Benny Peled

Benny Peled (; April 18, 1928 – July 13, 2002) was the commander of the Israeli Air Force during the Yom Kippur War and Operation Entebbe. He retired with the rank of Aluf (major general).

Biography and career

He was born Binyamin Weidenfeld in Tel Aviv, Mandatory Palestine, and Hebraized his name to Peled. His father, Arie Weidenfeld, was a member of a family who came to Israel during the First Aliya from Romania and settled in Rosh Pinna. His father worked in the public works department of the British mandate government and was responsible, among other things, for building airfields. His mother, Yona Weidenfeld (né Gurfinkel), came from Poland in 1925. Peled was the eldest son and had a younger brother and sister.

Peled studied in Gymnasia Herzelia and his teachers included Shaul Tchernichovsky, Yehuda Burla and Zvi Nishri, who educated him in the spirit of Zionism and democracy. He served in the Jewish Settlement Police as a teenager and joined the Haganah. He also studied mechanical engineering at the Technion. In early 1948, he joined Sherut Avir, the Haganah's air service and forerunner of the Israeli Air Force, and completed an aircraft mechanic's course. During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War he assembled the first Messerschmitt Bf 109 which had arrived in Israel dismantled. In 1949, he volunteered for the Israeli Air Force Flight Academy and graduated from its second class. He then served as a Spitfire and P-51 Mustang fighter pilot.

Peled was one of the pioneers of the jet age in the IAF. He was one of the first Israeli fighter pilots selected to fly the Meteor. He commanded the first Meteor, Ouragan and Mystère squadrons.

In 1978, Peled became the president of Elbit Systems, a position he held until 1985.

In popular culture Peled was played by John Saxon in the film Raid on Entebbe (1977).

Death On July 13, 2002 Peled died at his home in Ramat HaSharon at age 74 from a severe lung disease caused by smoking. On his last day, he said goodbye to his family and made a dying wish, asking that upon his death they would take the bell which he had received for his service as the commander of the Air Force, go outside, and announce to the world, while ringing the bell, "A crazy man who thought that the Jews were capable of establishing a state has just died."

He was buried in the military section of the Kiryat Shaul Cemetery.