 |
 |
 |
|
|
| Brig. Gen. Rafael "Raful" Eitan, former IDF Chief of Staff |
|
|
|
Barry Chamish is most recently the author of "Save Israel!", and also "Who Murdered Yitzhak Rabin", "Israel Betrayed" and "The Last Days Of Israel." His website is .
|
|
|
|
By Barry Chamish
November 28, 2004
Background
On November 23, Brig.-Gen. Rafael "Raful" Eitan was found dead in the waters of Ashdod port. Gen. Eitan was IDF Chief Of Staff in the 1980s when Ariel Sharon was Minister Of Defence. There are now widespread suspicions of foul play in Israel, in part because of a report widely read by the author of this article. I am no stranger to the subject of Israeli political assassinations. My book on the true circumstances of the assassination of a Prime Minister, Who Murdered Yitzhak Rabin, made the top of the Israeli bestsellers list and has been translated into six languages. Cracking the Eitan murder was much easier than Rabin's. The media inadvertently exposed the crime within two days.
Day One
Initial media reports:
Israel National News
Raful arrived at the Ashdod seaside early this morning, as he did every day, to oversee the continued construction of the new HaYovel Port. He drove up to the site, and while standing on the breakwater, was either overtaken by a large wave or slipped into the sea for other reasons. Only after an hour or more did his car attract attention, and a search began. A helicopter helped in the search efforts, and his body was found close to 8 AM. Resuscitation efforts by Magen David Adom teams failed to revive him.
Globes
Former Chief of Staff and government minister Rafael (Raful) Eitan was found dead this morning, the victim of drowning in the waters of the Port of Ashdod. Eitan's vehicle was near the scene; he was apparently touring the site of the Ashdod Jubilee Port as part of his duties as project head. Paramedics attempted to resuscitate him, but were not successful. Eitan was IDF Chief of Staff from 1978-83. In 1982, together with then Minister of Defense Ariel Sharon, Eitan formulated the plan to eradicate the PLO's military power in Lebanon that led to the 18-year long Lebanon War.
Army Radio
Army radio reported that Eitan was hit by a large wave as he stood on a pier while taking on his cellular phone.
Jerusalem Post
Former chief of General Staff and cabinet minister Rafael "Raful" Eitan drowned early Tuesday morning after falling from a breakwater in Ashdod Port into the stormy Mediterranean. Eitan, 75, had been employed for the past two years by the Ashtrom construction company and served as project manager overseeing the construction of breakwaters for a new section of the port.
Workers said that Eitan told a fellow worker in a telephone call at about 7 a.m. that he was on his way to the port to inspect equipment following Monday night's storm. The conversation was then cut off.
Dock workers told police they saw Eitan arrive at around 8 a.m. He parked his car near the construction area and they lost sight of him.
According to preliminary police findings, Eitan apparently was standing on the edge of one of the breakwaters his team was constructing and was swept into the sea by a large wave.
The Ports Authority declared a state of emergency, and police, IAF helicopters and navy boats began searching for his body.
Police said they were certain Eitan died in an accident and did not commit suicide. Senior officers, however, said they do not understand why he was standing on the breakwater when the waves were dangerously high.
"The waves Tuesday were very stormy and particularly threatening," one senior officer said. "Eitan, who was known to be courageous, should have set himself more limits and should not have been there."
At 9 a.m., an IAF helicopter located Eitan's body off the military section of the port. His body was retrieved shortly afterward by a group of navy divers and he was pulled aboard a navy ship, where attempts were made to resuscitate him.
Transportation Minister Meir Sheetrit has ordered Ashdod Port director-general Shaul Rotem to establish a committee of inquiry to investigate the circumstances surrounding Eitan's death.
The Eitan family expressed shock upon hearing the news of his death, voicing harsh criticism of the government for failing to send an official envoy to deliver the tragic news.
Haaretz
In 1983 Eitan entered political life and established the Tzomet movement, which acted against the withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula. In 2003 he was nominated to serve as logistic coordinator for the Ashtrom company, which was improving the breakwater at the Ashdod port.
The Ashtrom company reported that the last contact with him was at around 7 A.M. Tuesday morning. He called from a cellular phone to senior company officials to report on the state of equipment at the site following an overnight storm.
Ashtrom officials said the conversation was cut off, and, after they were unable to reach Eitan on his phone a search and rescue force was dispatched to the area.
Questions:
Did Eitan drown at 7 AM or 8 AM?
This is no minor issue.
Jerusalem Post: At 7 AM, Eitan calls someone to inform him that he is on the way to the port to inspect equipment. The call suddenly is cut off. Dock workers tell the police they saw Eitan arrive at 8 AM. The body is located at 9 AM.
Israel National News: Eitan is last seen at 7 AM and his body is recovered at 8 AM.
Galei Tzahal (Army Radio): Eitan is talking on his cellphone when a large wave cut it off.
Haaretz: Quoting Ashtrom, Eitan's company, he contacted them to report he was already at the site at 7 AM when the cellphone was cut off.
What is the truth? Was he on site at 7AM or 8AM? Was his body located at 8 AM or 9 AM? Which leads to the phone calls. If he was on the site at 8 AM, who was Eitan talking on his phone to at 7 AM and assuming a wave wasn't responsible, why did his phone cut off? If, in fact, Eitan was on the breakwater at 7 AM, why did it take two hours to find his body? The 7 AM arrival time was reported by a spokesman for Ashtrom. Why does his version clash so radically with that of the dock workers who reported to the police that they saw Eitan arrive at 8 AM?
Someone had to be lying to explain the blatantly contradictory testimonies regarding where Eitan was at what time, and who he was talking to on the cellphone, at what time. Management officially explained that Eitan was pulled into the water by a wave at 7 AM and the workers, in signed testimonies to the police, insisted they saw him arrive an hour later.
What was he doing on the breakwater in the first place?
The police are asking this question with excellent reason. Eitan wasn't an idiot. The Tuesday morning he died was wet and stormy. He could see the sea was churning. Why would be put himself in harm's way? A breakwater has two sides: a stormy one facing the sea, and a quiet one protecting the port. Now imagine the effort it would take him to drown. He would have to walk to the edge of the breakwater on the sea side. Why would he make such an effort to inspect equipment? The Mediterranean is not the Pacific. Swells can reach three meters; not enough to tow a man out to sea unless he went far out of his way to make sure it happened. We repeat the question the police are asking: why would he do that?
Smaller questions:
Why was Eitan alone in such conditions?
Why did no one see him fall in?
Eitan was a good swimmer. If he fell off a pier, why didn't he swim to safety a few feet away?
Couldn't Ashtrom have sent a worker to inspect the equipment? Was there some necessity for Eitan to arrive at 7 AM, an hour before work began, on a cold, rainy morning?
Why, in 2003, was Eitan given this job in the first place? He was a farmer and soldier, with no harbor building experience.
Why wasn't Eitan's family informed of his passing?
Day Two
Evidence Of Foul Play:
On November 24, the wide circulation newspaper Yediot Ahronot published two photos on pages one and two. The question of the breakwater was answered in both the photos published by Yediot Ahronot. Eitan was on the protected side of the harbor. Big waves could not get in. The photo where Eitan parked his car showed that the whole bay was dead calm. Barely a ripple could be seen. Outside the harbor, the sea was nasty. But inside where Eitan was, it was quiet. Had he actually fallen in, he could have swum to shore in seconds.
But that wasn't the biggest revelation in those photos. The state of the car was the shocker. I sent the car photo far and wide, observing:
Photo One, at the top: Now look at the damage to his car. Observe the smashed windshield, the collapsed roof, the near total destruction of the right hand side of the vehicle. Now if anyone is crazy enough to think that a wave caused the wreckage, note the damage on the left hand side of the car as well. That car was rammed by something sharp there, by something powerful and blunt on the other side, and it appears that a fifty pound boulder fell on the roof.
Even if a magic tsunami raced over the breakwaters and headed straight for the car, it could not have caused the kind of damage we see in the photo. But the point is moot, because no giant waves occur where the car was parked.
That observation was reinforced by Photo Two, beneath the first: Eitan's body is on a pier in the Navy base, 1.5 km. distance. The pier is located on a far more exposed part of the harbor, yet the waves don't come close to reaching the top of it. And considering the still waters where Eitan parked his car, Israelis are asking how his body floated such a distance.
The most likely scenario thus, is that Raful tried to escape his assailants in his car and was violently prevented from doing so.
As for motive: No one knew more about Sharon's murky past than Eitan. Lately he had come out strongly against Sharon's Gaza disengagement plan. In his last interview, to Tel Aviv Magazine, he stated, "This disengagement plan is a historical error and I can prove it."
In Israel today, that sort of proof can get you killed.
Whatever the motive, the evidence of foul play was so strong in the public mind, that the government ordered an investigation on the day of Eitan's demise. It met for a few hours and declared that a wave had towed Eitan into the Harbor where he drowned. The issue of the still waters, the contradictions in testimony regarding the time of the "accident," and the state of Eitan's vehicle were not discussed.
In Israel today, this passes for justice.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
|
|
|
|
Click on the blue headline to read a Talkback comment and respond to it. Click on the  icon to send a private email to the talkback writer. The icon appears only if the writer has decided to be contacted. If no popup window appears, please make sure your popup blocker allows israelinsider.com.
|
|
| |
|
|
