Haim Eshed and the Galactic Federation
Haim Eshed helped build a space program with satellites, launchers, and ground stations. Then, in 2020, the retired Israeli defense official claimed that a Galactic Federation of aliens existed. That was a much harder thing to put on a launch schedule.
He claimed that aliens and humans had struck a secret deal. The public sources behind the story do not prove that claim. But the work that brought Eshed to that interview has a long history of its own.
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Before the Alien Headlines
Eshed was the first head of the Israeli Defense Ministry's Space Directorate. He helped set up the office, led it for about 30 years, and retired with the rank of brigadier general. Its task was to oversee the country's military space work.
He studied engineering at the Technion and earned three Israel Defense Prizes. An Israel Space Agency biography also lists a citation from the military's chief of staff among his honors.
Eshed helped set up the Israel Space Agency in 1983, too. The next year, he helped found the Technion's space research institute. His work reached beyond one office into the places that would support space research.
Those names can get tangled when a long career shrinks to a headline. Eshed's leadership post was at the Defense Ministry; he helped found the civilian space agency, but that doesn't make him its former chief. Keeping his actual job straight gives the rest of his story a firmer starting point.
Getting Satellites Off the Ground
The Space Directorate oversaw satellites, launchers to carry them, and ground stations to support them from Earth. Spaceflight meant building a whole system.
On September 19, 1988, the Defense Ministry and Israel Aerospace Industries launched Ofek 1. This pilot program aimed to give Israel its own route into space. The original launch footage was released 30 years later, letting the public see that part of the story for itself.
Ofek 3 followed in 1995, giving the program an operational satellite. Israel could now put its space skills to military use.
These were shared achievements, with Eshed helping to build and lead the office behind them. Long before his alien claims reached the newspapers, he had a program with real hardware in space to his name.
A Book Opens the Door
In November 2020, Yedioth Books published The Universe Beyond the Horizon: Conversations With Professor Haim Eshed. His name was front and center. The author, though, was Hagar Yanai.
As the publisher explains, Yanai built the book from her talks with him. It covered his life and career, along with his interest in UFO sightings and theories.
The book led to an interview with journalist Raanan Shaked in Yedioth Ahronoth that December. Eshed said he felt freer to speak now that he had retired and made his name.
And he had plenty to discuss.
What Eshed Said About the Galactic Federation
In the original interview, Eshed described an alien Federation and an agreement with the United States. He also claimed there was a base under the surface of Mars, shared with US astronauts.
Asked about proof of the agreement, he acknowledged that he could not prove it. Asked how the Mars base was known, he pointed to articles. Shaked also reported that Eshed had never personally seen a UFO.
Those details change how the account should be read. The interview records what Eshed believed and said; it isn't an eyewitness tour of an alien base.
- Follow Ross Coulthart's investigation beyond short interviews and headlines
- Explore the witnesses and secrecy claims behind the modern disclosure debate
- Compare a journalist's account with the cases and questions raised in the article
The Trump side of Eshed's story follows the political claims further. For understanding Eshed himself, the next revealing turn came when someone went back to the reporter who had interviewed him.
Following the Story Back to Its Source
Later that December, Jeremy Corbell interviewed Shaked about the article. Tim McMillan covered their exchange in The Debrief. It shed more light on where the treaty story had come from.
Shaked traced that material to public UFO lore, McMillan reported. It had not come to Eshed through his official duties. A headline about a former space chief could leave the reader with quite a different idea.
That didn't mean his whole interest came from books or articles. Shaked said things Eshed learned through his work and US peers helped shape his wider interest in UFOs, too.
The trail was more complex than either a secret briefing or a reading list. Shaked could not fully explain the nine-member Federation, either. Some details still lacked a clear route back to their source.
Things learned at work, tales passed on by others, and ideas found in print can all sit inside one person's account. In this case, the reporter's follow-up helped separate those paths, even where he could not trace a claim to its original source.
Jeremy Corbell Follows Up With Raanan Shaked
A Colleague Weighs In
Isaac Ben-Israel was chairman of the Israel Space Agency when the story broke. In The Times of Israel, he praised Eshed's role in getting the country into space. But he rejected the leap to a Federation and physical encounters.
To pursue that story, you'd need something tied to the claim itself. That might mean records people could check, named witnesses, or data others could test. Tracing those links is part of what UFO researchers do.
- Read accounts from pilots, generals, and government officials
- Follow Leslie Kean through aviation records and witness interviews
- Compare what witnesses describe with the evidence they present
A Legacy With a Launch Record
In May 2025, the Defense Ministry honored Eshed at an event marking 30 years since Ofek 3. It praised his role in founding and leading the Space Directorate.
The event marked three decades since an actual launch. It offered a different picture of Eshed from the one that spread around the world in 2020.
Long before Eshed spoke of a Galactic Federation, the program he helped build had already left Earth.
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