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Rafael "Raful" Eitan was an Israeli general, former Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces and later a politician, a Knesset member and government minister. He was born in Tel Adashim. His father, Eliyahu Eitan, was one of the founders of the Jewish defense organization Hashomer. 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. Later he served with the 10th Infantry Battalion in the Lachish-Negev region. In 1954, Captain Eitan became commander of a Paratroops company in Unit 101. During Operation Kinereth 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. In the evening of December 28, 1968, he commanded the Commando raid on Beirut airport. In 1969 he was appointed head of infantry forces and later served as a division commander. As a division commander, 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 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 and Sharon demolished the Israeli settlement Yamit in Sinai in April 1982 after the Egyptians refused to pay for its infrastructure. He was Chief of Staff at the time of the Israeli air attack on Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor complex on 7 June 1981. On 3 June 1982, Abu Nidal's militant group gravely wounded Israel's ambassador in London, Shlomo Argov, in an assassination attempt. In response, the Israeli Air Force bombed Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. The Palestinian militants shelled Israel's northern settlements in retaliation and resulted in the Israeli government's 4 June order to begin the 1982 Lebanon War. The operation was launched on 6 June and soon became a full-scale invasion. The Israeli plan was to drive the PLO away from the Israeli border and help Bachir Gemayel's Phalangist militia take control of south Lebanon. During the war, the IDF faced the Syrian military, Palestinian militants and various militias, such as Hezbollah. The IDF engaged in urban warfare and shelled Beirut to hit PLO headquarters. After his retirement from the army in April 1983, Eitan entered politics. Eitan initially joined the Tehiya party and was first elected to the Knesset in 1984. Later he established an ultra-nationalist party called Tzomet, which had conservative views on defense and foreign policy but a liberal and secular domestic platform. He was elected to the 11th Knesset and served as Minister of Agriculture between 1988 and 1991, when Tzomet left the government. In the 1992 elections, Tzomet joined an alliance of Likud and Gesher headed by Benjamin Netanyahu. Eitan served as Agriculture and Environment Minister and also as a Deputy Prime Minister (1998¿99). In 1999 Tzomet failed to win any Knesset seats and Eitan retired from politics.
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