Rafael Eitan

Rafael "Raful" Eitan (רפאל "רפול" איתן; 11 January 1929 – 23 November 2004) was an Israeli general, former Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (Ramatkal) and later a politician, a Knesset member, and government minister.

Rafael Eitan was born Rafael Kaminsky in the moshav of Tel Adashim near Nazareth in 1929, to Eliyahu and Miriam Eitan, Ukrainian Jewish immigrants to Palestine.

His father was one of the founders of the Jewish defense organization Hashomer.

Rafael was raised in the community of Tel Adashim.

Zvi Nishri (Orloff), a pioneer in modern physical education in Israel, was his uncle.

Late in life he reportedly said that he was descended from a Subbotnik family that had served as guards to the tsar.

According to Nahum Barnea, a genealogical search indicated that he had Jewish parentage on both sides.

His father gave Rafael and his brothers and sisters a strict education.

Rafael later married Miriam, with whom he had five children.

They ultimately divorced and he married Ofra Meirson.

Eitan was a junior officer in the Palmach, the Haganah's elite strike force, and took part in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.

He fought in Jerusalem and received a head wound in the battle for the San Simon Monastery in April 1948.

In 1954, Captain Eitan became commander of a Paratroops company in Unit 101.

During Operation Olive Leaves in 1955 he received a machine gun wound to his chest, while participating in a military raid into Syria.

For this action he was decorated with the Medal of Courage.

In the 1956 Suez Crisis, Major Eitan was the commander of the 890 Paratroopers battalion and participated in the 29 October parachute attack on the Mitla Pass.

During the Six-Day War in early June 1967, as a Colonel he commanded the Paratroopers Brigade on the Gaza front.

He received a severe head wound in combat while approaching the Suez Canal.

On the evening of 28 December 1968, he commanded the commando raid on Beirut airport.

According to a legend which circulated among Israeli special forces soldiers, at one point during the raid, he entered the airport terminal, and finding it in a state of disorder with no security guards present, walked to a coffee shop, ordered a coffee, and paid for it in Israeli currency before leaving.

In 1969 he was appointed head of infantry forces and later served as a division commander.

As a division commander, of 36th Ugda, Brigadier General Eitan stopped the Syrian attack into the Golan Heights during the October 1973 Yom Kippur War.

After the war, he was appointed to commander of the northern command and promoted to the rank of Major General.

On 1 April 1978, Eitan was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General and was appointed by Ezer Weizman to be the Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces.

Eitan opened his term with symbolic steps to increase discipline and efficiency in the IDF.

He required soldiers to wear the military beret and to collect spent cartridges after rifle range practice.

Eitan oversaw the redeployment of the IDF outside of the Sinai Peninsula after the peninsula was handed back to Egypt.

He was chief of staff at the time of the Israeli air attack on Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor complex on 7 June 1981.

In 1981 it became public knowledge the Israel was arming and forming an alliance with the Lebanese Phalangist militia.

In May it was revealed that Eitan had recently visited Jounieh several times and met with the militia leadership.

The previous month, at a meeting in Damascus, the Lebanese government had come to an agreement with UNIFIL to deploy Lebanese Army soldiers into the areas that the UN forces were stationed in Southern Lebanon.

This was followed by an increase of IDF activity in Lebanon which culminated in a crisis over the positioning Syrian antiaircraft missiles.

He and Sharon demolished the Israeli town of Yamit in Sinai in April 1982 after the Egyptians refused to pay for its infrastructure.

As chief of staff, Eitan initiated a project that was known as "Raful Youth" (Na'arei Raful), in which young persons from low socio-economic background were integrated into the IDF and were trained for professions that allowed them to come out of poverty and avoid getting involved in crime.

The IDF also helped those youth to complete their high school studies.

In April 1982 he initiated a new policy in the Occupied Territories which in Israeli army slang became known by the Hebrew word tertur.

One document from his office stated:

"1. It is necessary to act with force against agitators and to imprison them at every opportunity. 2. . . . When it is necessary, use legal measures which enable imprisonment for interrogation for a period stated in the law, and release them for one or two days and then re-imprison them."

After the trial of seven members of the Israeli army in December 1982, an Israeli operations officer was quoted as described tertur: "In addition to this business where you work to discover the provocateurs, you tertur the population. Population tertur does not mean that you punish those who did something, but you simply round up everyone, just like that."

Later he served with the 10th Infantry Battalion in the Lachish-Negev region.