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Eitan was buried next to his two sons, one of whom died at the age of 11 from an illness, and the other who was killed in an Israel Air Force training accident. Eitan, married twice, also has three daughters and ten grandchildren.
Eitan was a colorful, well-known and highly respected figure in the Israeli political and military arena. His family requested a small funeral with little coverage, and many hundreds of friends and former soldiers paid their last respects this morning by passing by his coffin, which was placed outside Tel Adashim's community center.
The funeral itself was held in a private ceremony early this afternoon, attended by family members, close friends and government figures. Knesset votes scheduled for today were postponed until next Monday, by request of the many MKs who wished to attend the funeral.
Former IDF Chief of Staff Eitan, known as Raful, was famous for the "Raful Youth" program he instituted in the army in 1979. Featuring tough discipline while giving "youth at risk" a second chance, it set a positive standard for dealing with "neighborhood toughs."
The Yediot Acharonot newspaper quoted one of these youths, 47-year-old Betzalel Englard - now a successful businessman in Eilat - as praising Raful for turning his life around:
"I am totally certain that if it were not for Raful, who helped me enlist, I would now be either behind bars or in my grave. There are definitely many many other 'Raful youths' who owe him their lives. When the enlistment office people discovered my criminal past, they exempted me from the army. All the recommendations I brought didn't help me. I wrote to Raful that I wanted to enlist, and I was drafted to the navy. I was able to complete high school in the framework of the army."
"I only met Raful once," Englard said, "and that was when he boarded the ship on which I served. I'll remember that meeting forever. He spoke to me simply, as if he was one of the guys. He asked about my criminal past, asked how I was doing on the ship with the crew, and then the commander said, 'I wish I had some others like him.' ... At the end, Raful saluted me, instead of me saluting him. Since then, he's with me in my heart."
Eitan was a colorful, well-known and highly respected figure in the Israeli political and military arena. His family requested a small funeral with little coverage, and many hundreds of friends and former soldiers paid their last respects this morning by passing by his coffin, which was placed outside Tel Adashim's community center.
The funeral itself was held in a private ceremony early this afternoon, attended by family members, close friends and government figures. Knesset votes scheduled for today were postponed until next Monday, by request of the many MKs who wished to attend the funeral.
Former IDF Chief of Staff Eitan, known as Raful, was famous for the "Raful Youth" program he instituted in the army in 1979. Featuring tough discipline while giving "youth at risk" a second chance, it set a positive standard for dealing with "neighborhood toughs."
The Yediot Acharonot newspaper quoted one of these youths, 47-year-old Betzalel Englard - now a successful businessman in Eilat - as praising Raful for turning his life around:
"I am totally certain that if it were not for Raful, who helped me enlist, I would now be either behind bars or in my grave. There are definitely many many other 'Raful youths' who owe him their lives. When the enlistment office people discovered my criminal past, they exempted me from the army. All the recommendations I brought didn't help me. I wrote to Raful that I wanted to enlist, and I was drafted to the navy. I was able to complete high school in the framework of the army."
"I only met Raful once," Englard said, "and that was when he boarded the ship on which I served. I'll remember that meeting forever. He spoke to me simply, as if he was one of the guys. He asked about my criminal past, asked how I was doing on the ship with the crew, and then the commander said, 'I wish I had some others like him.' ... At the end, Raful saluted me, instead of me saluting him. Since then, he's with me in my heart."
