although he believed once their leadership is able to put a stop to terrorism and abandon it as a political tool there should be "compromise" in final status talks with the Palestinian Authority.
Ben-Eliezer warned in 2012: "So far Palestinians have kept quiet, but one day they will awake and the explosion will happen. People don't accept [being] under military rule for 50 years."[9]
Death
On the afternoon of 28 August 2016, Binyamin died at the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center from kidney disease.[10] He was 80 years old.
See also
References
- ^ "הלב החם של הפוליטיקאי הקר | ישראל היום". ישראל היום (in Hebrew). Retrieved 21 October 2018.
- ^ Jonathan Lis. Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, 1936–2016: From Scared Iraqi Immigrant Boy to an Israeli Political Giant, Haaretz, 28 August 2016.
- ^ "Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, 1936-2016: From scared Iraqi immigrant boy to an Israeli political giant". Haaretz.
- ^ Egypt anger over 1967 'massacre' BBC News, 5 March 2007
- ^ Labor ministers quit gov't after split Ynetnews, 17 January 2011
- ^ Ronen, Gil (8 March 2011). "Ben Eliezer's Condition Worsens". Israel National News. Arutz Sheva. Retrieved 8 March 2011.
- ^ Raleb Majadla Replaces Ben Eliezer in Knesset Israel National News, 14 December 2014
- ^ "Former defense minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer dies at 80". The Times of Israel.
- ^ Edmund Sanders (28 April 2012). "Go-it-alone outlook now shapes Israel's security policy". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 29 April 2012.
- ^ Former Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Fuad Ben-Eliezer Dies at Age 80
External links
- Binyamin Ben-Eliezer on the Knesset website
- Binyamin Ben-Eliezer Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs
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