Ron Arad (1986)
Ron Arad (1986)Flash 90

Israel's Channel Two, on Saturday night, broadcast a chilling preview of a diary kept by Ron Arad during the first weeks of his captivity in Lebanon, The full contents of the pages of the diary will be broadcast later this week on Channel Two's Uvda (literally, Fact) program.

The pages were apparently part of a diary that Arad kept in the hope that it would reach his loved ones - as indeed it did, 22 years after his disappearance over Lebanon, where he was shot down and captured by terrorists.

The pages were returned to Israel three years ago by Lebanese terrorists as part of the deal in which Israel released arch-terrorist Samir Kuntar and four other terrorists in exchange for the remains of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev. The diary pages have been released only now to the public by his family now that it is 25 years since his capture.



The entries are poignant, and express Arad's hopes that he will soon be united with his family and freed from captivity. In one entry, he writes to his wife Tami and daughter Yuval that he is “trying to forget you, because all memories of you choke me. But know that I love you and you are the only reason I am resisting thoughts of the worst possible things that could happen to me. I will return. But when – a year? Two years? When I do, I will never, ever leave you again, even if I have to stop flying, We will have a nice, warm home like we never had before.”



Arad has been officially classified as missing in action since October 1986, his fate is unknown. Arad was lost on a mission over Lebanon, captured by Shiite terror group Amal and was later handed over to Hizbullah terrorists.