Effie Eitam

Effie Eitam was born in 1952 in Ein Gev

Eitam was born Efraim Fein in 1952 at kibbutz Ein Gev, to Gershon and Esther Fein. He received a secular education and later became religious after the Yom Kippur War. He studied at the Mercaz HaRav yeshiva and holds an M.A. in political science and international relations.

He was drafted in 1971 and served in the Golani Brigade, fighting on the Golan Heights in the Yom Kippur War. He later commanded Golani units, the Alexandroni and Givati brigades, and the Galilee Division in southern Lebanon. In 1992 Chief of Staff Ehud Barak reprimanded him over suspected unlawful violence against Gaza residents, and he was never put on trial over the claims against him.

After leaving the army he joined the National Religious Party in 2002 and was elected its chairman. He served as minister without portfolio, minister of national infrastructure and minister of housing and construction, and entered the Knesset in 2003.

In 2004 he quit the government in protest against the disengagement plan. He left the party and formed a new faction, later called Ahi, while calling on opponents of the plan to avoid violence. Ahi merged into Likud before the 2009 elections, in which he did not run. From 2010 to 2021 he was president of Genie Energy International.