| Yitzhak Ben Yisrael | |
|---|---|
| Date of birth | 26 July 1949 |
| Place of birth | Tel Aviv, Israel |
| Knessets | 17 |
| Party | Kadima |
Professor Yitzhak Ben Yisrael (Hebrew: יצחק בן ישראל, born 26 July 1949) is an Israeli military scientist, general and politician, currently the chairman of the Israeli Space Agency. He is the former head of the Administration for the Development of Weapons and the Technological Industry, which he was appointed to in 1998, and at that point, elevated to the rank of Aluf (Res.). Ben Yisrael is head of the Program for Defense Studies, the Curiel Center and the Tel Aviv Workshop for Science Technology and Security, and a lecturer at the Cohen Institute for the History and Philosophy of Sciences and Ideas and at the School of Government and Policy at Tel Aviv University. He holds several other positions. Between 2007 and 2009 he served as a member of the Knesset for Kadima. Today, Ben Yisrael is member of the International Board of Governors of the Ariel University Center of Samaria.
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Ben Yisrael finished his studies at the Herzliya Hebrew High School in 1967, and was soon enlisted into the IDF as a prospective academic recruit. His last position in the IDF was as the head of the Analysis and Assessment Division of the Israeli Air Force Air Intelligence Directorate's Operations Research Branch. From 2000-2002, he was a member of the board of directors of Israel Aircraft Industries. He is also a member of the board of the Israel Corp.; the research and development advisory board of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries; the Fisher Institute for Air and Space Strategic Studies; the advisory council of the Technion's Neaman Institute for Advanced Studies in Science and Technology; the academic council of Tel-Aviv Academic College of Engineering; the Interdisciplinary Center for Technological Analysis and forecasting (Tel-Aviv Univ.); and the National Committee for Information Society Technology. In 2003, he founded RAY-TOP (Technology Opportunities) Ltd., a Defense conslutancy firm.
Ben Yisrael has been a staunch supporter of —and by extension, critic of the Israeli government's failure to continue to develop and implement after US funding was withdrawn from— the Nautilus Mobile Tactical High Energy Laser (MTHEL) to serve as a central component of the Israeli Air Defense Network against high-trajectory attacks, such as by Katyusha and Qassam rockets from Southern Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, respectively. He reiterated these arguments during the 2006 Israel-Gaza conflict and the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict, and called for increasing the military budget of Israel with a focus on advanced technology, including reviving the MTHEL program.
In the 2006 Knesset elections, he was placed 31st on Kadima's list, but missed out on a seat when the party won only 29 mandates. However, after Shimon Peres resigned his seat in the Knesset to become President, Ben Yisrael replaced him on 25 June 2007. He lost his seat in the February 2009 elections.
Ben Yisrael has received numerous awards for his contributions to Israeli defense and intelligence doctrine. He is the author of Dialogues on Science and Defense (1989) and The Philosophy of Intelligence (1999).