Eliyahu Ben-Elissar (born Eli Gottlieb on August 12, 1932, in Radom, Poland) was an Israeli diplomat, politician, journalist, historian, and author. The youngest of three siblings—sister Diana (1923-08-07) and brother Nathan (1925-11-21)—he was born to foundry owner Eliezer Gottlieb and Hela Gottlieb (née Dobrzynska). His family was devastated by the Holocaust: his father died in Flossenbürg concentration camp, and his mother perished in a post-war road accident in Germany. Orphaned at 14, he immigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1942 at age 10 with the Radomer Graucher family, joined the Irgun youth movement, and attended Bilu School in Tel Aviv. His Holocaust experiences profoundly shaped his hard-line political views. He earned a BA in Social Sciences and MA in International Law from the University of Paris, and a PhD from the Graduate Institute of International Studies at the University of Geneva. Ben-Elissar served in the IDF until 1965 and reportedly worked as a spy, which influenced his political stance. After his PhD, he worked as a journalist and authored books in Hebrew and French on Israeli-Arab wars and Third Reich diplomacy. A longtime confidant and loyalist of Menachem Begin in the Herut/Likud party, he served as Herut party spokesman post-1965, Director General of the Prime Minister's Office (1977-1980), the first Israeli Ambassador to Egypt after the peace treaty (1980-1981), Knesset Member for Likud (1981-1996, re-elected 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996), Chair of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee (1981-1984; 1988-1992), Ambassador to the United States (1996-1998), and Ambassador to France (1998-2000). A staunch advocate for Israeli retention of the West Bank (Judea/Samaria), he had no documented controversies, scandals, legal issues, or financial details. In his personal life, he was first married to Diana (née Dudel) and later to Nitza (née Efroni), with whom he had a son and daughter; he stood 183 cm tall. He died of cardiac arrest on August 12, 2000, in Paris, France, at age 68, and is buried in the Mount of Olives Jewish Cemetery, Jerusalem.