He served as an advisor on terrorism to Prime Minister Menachem Begin, and in 1981 he was appointed to head the Bureau of Scientific Relations, then an intelligence entity on par with Mossad, Aman and Shabak.
They had four children, Rafi, Oded, Rina and Ami (Yechiam) and lived in Shalom, later Ramat HaSharon,[4] then a small settlement of 100 families.
His most famous operation at this time was blowing up the British radar on Mount Carmel near the port city of Haifa, which was being used to track ships carrying illegal Jewish immigrants.
Eitan argued that redirecting the mission's focus to incorporate also capturing Mengele could jeopardize the larger goal of bringing Eichmann to justice.
It emerged that 200 pounds (91 kg) of highly enriched uranium had disappeared from the plant, and it was alleged that the material had been diverted to Israel in an operation that became known as The Apollo Affair.
[12] Eitan continued his work in intelligence until 1972, when he left the organization and went on to the private sector, raising tropical fish and other agricultural ventures.
But in 1978, the government of Menachem Begin, the then Prime Minister of Israel, called him back to be his advisor on terrorism, as Eitan was regarded and admired as one of the most respected experts in this field.
In 1981, Eitan was named head of the Defense Ministry's Lekem, the Bureau for Scientific Relations, replacing Israeli spy-master Benjamin Blumberg, where he continued work on counter-terrorism.
[13] In 1984, Lekem was put in touch with Jonathan Pollard, an American citizen, who worked on anti-terrorist activities at the US Naval Investigative Services.
Also in California, a US Aerospace Engineer, Richard Kelly Smyth, the president of a company called MILCO, was indicted in 1985 for smuggling over 800 krytrons to Israel without the required US State Department Munitions Export License.
Sixteen years later they were discovered and arrested while living as fugitives in Málaga, Spain, and extradited back to the United States where he was convicted in the case.
Before his prominent Hollywood career, Milchan had served for decades as a Lekem agent, under the direct command of Eitan's predecessor, Benjamin Blumberg.
In 1987 the Israeli government set up a commission to investigate Lekem's failure, which found it would be in Israel's interest to take responsibility for the Pollard case.
Following the disbandment of Lekem, Eitan was offered the position as head of the state-owned Israel Chemicals Corporation, from which he retired in 1993 at the age of 67.
During his tenure, the company underwent a rapid expansion in terms of sales, development and manpower, making it the largest government-held firm in the country.
This relationship came to a head in 1985, when Mossad agents helped track a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) bomb team in Gibraltar.
The three-member IRA team was killed (Operation Flavius) by the British Special Air Service, under highly controversial circumstances.
[13] In 1992, Eitan was approached to bid on a contract for an agricultural deal in Cuba, which involved the cultivation of the largest citrus grove cooperative on the island.