| Notes |
EITAN JOINED the Hagana, the underground Jewish fighting force, at age 12. He recalls being taken into an orange grove with several other children and made to swear loyalty to Zionism. Later, he joined the Palmach, the elite and secret commando unit of the Hagana. His first commander was Yitzhak Rabin. Upon finishing agricultural high school, Eitan moved to London to study at the London School of Economics.
After World War II, he was involved in smuggling Jews into the country, defying the British authorities. One celebrated escapade involved blowing up a radar station overlooking the port of Haifa used by the British to detect ships approaching the harbor illegally. To reach the station unseen, Eitan had to crawl through underground sewer pipes, earning the nickname “Stinky Rafi.” |