Binyamin Ben - Eliezer Binyamin Fuad Ben - Eliezer ( , , born 12 February 1936 ) is an Israeli politician and former military officer of Iraqi origin . He currently serves as a member of the Knesset for the Labor Party , and has held several ministerial posts , including Minister of Industry , Trade and Labour , Minister of Defense , Deputy Prime Minister . Biography . Born in Basra in southern Iraq , as Fuad , Son of Saleh and Farha . Ben - Eliezer made aliyah to Israel in 1950 , hebraizing his First name to Binyamin . He entered the Israel Defense Forces in 1954 , and became a career soldier . 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 militia s and Israel . He was Military Governor of Judea and Samaria ( 1978 – 81 ) and was Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories from 1983 until 1984 . He completed his military service with the rank of Brigadier General . He was first elected to the Knesset in 1984 on the Yahad list , which merged into the Alignment during his first term . He was re - elected in 1988 and 1992 , by which time the Alignment had become the Labor Party . On 13 July 1992 he was appointed Minister of Housing and Construction in Yitzhak Rabin ' s government . He retained his seat in the 1996 elections , but lost his place in the cabinet as Labor went into opposition . Following Ehud Barak ' s victory in the 1999 Prime Minister election , Ben - Eliezer returned to the cabinet as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Communications . From 11 October 2000 until 3 March 2001 he also served as Minister of Housing and Construction . After Ariel Sharon ' s victory in the special election for Prime Minister in 2001 , Ben - Eliezer was appointed Minister of Defense in the national unity government , and served as Labor Party leader following Barak ' s resignation until Amram Mitzna was elected in 2002 . He left the post on 2 October 2002 when Labor withdrew from the coalition . 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 Egypt after being warned by Egyptian intelligence that he could be arrested , when Egyptian media and opposition implicated him in the ' massacre ' of 250 Egyptian POW s during the Six - Day War following an Israeli documentary . However , the allegations are disputed by both Binyamin Ben - Eliezer and the documentary film - maker Ron Edelist . Placed eighth on the party ' s list , he was re - elected again in the 2009 elections and appointed Minister of Industry , Trade and Labour . He resigned from the cabinet after Ehud Barak left the Labor Party to establish Independence in January 2011 . 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 . 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 . He lives in Rishon LeZion and is married with five children . Some of his granddaughters live in the United States of America . He is fluent in Hebrew , Arabic and English . He contracted pneumonia in March 2011 and was put into a medically induced coma . 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 . "