Eitan, Rafi

Born November 23, 1926 in the kibbutz Ein Harod . His parents came to Mandate Palestine from the USSR in 1923. At the age of 12, Rafi joined the Hagan Jewish underground militant organization. Later on he became a member of the shock fighting units of the Hagana- Palmach ^[3] .

During the Second World War, he took part in the reception of illegal immigrants . He took part in sabotage campaigns against the British, in particular in the explosion of the radar station on Mount Carmel . To do this, he had to make his way to the object by sewer pipes ^[3] .

After the War of Independence, he was demobilized in 1949 and engaged in animal husbandry. Eitan received about 900 dunums of land in the western Negev region, near the Shikmim River ^[4] .

In 1950, Isser Harel invited him to work at Shabak . In 1955 ^[5], following Harel, he went to work at Mossad and headed the operations department.

In May 1960, he was the leader of the Mossad Task Force for the capture of the Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann in Argentina ^[6] . Later he worked in the Mossad, headed the scientific and technical department.

In 1972, he retired and was engaged in business, in 1978, at the invitation of Ariel Sharon, he returned to government service and was appointed advisor to the Prime Minister on combating terrorism.

In 1981, he was appointed Israeli Prime Minister, Menachem Beginin , as head of the Lakami special service.

On November 21, 1985, a US naval intelligence analyst , Jonathan Pollard , was arrested in Washington and turned out to be an Israeli spy who worked for Lacks. Pollard was sentenced to life imprisonment ^{[7] [8]} . Pollard’s wife on the Maariv Israeli newspaper writes: “At the cost of Israeli agent’s freedom, Eitan saved his skin, and in 1998 he admitted that he couldn’t forgive himself for not shooting Pollard when he arrived at the Israeli embassy. ), escaping from arrest " ^[4] .

In 1986, Israeli nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu, through the Sunday Times , revealed to the world the secret of Israel’s having nuclear weapons . The Lakam, who was responsible for the safety of the reactor at Dimona , did not notice that Vanunu had taken a camera to the protected facility and had been photographing it for a long time.

After these two failures, the Lacks were disbanded, its functions were transferred to other special services, and Rafi Eitan was dismissed.

After his resignation from the post of head of the “Lacs”, Eitan headed the concern “Chemicals Le Israel”. After retiring from this post in 1990 he was engaged in business activities.

In 2006, on the eve of the elections to the Knesset of the 17th convocation, 79-year-old Ethan actually created a new batch of pensioners on the basis of the GIL party ( Gimlaim and Israel Laknesset ), who had never before managed to overcome the percentage barrier . The GIL party, led by Eitan, received 7 mandates in the 17th Knesset, he became the first Minister of State for Pensioners in the history of Israel, and also received the post of Minister for Jerusalem Affairs. However, in the future, the party GIL, having failed to go to the Knesset either in 2009 or in 2013, refused to fight, and Rafi Eitan went into retirement.

He died on March 23, 2019 in Tel Aviv at the age of 92 years. Expressing condolences on the death of Rafi Eitan, Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein said: “His contribution to strengthening Israel’s security and, in particular, to the 1960 operation to capture the Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann was forever inscribed in the annals of Jewish history.”

Was married. Rafi and his wife Miriam had two sons. In their family, the wife’s wife also grew from her previous marriage with the well-known paratroop brigade commander Yair Peled, who died in 1958.

In his spare time, Rafi Eitan enthusiastically engaged in sculpture. For 30 years, he has created more than 100 sculptures.

• Israeli superspy visited Belarus . - April 11, 2011.