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Last update - 13:04 17/07/2008 As the last trace disappeared By Yossi Melman Tags: Uri Lubrani, negotiations  Uri Lubrani cannot forget his last meeting with Jamil Said. It was in the spring of 1988 in London. Lubrani was the Israeli government representative in the secret negotiations for the release of the captive Israel Air Force navigator Ron Arad. Jamil Said was a Lebanese Shi'ite businessman with close ties to Amal leader Nabih Beri (now the speaker of the Lebanese parliament). It was supposed to be the meeting where Israel would give its answer to the demands of Amal, which was holding the Israeli navigator. But instead of Israel's answers, there were embarrassed mumblings from Said. He had a hard time explaining how it was Amal had lost Arad and promised that the organization was trying to find him. In October 1986, a Phantom jet was damaged during a routine bombing mission over Lebanon. The damage was caused by a technical malfunction in the release of the bomb and not by enemy fire. The pilot was saved in a daring helicopter operation. Navigator Arad parachuted safely to the ground and was taken captive by Amal. A few minutes later, the intelligence agencies and the defense establishment made every effort through its agents, contacts and collaborators to establish a dialogue channel with Amal, which at the time was still the dominant organization in the Shi'ite community in Lebanon. Advertisement Such a channel was eventually opened through businessman Shabtai Kalmanovich, who a short time later was sentenced to jail for spying on behalf of the Soviet Union. Kalmanovich worked then in Sierra Leone, where many Lebanese emigres were living. Many of them were involved in the diamond trade. One of them was Jamil Said, who was friendly with the Sierra Leone president and with Nabih Beri, who apparently also did business with him and proved to be a lucrative contact. Kalmanovich and Said did business together. Kalmanovich brought Said to London and there they met with Uri Lubrani, a veteran diplomat and long-time adviser to defense ministers. Lubrani served as the coordinator of government activities in Lebanon starting in 1982. For a year and a half, until all traces of Arad disappeared in May 1988, Lubrani and Said met some 20 times in hotels and the private homes of Said's friends in London. Signs of life Lubrani set a rule for himself. He would not be in contact with Arad's family so that the loaded encounters would not color his judgment. He left the task of updating the family to Israel Defense Force officials. He also did not include intelligence officials in his meetings. The idea of establishing a unit for prisoners and missing persons at the Mossad and in the military intelligence branch was then still in its infancy. Lubrani went to the meetings with just one assistant who documented the meeting and transcribed the proceedings. The purpose of the meetings was to negotiate the release of Ron Arad. Said heard Israel's requests from Lubrani, went to Beirut or Europe for meetings with Beri and Amal representatives and returned with answers. Lubrani managed to obtain signs of life from Arad - letters and photos. But from the answers he received it became clear Amal was demanding of Israel a $3 million ransom and the release of hundreds of Palestinian terrorists, more than a few of them with "blood on their hands." Then prime minister Yitzhak Shamir and especially defense minister Yitzhak Rabin, as Eitan Haber, Rabin's aide, related this week, were horrified by the Shi'ite organizations demands. They were ready to pay the ransom but were worried about the public reaction if they were to agree to release hundreds of terrorists. The two, and especially Rabin, were under public attack for having capitulated a short time earlier, in 1985, to pressure from the families and agreeing to what became known as the Jibril deal. In exchange for three IDF soldiers being held by Ahmed Jibril's pro-Syrian organization, Israel agreed to release over 1,100 terrorists to their homes in the West Bank and Gaza. Most of them eventually reentered the cycle of terrorism and become leaders of the first intifada, which started in December 1987. Rabin and Shamir felt that time was not working against Israel and did not conceive of the possibility that Arad would be taken, abducted, transferred or sold by Amal to Hezbollah, and perhaps also to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, whose representatives had a solid presence in the Beka'a Valley and in Beirut. They felt it would be possible to lower the price Israel was being asked to pay for Arad's release. Lubrani refuses at this time to discuss the matter. But in a special interview with Haaretz's weekend supplement a year and a half ago, he commented, in one of the few times he has ever done so, on his role in this painful chapter. "I didn't operate alone in this matter," he said, "I was the head of a team. I received the letters and the photos of Arad from Beri and I brought Beri's demands. The one who made the decision on the matter was Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who consulted with the prime minister." Why wasn't a deal arranged? "Something very simple happened. Negotiations that were Byzantine started. Beri constantly increased his demands. He demanded money and the release not only of Lebanese prisoners but also of Palestinian prisoners." How many? "Hundreds of Palestinians." And Rabin didn't want to approve? "Rabin thought it was possible to obtain a better deal. He was subject to the trauma of the Jibril deal." What do you think happened to Arad? "I can only speculate. There are three possibilities. One is that he got sick and died in captivity. The second is that he tried to escape and they killed him or the Iranians decided after years of denying any knowledge of him to kill him so that there would be no proof that they lied. I live with the sense that it would be a miracle if he were alive. This story is with me every day. Each morning I look in the mirror and see Arad's face. It sits on my conscience, even though I was not the one who could have released him. It wasn't in my hands." Bookmark to del.icio.us   Hezbollah abduction How the Lebanese militia captured two IDF reservists in 2006, illustrated in pictures. Kuntar's crimes Israeli YouTube video details the 1979 terror attack perpetrated by Samir Kuntar.

Read & React Zvi Bar'el: It took 2 years, but Nasrallah kept promise to free Kuntar Responses: 25 Report: U.S. to station diplomats in Iran for first time since 1979 Responses: 22 Goldwasser's widow: Our journey has ended today Responses: 22 Olmert's team now questioning Talansky over 'cash envelopes' Responses: 6 Ex-envoy to South Africa: Calling Israel apartheid insults victims of that regime Responses: 10 More Headlines 12:51 Goldwasser's widow: Our journey has ended today 11:41 After two arduous years, Karnit Goldwasser's crusade is over 12:48 Talansky tells Olmert lawyers: I did not lie to prosecutors 12:03 Report: U.S. to station diplomats in Iran for first time since 1979 08:23 After swap, Israel fears Hezbollah will escalate tensions in North 08:12 Woman who inherited Kafka writings refuses to dispel manuscripts mystery 10:11 Amman gunman wounds Israeli, 5 others before shooting self 09:50 ANALYSIS / It took 2 years, but Nasrallah kept promise to free Kuntar 11:17 Former MI head under investigation for disclosing state secrets 02:56 Outside the Regev home, family and neighbors share the sorrow 08:44 Top MK: Public pressure on abductees forced decision makers' hands 23:06 Veteran Mideast journalist Eric Silver dies aged 73 Previous Editions Select Day 16 jul 15 jul 14 jul 13 jul 11 jul 10 jul 09 jul 08 jul 07 jul 06 jul 04 jul 03 jul

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