Ben-Elissar served for 10 years in the Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, before embarking on a career in politics.
After Ben-Elissar joined the Likud Party, former Prime Minister Menachem Begin appointed him director general of the Prime Minister’s Office in 1977.
Later elected as a Likud legislator, Ben-Elissar served for two terms as the hawkish chairman of the Knesset’s powerful Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
Likud colleague Uzi Landau, who now heads the committee, described Ben-Elissar as a “bitter opponent” of the Oslo accords.
Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appointed Ben-Elissar ambassador to the United States in 1996 and to France in 1998.
Ben-Elissar died as he was preparing to return home, the Foreign Ministry said, where he and other diplomats had been recalled by Barak to discuss the foreign minister position David Levy recently abandoned.
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