The wife of missing Israeli Air Force navigator Ron Arad added her voice to the pleas of the mother and father of kidnapped IDF Cpl. Gilad Shalit on Sunday, warning the government not to repeat the "mistakes of the past" in its negotiations with Hamas terrorists for Shalit's life.
Tami Arad joined a petition by Noam and Aviva Shalit in the High Court of Justice on Sunday, asking the court to block the government's implementation of the temporary ceasefire agreement with the Gaza terrorist organization, until their son is freed.
There is only one way to bring a prisoner home alive - to pay.
Arad implored the government not to hold back on releasing the terrorist prisoners demanded by Hamas, arguing in a letter to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the cabinet ministers, which she attached to the petition by Shalit's family, that no price is too high for the life of a captive soldier.
"Twenty-two years after Ron disappeared into the Lebanese abyss I allow myself to take advantage of the right reserved to the eternally-missing, and join Aviva and Noam's cry," she wrote in the letter.
"I look in the mirror every morning, and unlike you and your ministers, I have to live with the guilt of not doing enough. I have failed to influence your predecessors in time, when it was still possible to bring Ron home alive. The mistakes that were made with Ron must not be repeated with Gilad. There is only one way to bring a prisoner home alive – to pay."
The missing airman's wife added that she believes Israel's deterrence capability "cannot be established at the expense of its captive soldiers… As time goes by, the price goes up and the chances go down and we end up paying just as much for the dead."
The Court adjourned for a midday break in order to allow the State Prosecution to formulate a response to the petition.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is expected to travel to Cairo for intensive talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on the issue. Olmert has said he plans to appeal to Mubarak to pressure Hamas into accepting Israel's proposal for a prisoner swap deal for Shalit's release.