Aluf ( 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 admiral. In addition to the ''aluf'' rank, fo ...

Eyal Ben-Reuven (; born 22 May 1954) is a retired major 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 ...

and commander of the

IDF Military Colleges The IDF Military Colleges is a centralized educational unit of the Israeli Defence Forces under the command of the General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, General Staff. Since 2019 its commander is ''aluf'' Itai Veruv. It was established in 19 ...

and senior field commander. He is the former deputy commander of the Northern Command, for which he still serves as a reserve.

Military career

He enlisted in the IDF in 1972 as a member of the Armor Corps. Reuven participated in the 1973

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 fought from 6 to 25 October 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states led by Egypt and S ...

, fighting both near the

Suez Canal The Suez Canal (; , ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, Indo-Mediterranean, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia (and by extension, the Sinai Peninsula from the rest ...

and at the

Golan Heights The Golan Heights, or simply the Golan, is a basaltic plateau at the southwest corner of Syria. It is bordered by the Yarmouk River in the south, the Sea of Galilee and Hula Valley in the west, the Anti-Lebanon mountains with Mount Hermon in t ...

. He commanded an armor battalion the

1982 Lebanon War The 1982 Lebanon War, also called the Second Israeli invasion of Lebanon, began on 6 June 1982, when Israel invaded southern Lebanon. The invasion followed a series of attacks and counter-attacks between the Palestine Liberation Organization ...

. While in the IDF Reuven graduated from the IDF Command and Staff College and later studied at the

U.S. Army War College The United States Army War College (USAWC) is a United States Army, U.S. Army staff college in Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, with a Carlisle, Pennsylvania, Carlisle postal address, on the 500-acre (2 km2) campus of the historic Carlisle B ...

Carlisle, Pennsylvania Carlisle is a Borough (Pennsylvania), borough in and the county seat of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, United States. Carlisle is located within the Cumberland Valley, a highly productive agricultural region. As of the 2020 United States census ...

. He has also received a B.A. in political science 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 ...

. Ben-Reuven was the deputy commander of the Northern Command in the

2006 Lebanon War The 2006 Lebanon War was a 34-day armed conflict in Lebanon, fought between Hezbollah and Israel. The war started on 12 July 2006, and continued until a United Nations-brokered ceasefire went into effect in the morning on 14 August 2006, thoug ...

Retirement from the military

After retirement from the army he became director of the which worked (until 2012) to secure the release of Israeli prisoners of war. After participating in many peace initiatives such as the Geneva Initiative, he joined the

Meretz Meretz (, ; ) was a left-wing political party in Israel. The party was formed in 1992 by the merger of Ratz, Mapam and Shinui, and was at its peak between 1992 and 1996 when it had 12 seats. It had no seats in the Knesset following its failure ...

party. However, he never ran for a spot on the party's list. He quit Meretz in 2015 due to some disagreements with the party's outlook on the Palestinian issue. After discussing the peace process with

Hatnuah Hatnua () was a liberal political party in Israel formed by former Israeli Foreign Minister and Vice Prime Minister Tzipi Livni to present an alternative to voters frustrated by the stalemate in the Israeli–Palestinian peace process. The pa ...

chairwoman

Tzipi Livni Tziporah Malka "Tzipi" Livni (, ; born 8 July 1958) is an Israeli politician, diplomat and lawyer. A former member of the Knesset and leader in the center-left political camp, Livni is a former Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Israel), foreign mini ...

, he joined the

Zionist Union The Zionist Union (, translit. ''HaMaḥaneh HaẒiyoni'', lit. ''the Zionist Camp'') was a centre-left political alliance in Israel. It was established in December 2014 by the Israeli Labor Party and Hatnuah to create a joint electoral list ...

, taking spot 24 on its list (reserved for Hatnuah members). In an interview for ''

The Jerusalem Post ''The Jerusalem Post'' is an English language, English-language Israeli broadsheet newspaper based in Jerusalem, Israel, founded in 1932 during the Mandate for Palestine, British Mandate of Mandatory Palestine, Palestine by Gershon Agron as ''Th ...

'', he said he hoped "to be a warrior for a peace agreement,...first with the Palestinians, then with other countries in the region. I can't guarantee there'll be peace tomorrow, but we must try."Gil Hoffman
Zionist Union candidate aims to be warrior for peace
''The Jerusalem Post'', 10 February 2015

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ben-Reuven, Eyal Living people Israeli generals University of Haifa alumni Israeli Jews Hatnua politicians Zionist Union politicians Members of the 20th Knesset (2015–2019) 1954 births