Haim Eshed

Israeli professor of aeronautics and astronautics (born 1933)

Haim Eshed (alternatively romanized as Chaim Eshed, Hebrew: חיים אשד; born 1933) is an Israeli visiting professor of aeronautics and astronautics at various space technology research institutions. A retired brigadier general in Israeli Military Intelligence, Eshed was director of space programs for Israel's Ministry of Defense for nearly 30 years, former chair of the Space Committee of the National Council for Research and Development for the Ministry of Science, Technology and Space, and a member of the steering committee of the Israel Space Agency. Eshed is responsible for the launch of 20 Israeli-made satellites and is widely cited as the father of Israel's space program. In December 2020, Eshed publicly stated that extraterrestrial life exists, that the Galactic Federation of Worlds is real, and that both Israel and the United States have been cooperating with it — claims that received global media coverage.

Career

Eshed holds a bachelor's degree in electronics engineering from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, as well as a master's degree and doctorate in aeronautical engineering.

In 1967, Eshed was awarded the Chief of Staff Citation, the highest non-combat decoration awarded by the IDF. Throughout his career he received the Israel Defense Prize — the highest civilian defense honor of the State of Israel — three times, though the reasons remain classified.

Eshed served at the highly secretive Unit 81, which provided technological solutions to the IDF's Military Intelligence Directorate.

In 1979, as a colonel in Israel's Military Intelligence Directorate, Eshed proposed the establishment of an independent satellite capability in order to collect intelligence from the Sinai after the withdrawal of Israeli forces.

He was space director during the 2007 launch of the spy satellite Ofek-7, which he said would help with "the Iranian issue."

When he retired in 2011, Eshed was described in Israeli media as the father of Israel's space capabilities programme. Under his direction, Israel developed and launched multiple reconnaissance satellites. His position gave him access to classified intelligence from allied nations' space and aerospace programs, including joint programs with the United States.

December 2020 disclosure

In December 2020, Eshed gave an interview with Israeli national newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth in which he stated that the United States government had been in contact with extraterrestrial life for years, had signed secret agreements with a "Galactic Federation" to perform experiments on Earth, and that there is a joint base underground on Mars where they collaborate with American astronauts. He also stated that U.S. President Donald Trump was aware of this and was "on the verge" of informing the public, but was stopped by the Galactic Federation, who wished to prevent mass hysteria. Eshed expressed the view that the American, Russian, Japanese, UK, and Chinese governments were in the know, that many other governments including Israel's were not, and that Elon Musk's company SpaceX was involved. He did not clarify whether he had inside information or was basing his opinions on publicly available information.

His specific claims included:

• U.S. President Donald Trump had allegedly been briefed on the existence of the Galactic Federation of Worlds and was prepared to disclose this information but was asked to wait because humanity was not technologically or psychologically ready.
• The United States and Israel had reportedly been in contact with a "Galactic Federation" for an extended period.
• A joint U.S.-ET base allegedly existed on Mars where cooperation between human astronauts and extraterrestrial beings was ongoing.
• Humanity purportedly needed to develop further — both technologically and in terms of social and psychological maturity — before open contact could be announced.

Researcher Courtney Brown of the Farsight Institute has asserted that Eshed's interview described "written agreements" between the Galactic Federation and the U.S. government, noting that the original Hebrew-language publication was rapidly translated into many other languages.

The book

The book is The Universe Beyond the Horizon: Conversations with Professor Haim Eshed, written in collaboration with author Hagar Yanai, published in November 2020. The book is mostly autobiographical, but the last chapter discusses evidence of human contact with aliens, including stories of how aliens allegedly prevented potential nuclear disasters, among them an unspecified nuclear incident during the Bay of Pigs Invasion.

Press response and follow-up commentary

The interview, in Hebrew, gained traction after parts were published in English by The Jerusalem Post. UFO investigator Nick Pope told NBC News that the ufology community wanted to know whether what Eshed described was primary or secondary information:

"Either this is some sort of practical joke or publicity stunt to help sell his book, perhaps with something having been lost in translation, or someone in the know is breaking ranks."

Interviewed by The Times of Israel about Eshed's statements, Isaac Ben-Israel, then current chairman of the Israel Space Agency, said that Eshed went "too far" with his claims. However, he spoke highly of Eshed as the father of Israel's space capabilities, and defended the idea of discussing aliens, saying that it had become far more common over the last decade for serious scientists to believe in alien life. While he himself did not believe that there had been "any physical encounters between us and aliens," he thought it quite likely that aliens existed. He said that Eshed had had an interest in UFOs and aliens for decades and implied that he was simply theorising based on rumours, unusual signals from space, and other publicly available information, commenting:

"There is a lot of information gathered by Americans and it's a matter of interpretation. Most people including myself interpret everything reported as natural phenomena; some people interpret it as something different. If you have a very creative mind, you push toward the second option."

In response to queries by NBC News, a NASA spokesperson reaffirmed that "we have yet to find signs of extraterrestrial life."

2024 silence

In 2024, with neither Eshed nor Yanai having provided any further comment on whether Eshed had been speaking from personal knowledge or only expressing a theory, the blog UAP Files attempted to contact them. Neither Eshed nor his publishers replied, and Yanai replied only that she was not giving interviews.

Parallels in independent witness accounts

Researcher Michael Salla has described Eshed's claims as corroborating testimony from other whistleblowers and contactees. In Elena Danaan's channeled material, the Galactic Federation of Worlds similarly conditions open contact on humanity reaching a sufficient level of technological and social development — a parallel Salla considers significant. Salla has also noted that Eshed's claim about Trump being briefed is corroborated by additional sources, including Italian newspaper accounts reporting on Project Preserve Destiny and the testimony of other political figures.

Elena Danaan, in an exchange with Salla, stated that her own alleged Galactic Federation contacts identified the same four nations — the United States, Israel, France, and Japan — as the most active Earth-side partners, and reported that her contacts "were involved" in the decision to allow Eshed's revelations.

Andy Basiago cited Eshed's December 2020 interview as corroborating his own earlier claims about a permanent human presence on Mars dating to the 1980s, where he alleges he was among the first human participants in what he calls the Mars Jumpgate program.

Laura Eisenhower has referenced Eshed's 2020 disclosure in the context of other contemporary disclosure signals, interpreting it as part of a pattern of controlled information release from allied governments that lack the political will to force unilateral American disclosure but can introduce the subject through senior credentialed voices in other countries.

Significance in the disclosure timeline

Eshed's statements are unusual according to disclosure because they came from an active senior government figure — not a retired low-level whistleblower — and from a NATO-aligned government rather than the United States itself. His academic and military credentials made mainstream dismissal more difficult than in typical UFO whistleblower cases. The statements were not retracted, and Eshed subsequently reiterated and expanded them in follow-up appearances.

In the broader timeline of UAP disclosure, the Eshed interview occurred one month after the U.S. Congress passed legislation establishing the UAP Task Force, and in the same period as the declassification of the Navy's UAP videos. Salla and others have interpreted this clustering as a deliberate softening of the public information environment in preparation for wider acknowledgment of the ET presence.

Researcher Emilio Ortiz, in conversation with Salla, placed Eshed's disclosure in the context of the Galactic Federation's own stated criteria for open contact: humanity must advance to the threshold of a civilization capable of interstellar travel, consistent with the Kardashev scale, before the Federation would openly present itself to the global population rather than to select government contacts.

See also

• Mars Defense Force

Open questions

References

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