Ron Arad's friends voice support for Shalit deal

Joining parents, Noam and Aviva Shalit, and grandfather Zvi Shalit at the protest tent outside Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's residence in Jerusalem on Thursday was Gilad's older brother, Yoel.

Named after his father's twin brother, who was killed in the Yom Kippur War, the 25-year-old Yoel made the trip to Jerusalem while on break from his studies at the Technion. He arrived late in the evening and did not speak to the media.

Several dozen kilometers from there, Olmert said his heart went out to the family. In a farewell speech to the Union of Local Authorities in Israel, the outgoing prime minister said: "I know how much pain, suffering and longing they are going through. I know how important it is to them that this pain finally end."

Meanwhile a group of some 20 reserve soldiers issued a letter addressed to Olmert on Thursday, urging him to free Shalit before leaving office.

Yoel Shalit with his father this evening (Photo: Gil Yohanan)

"Gilad Shalit's fate mirrors the moral and ideological strength of Israeli society," the reservists wrote. "The call to free Shalit is not a surrender to any sort of public pressure, it will not signal weakness to the other side. The uncompromising call to free Gilad is directly tied to Israel's moral strength."

The reservists said it pained them to see Shalit's fate turning into that of MIA navigator Ron Arad. "We feel Gilad's pain, in captivity for nearly 1,000 days, withering and fading in the dark, without even a hint of light for hope," they wrote to Olmert.

Arad's friends visited the tent on Thursday, along with relatives of missing soldier Majdi Halabi. Itzik Orbach, a friend of Arad's from flight school, told Ynet: "We support the Shalit family and their struggle, we want to strengthen their hands and remind the Israeli people of the value of bringing Gilad back."

Orbach said the current debate surrounding Shalit's release reminded the group of the days they battled for Arad's return. "We are here to support the Shalit family out of our experience with Ron. This difficult saga must come to an end"

Another friend of Arad's, Danny Ron, said that their bitter experience obligated them to act. "We were several years late in raising the alarm. We were silent, in the background, we didn't make any noise in the media. We trusted those in charge to do what was needed to be done, and in doing so we failed."

Ron said that if today someone offered Arad for the same price offered in the past – no one would think twice of going through with the deal. The same lesson, he said, must be applied to Shalit's case before his tracks go cold.

'Hard to enlist knowing Shalit was abandoned'

Alongside the reservists letter, a group of 15 teenagers also sent a letter to the prime minister. The youths, who have been at the protest tent since Sunday, wrote of the concerns plaguing those who are soon to be drafted given the stagnated negotiations for Shalit's release.

"We write this letter to you here, right outside your home, in the protest tent for Gilad Shalit. We are surrounded by teenagers, children, men and women, bereaved parents, and of course – Noam and Aviva Shalit, who are sitting here and asking for their son – Gilad," the youths wrote.

One of its authors said the group had found a way to make sure the letter reached Olmert himself. "He even asked who to address the reply to," the girl said.

"Most of us here are between the ages of 15-18, all of us are planning and expecting to enlist in the IDF and serve our country. As future soldiers, we want to be sure that if we or one of our friends are taken captive, the country will do everything possible to bring them home quickly. For us, it will be hard to enlist knowing that Gilad Shalit hasn't come home to his parents, that he has been abandoned to enemy captivity," she added.

One of the girls, Tal Fisch, said: "Of course, we all intend to enlist. But we will have a lot more doubts and questions if the questions we posed to the prime minister are not answered."