David Levy, Ex-Laborer Who Became a Top Israeli Leader, Dies at 86

David Levy, a Moroccan-born Israeli who rose from ditch digger to Israel’s political heights, often embodying the resentments of Jews of North African and Middle Eastern origin who felt ill-treated by Europe-rooted elites, died on Sunday at a hospital in Jerusalem. He was 86.

The cause was not disclosed, but he had recently been treated for heart and kidney ailments. His death was announced by the Israeli government.

Mr. Levy was Israel’s foreign minister three times in the 1990s and its deputy prime minister even more often across two decades.

As prestigious as those positions were, neither afforded him an opportunity to fully shine. The deputy post was largely ceremonial. And on vital foreign policy matters, like negotiations with the Palestinians and Arab states or the management of relations with the United States, he was shunted aside by prime ministers who reserved those responsibilities for themselves.

The premiership, Mr. Levy’s true brass ring, eluded his grasp, notwithstanding his political dexterity.

He arguably left more of a mark earlier in his career when he led ministries that were responsible for housing and construction and for absorbing waves of immigrants. They were people not unlike how he was in 1957, when he was 19 years old and had left Morocco with his family to start life anew in Israel.