Benny Peled

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. After a brief term serving in the Jewish Settlement Police as a teenager, 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 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, 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==

In July 13, 2002 Peled died at his home in Ramat HaSharon 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 had just died." He was buried in the military section of the Kiryat Shaul Cemetery. ==References==