Excerpts From Ron Arad's Journal

Whenever there is news of Ron Arad, I, like most people, can't get enough. I am intrigued and fascinated by any tidbit of information coming from that direction, especially when it is from his direction. In a sense that is part of the reason I am happy the Shalit deal went through, regardless of the terrorists released, so that in 25 years we aren't looking for the same scraps of information we are looking for today about Ron Arad.

The latest to come out is that the family is releasing to the public bits of a journal kept by Ron Arad in the early years of his captivity. The family received some letters of Ron's during the exchange for the bodies of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev and have kept them private until now. Now, to commemorate the 25th year of Arad's captivity, they are making excerpts available to the public.

JPost has some of the excerpts:

In a letter dated November 1, 1986, Arad wrote: “And now for those most dear to me, Tami and Yuval, I am trying to forget you; every memory of you only grabs me by the throat. But know this, I love you, and it seems you are the only reason that prevents me from imagining the worst.
“I promise you at least this: A. I will return. One year? Two? B. Never again will I leave you, even if I will have to give up flying. C. We will have a warm home, loving and good as we once had.”
The kidnapped soldier, whose fate is still unknown, also attempted to pass hints of his whereabouts through his various notes, which he jotted down on the backs of pages ripped from inside a book.
Arad’s family received the letters as part of a deal between Israel and Hezbollah that also saw the return of the bodies of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser. Arad’s family had held on to the journal privately, and decided to release excerpts to commemorate the 25 years since his capture.
One other entry, undated, was also addressed to Arad’s wife.
“Once again, to Tami. Last night I dreamt of you and it was magnificent. Just the two of us meeting after a long day on the grass, talking like we always do, and suddenly I was back with you. Waking up from this was very difficult, believe me. But this [dream] at least gave me a few minutes of happiness.”