Rafi Eitan
| Rafi Eitan | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Date of birth | 23 November 1926 |
| Place of birth | Ein Harod, Mandatory Palestine |
| Knessets | 17 |
| Faction represented in Knesset | |
| 2006–2009 | Gil |
| Ministerial roles | |
| 2006–2009 | Minister of Pensioner Affairs |
Rafael "Rafi" Eitan (Hebrew: רפי איתן; born 23 November 1926) is an Israeli politician and former intelligence officer. Today he leads Gil and is a former Minister of Pensioner Affairs. In the past, he was in charge of the Mossad operation that led to the kidnapping 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.
Eitan was born in kibbutz Ein Harod during the Mandate era. His parents were Zionist immigrants from Russia in 1923. His father Noach Hantman was a farmer and poet and his mother Yehudit Volwelsky, a social activist. They had four children, Rafi, Oded, Rina and Ami (Yechiam) and lived in Ramat HaSharon, a small settlement of 100 families. Eitan went to a regular junior high public school, but finished his high school at the Agricultural School in Givat HaShlosha in 1940 before going to the London School of Economics for his BSc in Economics.
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