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 Binyamin
Ben-Eliezer (1936-)
Former Defense Minister, 2001-2002
By Steven Klein
Binyamin “Fuad” Ben-Eliezer was born in Iraq in 1936. He
immigrated to Israel in 1950. He currently resides in Rishon LeZion and
is married, with five children.
Ben-Eliezer joined the IDF in 1954. He fought as an enlisted soldier
in the Sinai Campaign (“Mivza Kadesh”) in 1956. He graduated
from the IDF Command and Staff College and the Israel National Defense
College as an officer. He served as a commander during the Six-Day War
and in the War of Attrition with Egypt in the late 1960s, during which
he was injured.
In 1977 he became the IDF liaison between Israel and the Christians in
Lebanon. The following year he was appointed Military Governor of Judea
and Samaria, which post he held until 1981. He served as Government Coordinator
of Activities in the Administered Areas from 1983 until 1984, when he
retired from the IDF.
Ben-Eliezer immediately entered politics and was elected to the Knesset
in 1984 with the Yahad Party. After the elections, Yahad merged into the
Labor Alignment, which held the premiership under Shimon Peres. After
Labor’s return to power in 1992, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin appointed
Ben-Eliezer Minister of Housing and Construction, which he held until
Likud defeated the Labor Party in the elections of 1996.
He returned to power as Deputy Prime Minster under Barak 1999-2001, while
holding the portfolios of Communication and later Housing and Construction.
After Ariel Sharon defeated Barak in the 2001 elections, the Labor party
joined him in a new National Unity Government. Ben-Eliezer was appointed
Defense Minister. He faced the difficult task of pursuing the war against
terror but still representing the peace-camp interests of the Labor Party.
Ben-Eliezer was officially elected leader of the Labor party in December
2001, defeating his main challenger, Avraham Burg, who represented the
younger generation of Labor leaders lacking extensive military backgrounds.
Despite election, Ben-Eliezer came under a lot of attack from the dovish
faction in Labor as the violence intensified in early 2002. Former Deputy
Foreign Affairs Minister and Peres-ally Yossi Beilin made a bid and failed
to force Ben-Eliezer to withdraw from the government in January 2002 during
a party conference that month. Pressure intensified after Israel launched
Operation Defensive Wall in the wake of the Netanya Park Hotel suicide
bombing in March that killed 29 Seder guests. The IDF severely damaged
the Palestinian terror infrastructure but also created devastation and
chaos in many civilian areas. The doves argued that Ben-Eliezer was implementing
the policies of a right-wing government that were not serving the interests
of peace.
Haim Ramon then led the faction of MKs to pull out of the government.
He also declared his candidacy to replace Ben-Elizer as Labor party leader.
In the summer, Amram Mitzna also threw his hat into the race in the summer
to challenge Ben-Eliezer from his political left.
In October 2002, Ben-Eliezer started becoming more at odds with his right-wing
counterparts in government. In October, he ordered the dismantling of
an illegal outpost, Havat Gilad, and caught a lot of flak as soldiers
had to break the Sabbath in order to fulfill their orders. He then announced
that Israel had exhausted its military option and had no choice but to
return to the negotiating table. Finally, he withdrew support for the
proposed 2003 budget, attacking it for favoring settlements over more
needy sectors such as development towns inside the Green Line. Last minute
negotiations failed and the Labor party pulled out of the government,
which triggered the dissolution of the Knesset in November and the call
for new elections in January 2003. However, Ben-Eliezer would first have
to defeat Mitzna and Ramon in the primaries.
Biography Links:
MFA http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/go.asp?MFAH02i40
Knesset http://www.knesset.gov.il/mk/eng/mk_eng.asp?ID=20
Labor Party [Hebrew - select Hamitmodedim] http://www.avoda.org.il/
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