17th year of Arad abduction (by Hizbullah) marked in Tel-Aviv

The Jerusalem Post ^ | 16 October 2003 | MATTHEW GUTMAN

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Oct. 16, 2003
17th year of Arad abduction marked in Tel-Aviv
By MATTHEW GUTMAN

Ron Arad

The 17th anniversary of the abduction of IAF navigator Lt.-Col. Ron Arad was commemorated Thursday evening in Tel Aviv, under increasing anxiety that the prisoner exchange with Hizbullah will not include information about the missing airman.

IDF officials, politicians and artists attended the rally, to be held under the slogans "Ron. Hold on, my brother; and "No Ron, No Dirani."

Chen Arad, Ron's brother, and Eliad Shraga, the Arad family lawyer, are slated to be among the speakers.

Yoske Harari, head of the Fellowship for Ron Arad's Release said at the rally that Israel should kidnap Hizbullah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah in order to get Ron back. "This is my opinion, and I speak for myself, not for Ron's family But the government knows where Ron is, and so does Nasrallah," Harari added.

The rally marks 17 years since Arad bailed out of his Phantom jet over Lebanon in 1986. Arad was quickly captured and spent the better part of the next 18 months in Amal militia leader Mustafa Dirani's trunk, before the latter "sold" him to Hizbullah.

There has been no concrete information regarding Arad's fate since, and Iran adamantly denies any connection to the affair.

Arad left behind his wife Tammy and his toddler daughter Yuval, now 18 and set to enter a special unit in the IDF.

The demonstration is only a single component of the Arad family's multimillion dollar campaign to lobby and recover information regarding the lost navigator.

The family has sued Dirani, one of the primary Israeli bargaining chips in the impending Hizbullah swap, for NIS 100 million in order to forestall his inclusion in the deal.

In addition they have set up a Web site, asking anyone with information to send in anonymous tips. They have also offered a $10 million reward for intelligence leading to Arad's location.

Besides the Arad family, several other groups are increasing their pressure on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to call off the deal. In press releases and a letter to Sharon, the Terror Victims Association (TVA) argues that the release of hundreds of security prisoners could endanger hundreds of Israelis. "And then what will you tell those victims' families, that we got [Elhanan] Tannenbaum back?" the letter read.

In order to press their point, the group constructed a 27-meter-long sign, with the names and pictures of each of Israel's 1,450 victims of terror since the 1986 "Jibril Deal," and has exhibited it in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

In 1986 Israel exchanged 1,150 Palestinian prisoners for four Israeli soldiers, in what historians note is one of the most lopsided prisoner trades in history.

TVA maintains that hundreds of victims died as a direct result of the deal, which enabled militants to leave the country and then infiltrate back as well-trained terrorists.

Meir Indor, one of the group's founders, believes that the government must take little notice of the hostage victim's families, or the pressure of the public to see hostages returned at almost any price.

This is not callous, he said, "otherwise the price is too high, and will only encourage the next wave of kidnappings," he said.

This sentiment has been echoed in the halls of the Defense Ministry. Yet Sharon has remained adamantly practical, claiming that rescuing a man known to be alive and in Hizbullah captivity is preferable to waiting for a better deal and losing him, as well as gaining no information about Arad.

[judicial meanz]

Ron Arad---you are not forgotten.