Photo of Ron Arad
The heartbreaking photos
Newly acquired Ron Arad photographs show emaciated, sad captive
Twenty years, and possibly more than that, have passed since an anonymous Hizbullah photographer shot the picture of the Ron Arad we see today: Emaciated, bearded, and sad.
He is looking at us and probably asking himself: Who is the photographer? Where will the photos end up? Will my family, Tammy, Yuval, Batia, Chen, and Dudu see these photos? Should I pretend to be a hero and smile? Or is it better that they see me just the way I am? Should I hide the arm injury, or perhaps make sure everyone sees it so they exert pressure that will bring me back home?
Intelligence experts will likely scrutinize the photos and attempt to get new information out of them: Compare the shirt he wore in one photo to the pajamas he wore in the other, the time that has elapsed between one photo and the next, the injured arm. And maybe, maybe there will be something in the backdrop that gives away his location in Lebanon.
Twenty years later, the missed opportunity to return Ron Arad seems even greater. There is he, before us, alive, writing letters, and loving.
Another ‘routine mission’
Today, the public understands to some extent the need to bargain vis-à-vis Hamas on the release of Gilad Shalit and perhaps also the need to bargain in the case of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser.
Yet the same public who today agrees, to a certain extent, to risk Gilad Shalit’s life for the sake of a better bargaining position cannot understand the similar delay that took place in the Ron Arad affair; because that bargaining attempt, 20 years ago, apparently made Ron Arad disappear.
And today, all that is left for us to do is keep looking at the photo of that bearded guy, who kissed his wife and daughter before he went out on yet another “routine mission” in Lebanon – and hasn’t returned to this day. Every day that has passed since then – 22 years – has only deepened the mystery.
We look at Ron and at his eyes, which are calling out for help – and those are our own eyes, which have been teary for 22 years already.
