Rafael Eitan: Encyclopedia II - Rafael Eitan - Military career

Rafael Eitan - Military career

Rafael Eitan - Early battles

Eitan was a junior officer in the elite Palmach strike force and took part in the Israel's War of Independence. 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 machinegun wound to his chest, while participating in a military raid into Syria.

In the 1956 Sinai war, Major Eitan was the commander of the 890 Paratroopers battalion and participated in the October 29 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, and received a severe head wound in combat while approaching the Suez Canal.

In 1969 he was appointed head of infantry forces and later served as a division commander. As a division commander, Brig. General Eitan stopped the Syrian attack into the Golan Heights during the October 1973 Yom Kippur War. He personally used a bazooka to destroy several advancing Syrian tanks. After the war he was appointed to commander of the northern command and promoted to the rank of Major General.

Rafael Eitan - Chief of Staff

On April 1, 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. Such orders were to wear the barret and to collect empty cases after ranges. Eitan also cut the size of military troops.

Eitan oversaw the redeployment of the IDF outside Sinai after the Sinai peninsula was handed back to Egypt. He and Sharon demolished the Israeli city of Yamit in Sinai in April 1982 after the Egyptians refused to pay for its infrastructure.

As Chief of Staff, Eitan was best known for the "Raful Youth" project, in which young persons from low socio-economic background and poor neigbourhoods were integrated into the IDF and were trained for professions that allowed them to stay out of crime, poverty, and other troubles. The IDF also helped those youth to graduate their highschool studies.

He approved the Israeli air attack, codenamed Operation Opera, that destroyed Iraq's nuclear-bomb development plant on June 7, 1981.

Rafael Eitan - Lebanon War

On June 3, 1982, Abu Nidal's militant group gravely wounded Israel's ambassador in London, Shlomo Argov as a result of an assassination attempt. In response, the Israeli Air Force bombed Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. The bombing caused Palestinian militants to shell Israel's northern settlements and resulted in the June 4th order to begin Operation Peace for Galilee. The operation was launched on June 6 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. The plan failed. 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.

The IDF achieved some impressive military results - such as wiping out the entire Syrian air defense system in the first days of the war, under the command of IAF Major general David Ivri. But it also had some failures, such as the battle of Sultan Yaakov.

The operation was designed to be limited - both in time and area - but the IDF advanced far beyond the planned "40 kilometers" under the command of Defense Minister Ariel Sharon. The mounting Israeli casualties in Lebanon, combined with the Sabra and Shatila Massacre, resulted in mass protests by the Israeli public against the war - which resulted in a cease-fire agreements and the establishment of the Kahan Commission to investigate the massacre. The commission concluded that Israel was not directly responsible for the massacre but that senior Israeli officials such as Sharon and Eitan were culpable in part. Although Sharon was removed as Minister of Defense, the committee recommended no sanctions against Eitan.

Nevertheless, Eitan's reputation became identified with the failed Lebanon War.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Military career", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki