Captured pilot Ron Arad's daughter in a remarkable post: 'They also told us they were doing everything'

Yuval, the daughter of the navigator Ron Arad who was taken captive in Lebanon about 38 years ago, published a remarkable post to her mother Tami's Facebook account, in which she shared her opinion on the hostages situation. "I'm not active on social media and in general I try to keep a low to non-existent public profile, but today I deviate from my habits," Yuval wrote.

"From the first week after that Black Shabbat, when I began to realize the magnitude of the disaster that happened to our nation, I have been retracing our family history, and all I want to do is scream," she continued.

"For the past three months, I've memorized the names of all the hostages, read the life story of each and every one of them and felt the hole in my heart left by my father only widening. All this sorrow is constantly accompanied by historical scenes, if you will, from the story of my father's captivity and how always, but always, we were one step behind, how they were always wise in hindsight, how they could guess where he was 'until a few months ago,' and how they didn't understand that time in captivity is a window of opportunity that at any moment may close forever. Unfortunately, my father today is a poster: 'The captive navigator Ron Arad,' who no one wants to be."

"We were always a step behind, wise in hindsight, we could guess where he was 'until a few months ago'"

"And this is my starting point to say the following things. Maybe some of them will be perceived by the readers as a cliché. Maybe some of them will be perceived as irrelevant statements," she wrote. "Time is running, soon a 100 days of captivity of young and old, female and male soldiers, women and men, brothers and sisters, fathers and spouses, will pass. The families are waiting; they are told 'a little more military pressure and we will be in a better place to bring them back,' or 'do not talk to the media because it affects the negotiations' or ‘we are doing everything, we also want them at home.'"

Yuval added: "They told us also, 'Everyone is coming back, you saw the pilots from the Yom Kippur War.' They also told us: 'We are doing everything.' They told us also, 'patience.' We also counted days, nights, weeks, months and years. And we also pleaded with the Red Cross and we also flew around the world to meet with international dignitaries to put pressure on them. And there were yellow ribbons and blue balloons, videos to raise awareness, media interviews and requests for help. That's why I'm writing these things. Because not only is history repeating itself before our eyes, it seems that they refuse to learn from history, and I can't bear it anymore."

Regarding the difficult negotiations for the release of the hostages, she wrote: "In order to bring them back, the decision makers, the government and its leader, need to make difficult decisions. There needs to be a give-and-take with a murderous terrorist organization, and mainly to give. Giving to a terrorist organization involves painful concessions. They will hurt us as a people and as a country, and they will hurt the ministers of this government politically. This is precisely why there is no deal." 

"They also told us 'everyone is coming back', we counted nights, days, weeks, months, and years"

"Again, they will bring up the discussions about the persons released in the Shalit deal, instead of dealing with the issues that led to strengthening this monstrous organization. And I assume there will be those who imagine that the hostages have the time of five years and four months (the time that Gilad spent in captivity). According to the testimonies from captivity and the latest pictures of the hostages that were published, it does not look this way."

"For a deal, you have to take responsibility, stand in front of the cameras, look straight ahead and say 'we made a decision.' And that doesn't happen because leadership and responsibility are two qualities that have also fallen captive. And the captives need to be brought back home together, with 136 wounded and hurting Israeli citizens. Because we are the people of Israel, and we need and can bear the pain of giving [concessions], so that we can all begin to heal."