When asked about halutz being an air force general, sharon said he was the overall land general so not to worry. When he took ill, israel of course had to worry though barnea and dankner were bsing israelis on how good olmert was. Now we know from winograd that he was a grossly failed leader, abetted by most of kadima including mofaz who sat and did nothing and livni,, though she talks like some kind of hero was paralysed by olmert into inaction. Halutz bears huge responsibility according to winograd for being a fish out of water and not arranging a change in strategy in tactics since olmert had no idea what he was dealing with, as well as being gripped by fear. Who cares what halutz thinks about shalit or arad. He should mind his stocks and leave israel alone. He was a gross failure not for not winning, but for not counterattacking en masse and restoring hezbollah deterrence. And this is who livni picks for her security portfolio.She is an absolute dumbbell, olmert number 2.

critizise the political leadership, hence the same party he just joined, namely Kadima!!!!

Please do not let this clown back in any decision making capacity.

this is the truth and it is DISGUSTING. why does not say the amount that was wanted???????

Halutz talking now but failed to convince when he could and should. Kadima is gaining a useless guy. It will be better for him to vanish from public eyes and retired .

intelligence. He has none, nor does zippy the pin head from kadima and the rest of the fools from that "political" party. If kadima forms the next government, then it will be the end of Israel.

facts (wikipedia): kidnapped in 1986 by amal militia. in 1994, head of amal security said, arad had been turned over to hezbullah on may 4, 1988 already, then to the iranian revolutionary guards. in 2003 some organization offered 10 million dollars for information on arad. june 29, 2008 hezbollah told the german negotiator (konrad) , that arad was dead. 3 days after, july 2, 2008, an hezbollah-investigation report was handed to the UN. its content: undisclosed to the public. nobody ever tried to swap him (his remains), what hezbollah (or any leb sub-group) certainly would have done. so most likely he died in iranian captivity. but isnt it strange, that his remains were not transferred back to some lebanese group, to make a deal out of them ? he/his remains would be worth a lot and how much would hezbollah wish to have something to press israel ? maybe he is still alive ?

If true, this makes me horribly sad. We, like countless others around the world, have been saying a prayer in shul every year for his safe return. To think that today fallen soldiers are returned to Israel in exchange for releasing Pal terrorists from prison, and Ron Arad could had been released for a cheque? Unbelievable and I daresay a betrayal of our longest missing warrior.

concerned about your own finances...how this country allows people of your ilk to take office is beyond me..

Ron Arad, may he be returned to us alive, is not our longest held warrior. Staff Sgt. Zecharya Baumel, Staff Sgt. Zvi Feldman and Staff Sgt. Yehuda Katz were taken in the Battle at Sultan Yakoub in 1982, and are still MIA's.

Halutz joined the ranks of liars. He was useless as chief of staff showing his idiocy . Now he is with Kadima and wants to somebody to take notice of his falsehoods. He is nothing but a big mouthed liar.

What a policy Israel! Considering the same for Shalit? hamass killed Arad in cold blood. Why is anybody still talking to hamass? The UN is useless and corrupt. America is just plain stupid. And there's nobody else...

Halutz. the failure has joined the party that failed......birds of a feather.

everyone knows the price was a million dollars. i am glad that my children are out of the army and i hope that my grandchildren will be out of the country when it is time for them to serve this nation. the army has values that are good for nothing. i feel sorry for family arad and i am "glad" that his mom does not have to hear this. where are our values????????????? rabin might not have been a rapist but he certainly shold have been put behind bars when he refused to pay any amount to return a soldier - he was a criminal at the time. we send our boys out to battle and DO NOT DO EVERYTHING to bring them back. This country has certainly deteriorated.

There should be an immediate disclosure of who was the idiot who refused this arrangement to free Ron Arad! Gilad Shalit?? Ridiculous that the "strongest" army in the middle east with the "Best" intelligence agency cannot do anything for this poor soldier. Other people's kids are easy to ignore.

Ron Arad was taken over 25 years ago which is long before Halutz would have been in such a senior position that he would be party to government decision making so how come he is suddenly such an expert on what we could have done for Ron Arad and why we didn't do it? Halutz is testing the water see if Gilad Shalit can be turned into an election issue. The price Hamas are demanding is to high and everybody has a price beyond which you don't pay for the good of the majority. Halutz knows this but he is trying to start his political career in Kadima. If he can make Gilad a party political issue rather than one which opposition parties don't criticise too much because some this above party politics. Halutz wants this to be made political so Kadima can go into the next election saying do we want Gilad Shalit to be the next Ron Arad but this government has done nothing to free him. Vote Kadima because we will get him back.

quickly ..your stocks n' shares need you......