Journalist, adviser and head of office to former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin - Eitan Haber - has passed away on Wednesday at the age of 80.
Haber began his journalistic career in 1958 at 18-years-old in the IDF’s weekly magazine “BaMahane”. During his military service, Haber first met Rabin who was the acting commander of the IDF’s Northern Command at the time.
After he was discharged from the military, Haber worked as a military correspondent for Ynet’s sister publication Yedioth Ahronoth for 25 years. During that time, Haber also presented and edited radio shows on Army Radio.
As a prominent military journalist, Haber covered the Six-Day War in 1967, the War of Attrition from 1967 to 1970, and the Yom Kippur war in 1973, among others.
During his long career, Haber has often joined IDF soldiers out on the battlefield, where he meticulously and accurately covered events as they took place.
In 1985 Haber was appointed Rabin's communications adviser, who served as defense minister in a Likud-Labor unity government.
Haber retired from government alongside Rabin in 1990 following a political scandal known as the Dirty Trick - which involved an attempt to form a government made up of the left-wing factions and the ultra-orthodox parties.
He returned as the head of Rabin’s office in 1992, following Rabin’s reelection as prime minister.
Haber was also part of a small political team that secretly worked the peace agreement between Israel and Jordan, and oversaw all of Rabin's political and security trips abroad - including countries that have never opened their doors to an Israeli prime minister before, such as Indonesia, Morocco, Oman, China, Japan and South Korea among others.
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Eitan Haber (M) with then-Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin (L) during Operation Law and Order against Hezbollah, 1988
(Photo: IDF archive)
While Haber personally objected to the Oslo Accords - which solidified relations between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) - he remained one of Rabin’s closest associates and even wrote all of the prime minister’s speeches at the time.
On November 4, 1995, it was Haber who announced Rabin's death following the prime minister’s assassination at a peace rally in Tel Aviv, with a sentence that was seared into the national memory: "The Israeli government announces with astonishment, great sorrow and deep sadness, the death of Prime Minister and Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was murdered by an assassin tonight in Tel Aviv."
In September 2019, Haber revealed that he was fighting both cancer and Parkinson's: "I discovered that I have cancer and Parkinson's by chance. I went with my son for testing and there we found out. The most severe colon and pancreas cancer. I could die tomorrow. Not bad though. I've done my thing after 60 years of non-stop work."
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Eitan Haber at Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's funeral reading a speech which he carried on him at the night of his assassination, 1995
(Photo: AP)
President Reuven Rivlin paid tribute to Haber on Wednesday night: "With great sorrow, I received the news of Eitan Haber’s passing, the knight of the written and accurate word. He turned history into words and gave memorable moments, exemplary descriptions that have shaped the national memory. He accompanied public affairs as a journalist and as a public servant, with the good of the state above all else… He wrote the words the day in times of war and peace, always sharply, with a sober look, a writing hand whose words I will miss so much.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: "Eitan Haber was one of the pillars of the Israeli press for decades. He bought himself a reputation as a thorough and reliable penman. Israel's security was at the forefront of his thoughts, about which he wrote in clear, original and fascinating language. His many books, which serve to enrich the shelf of military literature, are of historical value. We will never forget his shocked and dramatic announcement about the shocking assassination of Yitzhak Rabin... My sincere condolences to his family."
Haber is survived by his daughter, son and grandchildren.