30 years have passed since Ron Arad's capture
30 years have passed since Ron Arad's capture

30 years have passed since October 16, 1986, when Ron Arad and Yishai Aviram were on a mission to attack PLO targets in Lebanon. When a bomb dropped by their jet exploded early, they both had to eject and while Aviram was rescued by an Israeli helicopter, Arad was found and captured by the Lebanese Harakat Amal organization. His fate from that moment on is not clear.

Mustafa Dirani, then-head of security of Amal, was captured by Israel in 1994. Although by this time Israel was aware that Arad was no longer in the possession of Amal, Dirani was widely believed to possess information about the fate of Arad and may have been among the last people who saw him alive.

During his captivity, Dirani stated that Arad was first handed over to Hezbollah, then to Iranian Revolutionary Guards who might have taken him to Iran although this was never confirmed by the Iranians and according to other reports, he was kept in captivity in Lebanon and died there later either due to torture, and/or denied medical treatment or was killed during an escape attempt. We have no clue as to whether Dirani was telling the truth or not even though polygraph tests were conducted on him and he, along with Lebanese and Palestinian detainees, was released in 2004 in a prisoner exchange with Hezbollah.

Hassan Nasrallah stated in 2006 that they believed Arad is dead but have no information neither about the circumstances of his death, nor the location of his remains.

Many may ask why did talks break down in 1988 and why is there no information regarding his fate after this point?
The reality is that there is no public evidence that shows Arad was alive after 1988. Talks about his release broke down that year, no picture, letter, or any sign of him being alive after this time came to the surface and Israel declared him dead in 2008.

The tragedy of this story makes it hugely different from the story of other Israeli MIAs. Arad was captured and contact was made between his captors and Israel but unlike in other cases, there was never any real progress in getting closer to bringing him home. Many may ask why did talks break down in 1988 and why is there no information regarding his fate after this point? The most logical answer is that most probably he really did die around this time, which could be one of the reasons for the halt of negotiations between the two sides.

30 years have passed since October 16 1986 but on the other hand, 5 years have passed since October 18 2011, which is the date Gilad Shalit was released from Hamas captivity in Gaza. His years in captivity were documented and many may find it a pity that Israel was not able to send in Sayeret Matkal forces to rescue him but still, around 79% of Israelis supported the prisoner exchange deal in which he was finally freed by Hamas.

Sadly, we were never even a little bit close to achieving the same with Ron Arad. 30 years after his abduction there is 0% chance that he is alive and also a very small chance that anybody is alive who has reliable information about his fate. The last photo of him was taken in 1987 as was the last letter written by him, received by Israel in 2007. Since nobody seems to possess any valuable information, even if a miracle happens and there is peace, real peace, between Israel and Lebanon – Iran, we won’t be closer to solving this mystery.

We are thankful for the freedom of Gilad Shalit, we mourn and will never forget Ron Arad and the other MIAs.