 rabbi binyamin "benny" elon (, born 10 november 1954) is an israeli politician who served as a member of the knesset for moledet and the national union between 1996 and 2009. a ninth-generation jerusalemite, elon has lived in beit el, an israeli settlement in the west bank, for the last twenty years and is married to author and journalist emuna elon. his father menachem elon was the former deputy chief justice of israel and his brother, rabbi mordechai elon, is a prominent and controversial figure in the religious zionist movement. ==biography== born in jerusalem, elon studied at the mercaz harav yeshiva, and kollel haidra in the golan heights, before being ordained as a rabbi in 1978. together with hanan porat, he founded the beit orot talmudic college and became its first dean.benny elon, national union ynetnews, 26 january 2005at the front of israel's culture war boston globe, 22 march 2006 he was first elected to the knesset in 1996 as member of the right-wing moledet party, which advocates voluntary transfer of palestinian population from the west bank and the gaza strip (an ideology shared by elon).israeli expulsion idea gains steam christian science monitor, 6 february 2002 in 1999, the party allied with other right-wing parties to form the national union party. following the assassination of moledet leader rehavam ze'evi in 2001, elon was elected to replace him as party chairman and as tourism minister. he consequently served two terms as minister of tourism, between 2001 and 2002 and again between 2003 and 2004, both in ariel sharon's government. during his second spell in the cabinet, elon attempted to foil ariel sharon's plan to dismiss him from the cabinet for intending to vote against the disengagement plan by going into hiding, cla
1954_births Elon_family Government_ministers_of_Israel Israeli_party_leaders Israeli_settlers Living_people Members_of_the_Knesset Moledet_politicians People_from_Jerusalem Religious_Zionist_Orthodox_rabbis