In the latest disappointing twist to what has been a convoluted, international intrigue ongoing for over 20 years, Germany has apparently given up on ever receiving information about captured Israeli Air Force navigator Ron Arad. Germany is therefore planning to release from prison an Iranian terrorist who was to have played a role in a three-way deal to receive information on the missing Israeli. This, according to a report on Israel's Channel One television news program Tuesday night.

The story began in late 1986 when two Israelis, an IAF pilot and his navigator Arad, were downed over Lebanon; the pilot was rescued by Israeli forces, but Arad was captured by local Arabs, who took or sold him to Syria and Iran.  Though a letter written by him in 1987 was received, he has never been seen since, and it is not known if he is alive.

In 1989 and 1994, respectively, IDF forces kidnapped two Lebanese terrorists known to have had a hand in Arad's capture and disappearance.  However, this achieved nothing on behalf of Arad: Israel learned little from them, and the Iranians who were presumably holding him were apparently not moved by their continued captivity.  In 2004, after years of legal wrangling, Israel's Supreme Court ruled that the two could no longer be held as negotiating pawns towards Arad’s release and must be freed.



Tenenbaum and Arad

 Israel made another well-publicized effort to obtain information on Ron Arad in January 2004, when it released hundreds of imprisoned terrorists in exchange for the bodies of three captured-and-killed Israeli soldiers and captured drug dealer Elchanan Tenenbaum.  The deal was only narrowly approved by the Cabinet - and probably passed only because it involved a second stage, involving Arad, to be carried out later.

This second stage was to see Hizbullah transfer to Israel solid information on Ron Arad - either DNA, or, if he was no longer alive, proof of death.  In return, Israel was to release Lebanese murderer Samir Kuntar, who killed an Israeli father and his 4-year-old daughter in Nahariya in 1979.

This second stage also involved a third party, Germany, which mediated between the sides.  As a goodwill gesture, Germany promised to release from its prison Kazam Darabi of Iran, as well as a Lebanese citizen, who had collaborated on the murder of an Iranian government opponent in a Berlin restaurant in 1992. 

Hizbullah Doesn't Come Through

However, Hizbullah was never able to procure the requested information on Arad, despite making what Israeli security officials called a serious effort to do so.  Others say that it was clear from the start that Hizbullah would never come through. Esther Pollard, whose husband Jonathan has been in US prison since a year before Arad was captured, wrote at the time that the deal for Arad was "a pack of lies."

Mrs. Pollard wrote to the Arad family that then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was so anxious to free Tennenbaum "that he [referred to it as] 'the commandment of redeeming of captives' - an expression that he never used in the past for Ron Arad, an IDF pilot, or for Jonathan, an Israeli agent. Sharon claimed that there would be a 'second round' in which Ron's freedom would be obtained. Time has proven to all of us how much of an unsubstantiated pack of lies that was."  She noted that both her husband and Ron Arad were "taken captive as a result of their actions on behalf of the security of Israel - Ron as an IDF pilot and Jonathan, who was acting under the auspices of the Ministry of Defense" - but that both had been let down by the government. (see below)



Despite all, many Israelis were hopeful that the Arad case would take a positive turn.  Several months later, the Hizbullah terror organization handed over what it claimed was a bone belonging to Arad, but tests revealed it was a fake. By December, the government had apparently given up on Hizbullah, and together with the “Born to Freedom Foundation” - set up on behalf of Arad’s family and friends - it offered a $10 million reward for information leading to the finding of the missing navigator.

German Move Closes Another Door

Now, Germany's consent to release the Iranian means that another option to learn of Arad's fate has been sealed shut.  Arad's only child, his daughter Yovel, and his brother Chen, are to travel to Germany next week, in an attempt to convince the country's District Attorney to block the release.  In an eerie coincidence, their meeting with her will be held on October 16 - the 21st anniversary of Ron Arad's capture.

Similarly eerily, the day after the meeting will mark exactly 8,000 days that Jonathan Pollard has been in prison.  Pollard was sentenced to life, despite having been convicted of one count of passing classified information to an ally - Israel - without intent to harm the United States.