Rafi Eitan: Israeli spy who led operation to capture Holocaust architect Adolf Eichmann dies aged 92
Man who snatched top Nazi in Argentina hailed as 'brave fighter'
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Your support makes all the difference.Rafi Eitan, the legendary Israeli spy who led the operation to capture the architect of the Holocaust, Adolf Eichmann, has died aged 92.
Eitan died after being hospitalised in Tel Aviv, Israeli media reported.
“Rafi was among the heroes of the intelligence services of the State of Israel on countless missions on behalf of the security of Israel,” prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. “His wisdom, wit and commitment to the people of Israel and our state were without peer.”
Eitan was among the founders of Israel’s revered intelligence agencies.
“We have lost a brave fighter whose contribution to Israel’s security will be taught for generations to come,” president Reuven Rivlin said.
In 1960, Eitan led the Mossad operation to capture Eichmann in Argentina and bring him to trial in Jerusalem.
Known for his role in coordinating the Nazi’s genocide policy, Eichmann had fled Germany after the Second World War and was living under an assumed identity.
Eitan, who led a seven-man team on the ground, snatched Eichmann on the way back to his home in Buenos Aires, bundled him into a car and spirited him away to a safe house.
Eitan identified Eichmann by searching his body for distinctive scars on his arms and stomach. ”And once I felt it I was convinced. This is the man — we got Eichmann,” he recalled years later.
Mossad director Yossi Cohen said the majority of Eitan’s exploits still remain unknown to the general public.
“His work and his actions will be etched in gold letters in the annals of the state,” Mr Cohen said in a statement on Saturday. “The foundations that Rafi laid in the first years of the state are a significant layer in the activities of the Mossad even today.”
However, Eitan’s reputation took a hit in the 1980s over his handling of Jonathan Pollard, a civilian intelligence analyst for the US Navy who sold military secrets to Israel while working at the Pentagon.
Pollard pleaded guilty after being arrested in 1985 and was sentenced in 1987 to life imprisonment, in a trial that embarrassed Israel and damaged its relations with the US.
Eitan was eventually forced to resign his post over the affair.
He later entered politics in 2006 as head of the Pensioners Party and served for three years as pensions minister.
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