Tami Arad, the wife of missing Israeli navigator Ron Arad, expressed her support for reservists from the Israel Air Force’s 69th fighter squadron who announced their intention to not report to their base for training tomorrow [Wednesday] in protest of the government’s planned judicial reforms.
Ron Arad has been missing in action since his plane was shot down over Lebanon in 1986, and is believed to have been killed by his captors in 1988. Arad served in the 69th fighter squadron, the same squadron as the 37 reservists who had refused to report for duty.
The reservists today announced that they would report to their base tomorrow for discussions with their commanders and fellow soldiers.
In a post to Facebook, Tami Arad wrote: “Dear fighters of the 69th Squadron, I am proud of you for your symbolic decision. You took the lead just as you do in the operational activity which you carry out in secret. As someone who has personally experienced the risks you take, it is clear to me beyond any doubt that you cannot act differently. You must be certain that the government that sends you on missions will be democratic and preserve the values of the IDF.”
Responding to the public criticism of the reserve pilots, she wrote: “I couldn’t help but take this attack personally.”
“The 69th squadron is our squadron. I know some of the young reservists, I know the squadron commanders, and without getting into clich&eacutes about the quality of people like them in other units in the entire army, the soldiers of the 69th squadron were and remain leaders and I am proud of them. Whoever calls them refuseniks is wrong and misleading. Those who call them derogatory names do so because they have no intelligent way to respond to their correct and moral statement,” she claimed.
“The pilots of the 69th squadron will continue to volunteer for the reserves as long as there is an independent court in Israel, which can protect them and us on days when the sun is shining or when the sky is cloudy. In other words they will volunteer for the reserves as long as Israeli democracy exists. If we fear the coup d’&eacutetat will succeed … they will not serve under a dictatorship. It’s that simple.
“And they are not the only ones. The cyber unit, the 8200 [Intelligence] Unit, the Golani unit, the Egoz unit, the Alpinist unit, the 669 unit, the military doctors, many good people have published alerts to the government every day. So what is the shock about? I tell you. Pilots are called up for training and for operational attacks every week.
“Their activity is reported by foreign parties and their message is the most tangible, and shows the public the direct harm to the state’s security [caused by the judicial reforms]. Everyone is concentrating on the pilots, but if the 8200 people, the Egoz and Golani soldiers don’t enlist in the reserves, the State of Israel will not be able to exist.
Arad attacked the government and especially Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, who yesterday said that reservists who refuse to report to duty can “go to hell.”
She wrote that the reservists “are not threatening to break the social contract. Those who are breaking the contract are the politicians in this government that was elected by a majority and fraudulently decided after the elections to change the rules. None of the voters in the last elections voted to change the system or the regime The citizens of Israel did not cast a ballot against democracy or for legislation that would neutralize the independent judicial system in the country.”
“The Minister of Communications, who served maybe a year in the army, told the soldiers of the 69th squadron to go to hell. The same soldiers who received the Chief of Staff’s Medal of Honor for excellence in operational activity in enemy territory. My response to Karhi is this: the soldiers of the 69th squadron risked their lives for your sake, for your family’s sake, and for the sake of more than 2.5 million Israeli citizens who do not serve at all in the army. During the years of this country’s existence, my husband and his friends went through hell to protect our beloved country. On the other hand, you and your friends in the government, most of whom did not join the army at all, are shocked…How ironic,” Arad wrote.
Minister Karhi served in the Nahal Haredi battalion for three years, not one as Mrs. Arad insinuated.