Benny Peled ( he, בני פלד; April 18, 1928 – July 13, 2002) was the commander of the

Israeli Air Force The Israeli Air Force (IAF; he, זְרוֹעַ הָאֲוִיר וְהֶחָלָל, Zroa HaAvir VeHahalal, tl, "Air and Space Arm", commonly known as , ''Kheil HaAvir'', "Air Corps") operates as the aerial warfare branch of the Israel Defense ...

during the

Yom Kippur War The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was an armed conflict fought from October 6 to 25, 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Eg ...

and

Operation Entebbe Operation Entebbe, also known as the Entebbe Raid or Operation Thunderbolt, was a counter-terrorist hostage-rescue mission carried out by commandos of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) at Entebbe Airport in Uganda on 4 July 1976. A week ...

. He retired with the rank of

Aluf ''Aluf'' ( he, אלוף, lit=champion or "First\leader of a group" in Biblical Hebrew; ) is a senior military rank in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) for officers who in other countries would have the rank of general, air marshal, or admira ...

(

major general Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a ...

Biography and career

He was born Binyamin Weidenfeld in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...

Mandatory Palestine Mandatory Palestine ( ar, فلسطين الانتدابية '; he, פָּלֶשְׂתִּינָה (א״י) ', where "E.Y." indicates ''’Eretz Yiśrā’ēl'', the Land of Israel) was a geopolitical entity established between 1920 and 1948 i ...

, and Hebraized his name to Peled. His father, Arie Weidenfeld, was a member of a family who came to Israel during the

First Aliya The First Aliyah (Hebrew: העלייה הראשונה, ''HaAliyah HaRishona''), also known as the agriculture Aliyah, was a major wave of Jewish immigration (''aliyah'') to Ottoman Syria between 1881 and 1903. Jews who migrated in this wave came ...

from Romania, and settled in

Rosh Pinna Rosh Pina or Rosh Pinna ( he, רֹאשׁ פִּנָּה, lit. ''Cornerstone'') is a local council in the Korazim Plateau in the Upper Galilee on the eastern slopes of Mount Kna'an in the Northern District of Israel. It was established as Gei ...

. 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 Shaul Tchernichovsky ( he, שאול טשרניחובסקי) or Saul Gutmanovich Tchernichovsky (russian: link=no, Саул Гутманович Черниховский; 20 August 1875 – 14 October 1943) was a Russian-born Hebrew poet. He is c ...

Yehuda Burla Yehuda Burla ( he, יהודה בורלא; born 18 September 1886, died 7 November 1969) was an Israeli author. Biography Burla was born in 1886 in Jerusalem, then part of the Ottoman Empire, to a Sephardi Jewish family with rabbinical roots, o ...

and

Zvi Nishri Zvi Nishri ( he, צבי נשרי; January 4, 1878 – July 22, 1973) was a pioneer in modern physical education in British Mandate for Palestine and later, Israel. Biography Zvi Orloff (later Nishri) was born to a Jewish family in Russia, where ...

, who educated him in the spirit of Zionism and democracy. After a brief term as a teenager with a British Mandate Palestine military police unit, he started as a mechanic in the beginnings of the Israeli Air Force. During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War he had assembled the first

Messerschmitt Bf 109 The Messerschmitt Bf 109 is a German World War II fighter aircraft that was, along with the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, the backbone of the Luftwaffe's fighter force. The Bf 109 first saw operational service in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War an ...

which had arrived in Israel dismantled. He then became a pilot and fought in the Independence war. After the war, he was one of the pioneers of the jet age in the IAF. He commanded the first

Meteor A meteoroid () is a small rocky or metallic body in outer space. Meteoroids are defined as objects significantly smaller than asteroids, ranging in size from grains to objects up to a meter wide. Objects smaller than this are classified as mic ...

, Ouragan and Mystère squadrons. In 1956 Peled participated in

Operation Kadesh The Suez Crisis, or the Second Arab–Israeli war, also called the Tripartite Aggression ( ar, العدوان الثلاثي, Al-ʿUdwān aṯ-Ṯulāṯiyy) in the Arab world and the Sinai War in Israel,Also known as the Suez War or 1956 Wa ...

, the Suez or Sinai campaign, in which his Mystere jet was shot down by Egyptian

anti-aircraft Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...

fire and he became the first Israeli pilot to use an ejector seat. He was rescued by an IAF

Piper Piper may refer to: People * Piper (given name) * Piper (surname) Arts and entertainment Fictional characters Comics * Piper (Morlock), in the Marvel Universe * Piper (Mutate), in the Marvel Universe Television * Piper Chapman, le ...

light aircraft. Peled was a base commander during the 1967

Six-Day War The Six-Day War (, ; ar, النكسة, , or ) or June War, also known as the 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states (primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, S ...

. He became commander of the IAF in 1973 when he was 45 years old. In that capacity he led the Israeli Air Force in the

, successfully overcoming early setbacks. In July 1976 he planned and executed the air component of

, the planned rescue of hostages held by terrorist hijackers in Entebbe, Uganda.

Post-military

In 1978, Peled became the president of

Elbit Systems Elbit Systems Ltd. is an Israel-based international defense electronics company engaged in a wide range of programs throughout the world. The company, which includes Elbit Systems and its subsidiaries, operates in the areas of aerospace, land ...

, a position he held until 1985. Peled was played by

John Saxon John Saxon (born Carmine Orrico; August 5, 1936 – July 25, 2020) was an American actor who worked on more than 200 film and television projects during a span of 60 years. He was known for his work in Westerns and horror films, often playin ...

in the film '' Raid on Entebbe'' (1977).

References

External links

* 1928 births 2002 deaths Israeli Air Force generals Israeli aviators Israeli Jews Israeli people of Romanian-Jewish descent Israeli people of the Yom Kippur War Operation Entebbe People from Tel Aviv Technion – Israel Institute of Technology alumni Burials at Kiryat Shaul Cemetery {{Israel-mil-bio-stub