Rafael Eitan (Raful) drowns to death in Ashdod

[Scurrilous]

http://www.maarivintl.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=article&articleID=11766

Former minister and 11th IDF chief of staff fell off breakwater near city port this morning. As head of “Jubilee Harbor” project, Eitan arrived on breakwater to assess damage of Monday's storm.

<snip>

"Former minister and the 11th IDF chief of staff Rafael Eitan (Raful), 75, died this (Tuesday) morning after drowning off the coast of Ahsdod.

A search and rescue operation was launched this morning after the ex-leader of “Tzomet” was reported missing. Divers found his body and MDA teams performed a lengthy resuscitation effort, but to no avail.

Eitan was the head of the “Jubilee Harbor” project in the northern part of the Ashdod Port. He toured the breakwater, which is currently being built in front of the harbor, in order to assess possible damages from Monday’s storm."

[UL_Approved]

1. I'm not familiar with this person

What is the significance of this figure? What was his political stance?

[Scurrilous]

2. Rafael Eitan (Raful): 1929-2004

http://www.maarivintl.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=article&articleID=11771


More about the Tzomet Party which he headed:

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Politics/Tzomet.html

<snip>

"Tzomet (Movement for Renewed Zionism) was established by former army chief-of-staff Rafael "Raful" Eitan, the party splintered from the right-wing Tehiya Party prior to the 1988 elections. A militantly secular party, Tzomet joined Likud in 1996 and won five seats in the elections. It did not win any seats in the 15th Knesset. Tzomet opposes the Oslo accords and favors full retention of the West Bank."

[UL_Approved]

3. So a little Karma to boot?

Or was this an assassination?

[newyorican]

5. nah...

too old for karma, just a repulsive person that drowned like a rat...very likely his last senior moment.

(all due apologies to rodents)

[Djinn]

4. yet another dead racist murderer

"We declare openly that the Arabs have no right to settle on even one centimeter of Eretz Israel... Force is all they do or ever will understand. We shall use the ultimate force until the Palestinians come crawling to us on all fours."
Rafael Eitan, Yediot Ahronot 13 April 1983, New York Times 14 April 1983.

When we have settled the land, all the Arabs will be able to do about it will be to scurry around like drugged cockroaches in a bottle."
Rafael Eitan, New York Times, 14 April 1983.

There is a really dishonest "media watch" site that claims to be lobbying for truth in the reporting of issues relating to the Middle East that disputes both of these quotes, it says neither quote appeared in the article - THAT is a flat out provable lie to anyone with access to a library. Just thought I'd mention it because the spinners and liars at CAMERA seem to get quoted here a bit.

One the spinners at CAMERA don't touch is this beautiful example of having one's head stuck firmly up ones arse...

""I don't understand the comparison between us and South Africa. What we have in common is that we both take measures to ensure that we are not overpowered. Those who say that Blacks in South Africa are persecuted are lying. The Blacks there want to overpower the white minority, just like the Arabs here want to overpower us. And we, just like the South African minority, must act to make sure we are not overpowered. I went to see a diamond mine there and saw what superb conditions Black workers are enjoying. So what if there is a separate lift for Blacks and Whites? That's the way they want it..."

Rafael Eitan speaking (or perhaps vomitting) at an Israeli banquet for South Africa's Prime Minister John Vorster in April 1976

[IndianaGreen]

6. If Eitan had been an American WASP...

he would have been properly labeled as a racist and a hatemonger.

However, as we all know when it came to the late unlamented Arafat, people are more complex than the one-dimensional way in which they are perceived through the prism of ideology. Here is another point of view about General Eitan:

An Appreciation / `No one cries in this house'

By Ze'ev Schiff

Behind his tough exterior lay a love of poetry, and he would often write in rhyme. He always remained a farmer, even more than a soldier. One time he invited a senior U.S. military official to his Tel Adashim home in the Jezreel Valley. As they were sitting, a large goose came waddling into the living room and walked around. The story was retold in Washington.

There were tales that he had been born to Russian peasants who had converted to Judaism before coming to live in Palestine. As a boy Raful grew up in conditions of poverty, and this brought him closer to the uneducated youngsters whom he later brought into the army and cultivated as chief of staff. I saw them waiting outside his home for hours to get a word with him personally. He often expressed the hope that he would be made education minister so that he could help them.

His attitude toward people was extremist - he either welcomed or rejected them - and it was often determined by their behavior in battle. When his pilot son was killed in an accident, he reprimanded a close friend who broke down during his condolence visit by saying: "No one cries in this house." His younger son had earlier died of asthma.

When negotiations began with the Egyptians following President Anwar Sadat's visit to Jerusalem, Raful showed little enthusiasm for returning all of Sinai, and lobbied for half to remain in Israeli hands. He also supported settlements in the territories as being of security importance. He was appointed chief of staff by then defense minister Ezer Weizman, but his appointment was not unanimously supported in the cabinet.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/505347.html