Effi Eitam

Efraim "Effi" Eitam (Hebrew: אפרים "אפי" איתם; born 25 July 1952) is an Israeli brigadier general, former commander of the 91st Division, and politician. A former leader of the National Religious Party, he later led a breakaway faction, Ahi, which merged into Likud in 2009. He served as a member of the Knesset between 2003 and 2009.

A Hardal Israeli, he was born in kibbutz Ein Gev and received a secular education. When he was old enough, Eitam joined the Israeli Defense Forces. Eitam has an M.A. in political science and in International Relations. He is also a former student of the Mercaz HaRav yeshiva, and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He is married, has eight children, and lives in the Israeli settlement of Nov in the Golan Heights.

Brigadier General Eitam had a 29-year military career. He was drafted into the Israel Defense Forces in 1971 and volunteered for the Shayetet 13 naval commando force, but was dismissed after a year, and did his military service in the Golani Brigade. He was sent to Officer Candidate School, and in 1973, he was commissioned as an infantry officer and returned to the Golani Brigade. During the Yom Kippur War, he served as a platoon leader in the brigade's 12th Battalion and fought with his sergeant to stop Syrian tanks from penetrating the Golan Heights' Nafah base, using three bazooka projectiles and a heavy machine gun, and later rescued the wounded from Nafah. For his heroism, he was awarded the Medal of Distinguished Service. Later on, Eitam led the brigade's reconnaissance company during Operation Entebbe. During the 1982 Lebanon War, he led an officers' school battalion and a brigade, and afterwards, he commanded the Golani Brigade's 12th Battalion in counter-guerrilla operations in Southern Lebanon. During the First Intifada, he commanded the Givati Brigade.

In 1988, Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin ordered the Israeli Army to beat Palestinian rioters. Eitam was heard over a radio telling his troops to beat and break the bones of a 21-year-old Palestinian prisoner named Ayyad Aqel. They beat him to death. An IDF court-martial convicted four of his soldiers, who testified against him. The Military Advocate General severely reprimanded Eitam and recommended that he never be promoted. Despite that, the IDF's Chief of General Staff, Ehud Barak, decided to promote him to the rank of brigadier general. During the years 1997–1999, Eitam commanded the 91st Division in counter-guerrilla activity in the South Lebanon security zone. He left the Army in December 2000.

After his retirement from military service, Eitam entered politics, joining the National Religious Party. Despite not being a member of the Knesset, he was appointed a Minister without Portfolio on 8 April 2002, serving until 18 September that year, when he became Minister of National Infrastructure.

In 2002, Eitam called for Yasser Arafat to be killed. Of Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti, then being investigated by Israel, he said, "Take him out to an orchard and shoot him in the head." He was first elected to the Knesset in January 2003, and was appointed Minister of Housing and Construction in March 2003.

On 10 June 2004, Eitam and Yitzhak Levy quit the government to protest the disengagement plan. However, the National Religious Party refused to leave the coalition. Eventually, Eitam and Levi left the NRP, too, and formed the Renewed Religious National Zionist Party, later renamed Ahi, which would later join the National Union – a Knesset list of right-wing parties.

In a harsh speech delivered on 11 January 2005, Eitam called Prime Minister Ariel Sharon a "refuser of democracy" ("סרבן דמוקרטיה"), and attacked him for refusing to conduct a national poll on the plan. Eitam claimed Sharon was promoting the disengagement plan by threatening and firing objectors, and by making corrupt deals. Eitam also claimed that the left was running an incitement campaign against the settlers, which include provocations and calls to spill their blood, in order to delegitimize that right-wing campaign against the disengagement plan. Despite the harsh criticism, Eitam denounced military refusal and violence. He concluded that at the end of struggle, "If you don't listen to the call to bring back the decision to the healthy and strong people, we shall send you home, and it will be painful and shameful, that will erase the achievements of your manhood."