Binyamin Ben-Eliezer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Brigadier-General (Res.) Binyamin "Fouad" Ben-Eliezer (Hebrew: בנימין "פואד" בן אליעזר) (born February 12, 1936) is an Israeli politician and former soldier. He was the first Iraqi Jew to lead the Israeli Labour party. On May 4, 2006, he became Minister of National Infrastructure in the Kadima led coalition government.
Born in Iraq, Ben-Eliezer made aliyah in 1950.
Ben-Eliezer entered the army in 1954, and became a career soldier. A native and fluent Arabic-speaker, he earned the nickname Fouad while in the army. He served as a Commander in the Six Day War and the Yom Kippur War, and was wounded in the War of Attrition. In 1977, he was appointed First Commanding Officer in Southern Lebanon, serving as the army liaison between the Lebanese Christian militias and Israel. He was Military Governor of Judea and Samaria (1978-81) and was Government Coordinator of Activities in the Administered Areas from 1983-84.
Elected to the Knesset in 1984, Ben-Eliezer was the Minister of Housing and Construction, the Minister of Communications, the Minister of Defense, and the Deputy Prime Minister. He is currently a member of the Labor-Meimad parliamentary group.
Ben-Eliezer is 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 in Jenin. He has advocated halting peace talks with Palestinians until the widespread bloodshed of Israelis ceased, although he believes 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.
He lives in Rishon LeZion, Israel and is married with five children.
In Labour party elections on November 9th, 2005 Binyamin Ben-Eliezer placed third in a vote to determine the party leader. He received 16.82% of the vote which caused the previous leader, Shimon Peres, to narrowly lose the election to Amir Peretz.
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Ehud Barak |
Defense Minister of Israel 2001-2002 |
Succeeded by Shaul Mofaz |
| Labour Party Leader 2001-2002 |
Succeeded by Amram Mitzna |
|
