Walter Eytan

Walter Eytan (24 July 1910 - 23 May 2001) was an Israeli diplomat. He was Director General of the Israeli Foreign Ministry in 1948-1959 and Israeli ambassador to France in 1959-1970.

Walter Ettinghausen (later Eytan) was born in Munich, Germany. During World War I, his family moved to Switzerland and then settled in England, where he attended St. Paul's School. He became an Oxford University don. He was recruited to intelligence work from his post as a lecturer in Medieval German, undergoing basic military training as a tank gunner and assigned to the Naval Section at Bletchley Park, where he supervised the translation of German messages.

Eytan moved to Jerusalem in 1946, becoming a spokesman for the Political Department of the Jewish Agency. He was also the first Principle of the Jewish Agency's Public Service College, established in 1946, which started with twenty-five students including five women.

On 9 January 1948 he presented the first draft of an "Outline Plan for the Foreign Office and Foreign Service of the Jewish State." It proposed seven geographic divisions: Middle East, Europe, Eastern Europe, North American, Latin America, British Empire and Asia and Africa. There would also be six functional divisions: United Nations, Consular, Economic, Legal Information and Training and Research.

On 12 June 1948 he was able to leave Jerusalem and join the fledgling Foreign Ministry in a villa at Sarona in Tel Aviv. He was immediately appointed Director General. By July the ministry had a staff of over 100, including many former members of the Jewish Agency Political Department. One of the first decisions taken was what adjective should be used: Israelite and Israelian were rejected in favour of Israeli.

Eytan was the head of delegation to 1949 Armistice negotiations at Rhodes. The delegation included Yigal Yadin, Reuven Shiloah and Eliahu Sasson. He considered the Jordanian delegation to be "unimpressive ... helpless and lost"; he describes the Syrian delegation as "fiercely argumentative."

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