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Rafi Eitan

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For the former Israeli Defense Forces Chief of Staff and former Israeli Minister of Agriculture, see Rafael Eitan

Template:MKs Rafael ('Rafi') Eitan (Hebrew: רפי איתן, born November 23, 1926) is the leader of the pensioners' party Gil, which has won an unexpected large number of seats in the Israeli legislative election of 2006. In 1960, he was in charge of the Mossad operation that lead to the capture of Adolf Eichmann. He served as an advisor on terrorism to Prime Minister Menachem Begin, and in 1981 he was appointed to head the Bureau of Scientific Relations, then an intelligence entity on par with Mossad, Aman and Shabak. Eitan assumed responsibility for and resigned over the Jonathan Pollard affair, and the Bureau was disbanded. From 1985 until 1993, he was head of the government's Chemicals company, which was expanded under his leadership. After 1993, he became a businessman, noted for several large scale agricultural and construction ventures in Cuba. In 2006, he accepted the offer to head the list for Gil.

The Early Years

Eitan was born in the British Mandate of Palestine on November 23, 1926, in Kibbutz Ein Harod. His parents were Zionist immigrants from Russia in 1923. His father Noach Hantman was a poet and his mother Miriam Lutzansky, a housewife. They had four children, Rafi, Oded, Rina, ami and lived happily in Ramat HaSharon, a small settlement consisting of 100 families. Eitan went to a regular junior high public school, but finished his high school at the Agricultural School in Givat HaSchloshah in 1940 before going to the London School of Economics for his BSc in Economics.

At age 12, engulfed in the prevalent Zionist sentiments of the day and to defend his settlement from Arab insurgencies, Eitan joined the Haganah (Jewish Defense Force) from which he moved to the Palmach, a more elite part of the Haganah, upon completion of high school in 1944. Through clandestine operations, he was to assist the illegal immigration of Jewish refugees from Europe, who were fleeing Nazism, into Palestine. His most famous operation at this time was blowing up the British radar on Mount Carmel near the port city of Haifa. To reach it, Eitan had to crawl underground through sewers, thus earning the name 'Rafi the Smelly', which would differentiate him in later years from the other Rafael Eitan, a well-known Israeli Chief of Staff and politician. It was also during this time that he met Itzhak Rabin, who would later become Israeli Prime Minister.

The Intelligence Years

During the Israeli War of Independence, Eitan served in Army intelligence, a position which would propel him to serve in the newly established Israeli Secret Service, also known as the Mossad. But Eitan believed he would best serve his country by moving to the Domestic Security Service, the Shin Bet, where he served as Chief of Operations. This position would allow him the biggest triumph in a post-Holocaust Israel: the capture of Adolf Eichmann. In a daring mission, after much intelligence research recognized Adolf Eichmann alive and well, and living in Argentina, Eitan and his team went to Argentina to kidnap and take him to Israel, where he was tried and found guilty of atrocious crimes against the Jewish people during WWII. During 1964-1966, Eitan headed a two-year operation in which armaments sold and delivered by the Germans to the Egyptian government 'disappeared'. In those days, Israel had no peace treaty with Egypt. Eitan was also involved in the secret planning and implementation of the attack on the Iraqi Osirak nuclear reactor in June 1981, an event widely criticized at the time by many countries.

The Later Years

Eitan continued his work in intelligence until 1972, when he left the organization and went on to the private sector, raising tropical fish and other agricultural ventures. But in 1978, the government of Menahem Begin, the then Prime Minister of Israel, called him back to be his advisor on terrorism, as Eitan was regarded and admired as one of the most respected experts in this field. In 1981, Eitan was named head of the Defense Ministry's Lekem, the Bureau for Scientific Relations, where he continued work on terrorism. In 1984, Lakam was put in touch with Jonathan Pollard, an American citizen, who worked on anti-terrorist activities at the US Naval Investigative Services. Pollard had contacted the Israeli government with top secret information on the terrorist activities of Israel's enemies. When Jonathan Pollard was arrested in the US in 1985, Lekem was disbanded. Eitan was offered then the position as head of the state-owned Israel Chemicals Corporation, from where he retired in 1993 at the age of 67. During his tenure, the company underwent a rapid expansion in terms of sales, development and manpower making it the largest government-held firm in the country.

Advisor to MI6 on Counter-Terrorism

According to the book Gideon's Spies by Gordon Thomas, during the mid 1980's the Thatcher government in Britain developed a relationship with Eitan as an advisor to MI6 on counterterrorism operations in Northern Ireland. This relationship came to a head in 1985, when Mossad agents helped track an IRA bomb team in Gibraltar. The three member IRA team was killed by the British SAS, under highly controversial circumstances. It was subsequently reported in British papers that Rafi Eitan and Mossad had played a surveillance role in the operation, and IRA command put out orders for assassination teams in Ireland and Britain to find and kill Rafi Eitan. Due to this threat of Assassination, and the embarrassment of the Israeli government over Eitan's unauthorized relationship with the operation, Eitan left Britain and ended his relationship with Britain's intelligence services. This incident strained Israeli/British relations for several years.

Business venture in Cuba

In 1992, Eitan was approached by Irving Semmel, a successful Brazilian businessman, to bid on a contract for an agricultural deal in Cuba, which involved the cultivation of the largest citrus grove cooperative on the island. After winning the bid, Eitan built a partnership with four other international entrepreneurs to run the deal. The company GBM (Grupo BM) was incorporated in Cuba, but Eitan represents the company in Israel under the name 'Reesimex'.

Due to the success of the venture and the connections acquired, GBM also won the contract to build the Trade Center in Havana, which is currently under construction, and a Holocaust Memorial at the center of the Old City of Habana. Recently, GBM was awarded the "Medal for Agricultural Work" by the Cuban government.

In addition to this deal, GBM has started expanding its business deals to the rest of Latin America. It runs various agricultural projects in the Dominican Republic, among others.

Head of "Gil"

Eitan was asked to represent the Israeli retirees in the general elections held on March 28, 2006. The party has gone on to win a large number of seats (7), despite predictions that it would not secure more than 2-3, at best, and would not pass the vote threshold, at worst.

Other Interests

Almost 80 years old, Eitan enjoys good health and claims to be nowhere near retirement. In his spare time, he is known as an avid sculptor. Over the 30 years that he has been sculpting, Eitan has produced over 100 pieces. He recently had a one man show at the offices of the high-tech company "Brown". His pieces were described by critics as 'refreshing', 'alive' and 'imaginative'. [citation needed]

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