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Rafi Eitan

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Spy

The Resume

    (November 23, 1906-March 23, 2019)
    Born in Ein Harod, Israel
    Birth name was Raphael Hartman
    Shin Bet agent
    Advisor on terrorism to Prime Minister Menachem Begin
    Headed the intelligence agency Lekem (1981-86)
    Minister of Pensioner Affairs (2006-09)

Why he might be annoying:

    He participated in the killing of two members of the German Templer Society (November, 1946), to deter other German Templers from returning to Palestine after World War II.
    He was distinguished from another Rafael Eitan, the Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, with the nickname 'Rafi the Stinker.'
    Posing as an Israeli chemist, he visited the US Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation (NUMEC) at about the same time that 200 pounds of highly enriched uranium disappeared from NUMEC. (Coincidence, no doubt.)
    He was forced to resign as head of Lekem (and the agency was officially disbanded) after the arrest of Jonathan Pollard for spying on the US for Israel.

Why he might not be annoying:

    He got the 'stinker' nickname by crawling through a sewer in Haifa to reach and destroy a radar unit used by the British to detect ships smuggling Jewish refugees into Palestine.
    He was wounded in combat the day after Israel declared its independence.
    He headed the team that captured Adolf Eichmann in Argentina and brought him to Israel for trial.
    His resignation from Lekem was required so the Israel government could paint the Pollard affair as a rogue operation and maintain the polite fiction that it did not spy on the United States.

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 17 Votes: 41.18% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 4 Votes: 25.00% Annoying