David Ben-Besht (; born 1950) is a general in the

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and ...

. Until 2007 he was commander of the

Israeli Navy The Israeli Navy (, ''Ḥeil HaYam HaYisraeli'', ; ) is the Israel Defense Forces#Arms, naval warfare service arm of the Israel Defense Forces, operating primarily in the Mediterranean Sea theater as well as the Gulf of Eilat and the Red Sea th ...

Biography

David Ben-Besht was born in Israel. He received a BA in Economics and an MBA in Business Administration and Management from the

University of Haifa The University of Haifa (, ) is a public research university located on Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel. Founded in 1963 as a branch of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the University of Haifa received full academic accreditation as an inde ...

and studied at the United States Marine Corps College for a year in the early 1970s.

Naval career

Ben-Besht began his military career as a draftee in 1970 but then volunteered to attend the naval officer's course. Through the 1970s he commanded a number of vessels including a Saar 2 and a

Saar 4 The Sa'ar 4 or ''Reshef'' class were a series of fast attack craft built based on Israeli Navy designs grounded in accumulated experience derived in the operation of "Cherbourg" (Sa'ar 1, Sa'ar 2, and ) classes. Thirteen were built at ...

missile boat. During the 1980s he moved into the area naval instructional, and from there he continued to advance up the

chain of command A command hierarchy is a group of people who carry out orders based on others' authority within the group. Military chain of command In a military context, the chain of command is the line of authority and responsibility along which orders ...

, becoming the Israeli Navy's Chief of Staff in 2002 and commander in September 2004. As Naval Commander, Ben-Besht dealt with

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

arms smugglers moving equipment by boat from

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

into the

Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip, also known simply as Gaza, is a small territory located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea; it is the smaller of the two Palestinian territories, the other being the West Bank, that make up the State of Palestine. I ...

."Navy Chief Ben Ba'ashat announces resignation". ''haaretz.com'' by Amos Harel, 7/26/07
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ben-Besht, David 1950 births Living people Israeli Navy generals University of Haifa alumni