Copyright 2003 Haaretz
September 25
HEADLINE: Why just Ron Arad?
BYLINE: Aviv Lavie
A worldwide campaign with a $10 million reward for information on the missing Israeli navigator Ron Arad was put on hold at the last minute - apparently because of the prisoner exchange deal now being negotiated. The campaign was organized without the knowledge of the families of the other MIAs, and now, both they and the Arad family are feeling cheated
At the beginning of June 2002, the defense
establishment decided to take new steps in an
attempt - perhaps the last - to shed light on the
fate of Ron Arad, the Israeli Air Force navigator
who has been missing since 1986, when his plane
went down over Lebanon. A think team was set up
under a retired judge, Eliahu Vinograd, which was
asked to re-examine the intelligence file that has
accumulated in the past 17 years, find a possible
lead that might have been overlooked, and come up
with an opinion about the prospects of finding
Arad alive. As was reported in the media, the team
completed its work a few weeks ago, concluding
that the defense establishment should continue to
cling to the working assumption that Ron Arad is
alive.
At the same time, it was
decided to offer a reward of
$10 million for information
leading to the discovery of
Arad's whereabouts. The reward,
as the mass-circulation daily
Yedioth Ahronoth reported on
June 7, 2002, was the joint
initiative of Arad's family and
the state. The subject then
disappeared from the public and media agenda.
In any event, the reward was never declared
officially.
It now turns out that during the past year,
intense preparations were made behind the
scenes to launch a worldwide campaign, within
the framework of which the reward was to be
declared. The activity was carried out
secretly, outside the defense establishment,
and involved only a handful of people. The
driving force behind the complex project was
attorney Eliad Shraga, chair of the Movement
for Quality Government in Israel, who was until
recently the lawyer of the Arad family. Working
with Shraga were Ron Arad's brothers, Dudu and
Chen, and Asaf Harel, a friend of Ron's from
their joint period in military service. During
the year, Merav Sarel was added to the team.
Sarel, in the past MTV vice president for
marketing and today a consultant on
communications and marketing, was made
responsible for the media aspects of the
campaign.
The involvement of the defense establishment was
manifested mainly in its readiness to put up a
third of the reward money - about $3.5 million.
Another third came from donations, and the
final third from the family. The team labored
during the past year to set up a logistics
apparatus that would enable them to cope with
every possible scenario after the announcement
of the reward. The nerve center of the project
is in the Shalom Meir Tower (Migdal Shalom) in
Tel Aviv. Attorney Shraga's office is on the
19th floor of the building, and the offices of
the association for Ron Arad are located on the
24th floor (though there is no sign of any kind
on the door indicating the association's
presence there).
By phone or Internet
To handle the responses that the team hoped
would start flowing in after the declaration of
the reward, a call center was established in
the Shalom Meir Tower consisting of dozens of
telephone positions where operators would
answer calls in Hebrew, Arabic, English and
Russian. The system exists and is ready to go
into action at short notice. The idea is that a
phone number will be publicized that can be
dialed from any place in the world; the
conversation will be automatically routed to
Israel. Even from Iran.
In addition to the phone system, a special
Internet site was constructed:
www.10million.org. At the moment, the site
cannot be accessed by outsiders. It is a
protected zone that can be entered only with a
password. Considerable effort went into the
construction of the site, which is supposed to
provide answers to a number of key questions:
What type of information, and at what level of
proof, will land the informant the reward? How
can someone who transmits information be sure
he will get the reward (via which bank, and so
forth)? And how can the site be accessed and
information be provided without leaving traces?
This last item is especially important, because
it is believed that any information that does
come in will originate in Iran or another
country, such as Syria, in which the source
will be risking his life. The site has versions
in several languages.
The launching of the campaign was intended to be
an event on a global scale. To that end,
efforts were made to recruit a large number of
glittering names from a range of fields and get
them to join the friends association and give
interviews if needed. Among the celebrities who
were approached: Hillary Clinton, Mikhail
Gorbachev, the Dalai Lama, Helmut Kohl, Steven
Spielberg, Barbra Streisand, Jane Fonda, Henry
Kissinger, Ted Koppel, Queen Nur of Jordan,
Richard Gere and Dustin Hoffman.
The launch event was to include a press
conference for all the representatives of the
Israeli and foreign media. The campaign was
planned to be aimed primarily at Israel, the
United States, France, England, Syria, Lebanon
and Iran, with the focus on large Muslim and
Iranian communities across Europe and in the
United States. The hope was that people would
not be able to ignore an amount on the scale of
$10 million - which is also why the Website was
given that name - and that even if information
about Ron Arad's fate is in the possession of a
small group of people, one of them would be
sufficiently tempted by the size of the reward
to take the risk of breaking his silence.
"I am convinced that this will bring the desired
result and that the mystery will be solved at
long last," one of those involved in the
project said this week.
The work on the project was very practical in
character. Simulations were conducted for
possible crisis situations after the
announcement. What would happen if dozens of
telephone operators were poised at their posts
and no one called? And, even more perturbing,
what would happen if the families of the other
Israelis who were missing in action (MIA) or
known to be held captive blasted the campaign
because of the preferential treatment Ron Arad
seemed to be getting? To address this problem,
it was decided that a prize of $1 million would
also be offered for information about each of
the other MIAs and captives. A person who is
close to the subject said this week that this
only heightened the problem: Who decides that
one MIA is worth $1 million while another is
worth $10 million?
Not in the swap
The target date for the start of the campaign
was three and a half weeks ago - September 1,
2003. Everything was ready. But then, a few
days before the launch, the team was instructed
to put everything on hold. The source of this
directive was the defense establishment, and
it's a safe conjecture that it has to do with
the deal that is currently in the works for a
prisoner exchange. If so, the Arad family now
has cause to be doubly angry: first, because of
the suspension of the project and second, at
the fact that Ron Arad is reportedly not
included in the expected prisoner swap.
People involved in the project this week
maintained total silence. Eliad Shraga: "Sorry.
I can't talk about it. As the saying goes,
we'll talk at six o'clock after the war." Dudu
Arad: "When I can, I will react about this
subject." Merav Sarel: "I am unable to say
anything now. I am only ready to confirm that I
am supposed to be responsible for the media
aspect of the project."
Chen Arad also stated that he can't talk, but
when asked why the project was suspended just
at this time, replied, "Those are the right
questions. Maybe you should really ask the
[defense] establishment?"
I understand from what you are saying that the
defense establishment ordered you to put the
project on hold.
"As far as I remember, the last time I checked,
I discovered that I don't take orders from the
defense establishment."
Still, without its financial cooperation the
campaign cannot be implemented, isn't that so?
"There are alternatives. Maybe in another few
days I will be able to elaborate on that
point."
`Brazen lie'
Haim Avraham, the father of missing soldier
Benny Avraham, was astonished to hear about the
intense activity to set the reward project in
motion. When told about it this week by
Haaretz, he said: "A year and a quarter ago,
when the report about the prize was published,
I contacted officials in the defense
establishment with whom I am in touch and asked
about the matter. They told me unequivocally
that there had been an idea like that but it
was shelved, that they were dropping the idea
because they understood that they cannot offer
a reward for one soldier and not for others. I
know that other families made the same demand.
I am stunned by what you are telling me now -
they lied to me brazenly for more than a
year."
Yona Baumel, the father of Zachary Baumel, who
has been missing since 1982, was also taken by
surprise when told about the planned reward:
"At the time, when there was talk about the
idea, I tried to look into it and was told
explicitly that there was no such thing. It's
important for me to point out that if the money
comes from private sources I have nothing to
say about the subject, but if the state is
giving money, it has to be on an equal basis.
The boys who were in the tank at Sultan Yakub
[the site of the battle in June 1982] deserve
the same backing from the government as pilots.
The government doesn't have the right to
differentiate between blood and blood."
Other parents of MIAs were also taken aback to
hear about the events that had occurred without
their knowledge. This week they asked the army
and the defense establishment what was going
on. Some of the conversations were unpleasant.
According to one of the parents, the military
personnel they spoke with did not deny the
story and only recommended, "Don't get involved
in this now, it's not the right time."
Haaretz asked the IDF Spokesperson's Office the
following questions:
1. Why was the reward project, which was
supposed to be launched at the beginning of
this month, suspended?
2. Is the freeze on the project connected with
the prisoner exchange deal that is now in the
works?
3. What is the reaction of the Israel Defense
Forces and the defense establishment to the
contentions of the families that the project is
discriminatory, and more especially to the fact
that they were assured that the idea of
offering the reward was shelved, even as the
preparations for the campaign continued behind
their backs?
The response of the IDF Spokesperson:
"During the last year, the subject was studied.
The moment for putting the initiative into
action has yet to be determined and will be
determined according to security and
intelligence assessments. The families are
being updated on what concerns them.