Disappointed Israel Won’t Free Captives

JERUSALEM â€”  Expressing disappointment with lack of progress in getting word about their own missing soldiers in Lebanon, Israeli officials Monday rejected demands that Israel free hundreds of its own captives as a goodwill gesture to encourage the release of Western hostages believed held in Beirut.

A pair of Israeli hostage negotiators returned empty-handed from a meeting in Geneva with U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar in which they expected information of a possible deal to free or account for as many as seven missing Israeli soldiers. As bait, Israel is offering to release Lebanese and Palestinian captives held in South Lebanon, as well as at least one hostage of its own--a Muslim leader abducted from Lebanon two years ago by Israeli commandos.

The Israelis had expected details to be contained in a letter sent to Perez de Cuellar by Islamic Jihad, a Muslim fundamentalist terrorist cell in Lebanon that freed British hostage John McCarthy last week. Instead, the message made no mention of the Israelis. Rather, it appeared to set new and broad terms for more releases of Western hostages: freedom for Arab prisoners the world over.

In any event, without information on the fate of their own missing, Israel refused to budge on a gesture that might result in freedom for the Westerners held captive in Beirut. Both President Bush and British leaders have called for unconditional release of all hostages.

“Such a move,� countered Foreign Minister David Levy, “would be sheer abandonment of Israelis held captive and missing.�

He characterized the calls for unconditional release as “sheer wantonness.�

Repeating longstanding policy, Levy said that the government is ready to exchange captives for its own missing. “When this is . . . a possibility, we will of course be willing to discuss the price,� he told reporters.

A senior official said two Israeli negotiators, including top trouble-shooter Uri Lubrani, traveled secretly Sunday night to Switzerland to press for “information and verification� of the missing Israeli servicemen. Of the seven captured over the last decade, only one--an air force navigator--is believed still to be alive. Israel wants the remains of the others verified.

The two Israelis returned Monday with no information on the missing, the official said. “We are at status quo,� the official declared. “We expect more pressure from abroad, but we are not giving in.�

Officials here said a past effort at goodwill--a release last year of 40 prisoners taken in southern Lebanon--failed to bring a reciprocal move from hostage-takers.

Israel Radio quoted a Foreign Ministry official as saying, “Israel is being asked to give up just about everything and get back just about nothing.�

In Geneva, Perez de Cuellar said he will contact Israel again on the hostage issue and that he plans to inquire after the whereabouts of the missing Israelis.

The issue of missing Israelis is as sensitive a political issue here as the hostage question is in the United States. Families of the missing have repeatedly pressed the government to recover them. Newspapers periodically publish emotional stories about the suffering of the relatives.

Because the missing men are servicemen, the army is especially eager to recover them as part of its general pledge to do everything possible to bring troops home, whether alive or killed in action.

Israel holds about 375 Lebanese and Palestinian captives in a jail at Khiam, a village in southern Lebanon. Khiam is inside a buffer zone patroled by the Israeli army and an allied Christian militia to deter attacks on Israel’s northern border.

Palestinian prisoners captured in Lebanon are held inside Lebanon. In addition, about 14,000 Palestinian prisoners from the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip are in captivity, many without trial.

Israel has been trying to limit talks about hostage trades to the captives held in Lebanon and to Sheik Abdel Karim Obeid, a Shiite Muslim leader whom they hold.

Two years ago, helicopter-borne commandos raided a village in southern Lebanon and abducted Obeid, reported to be a regional leader of Hezbollah, a Shiite Muslim political-religious organization whose members are believed to hold Western hostages and which is held responsible for the fate of several Israeli captives. The abduction of Obeid was intended to clear the way for chain of hostage deals and freedom for the Israelis as well as for Westerners.

But those responsible for the missing Israelis did not take the bait. Now, Israel has been lumped in with extremist Lebanese hostage-takers by President Bush, who called Sunday for the release of all people “not held under procedures of law.�

Asked Monday whether Israel should release its captives, Bush answered: “They know our position, having been reiterated here. I hope that it’s heard loud and clear around the world.�

There have been indications here that Israel might make a conciliatory move if the International Red Cross is permitted to visit Israeli captives and inspect remains of any dead.

BACKGROUND

Israel holds about 375 Arab men and women at Khiam, about 4 miles from the Israeli border, in a prison run by the Israeli-backed South Lebanese Army. Some of the mainly Shiite Muslim inmates have been there since the mid-1980s, without charge or trial. The human rights group Amnesty International has reported cases of torture; the International Committee of the Red Cross has been refused access. Many prisoners are accused of participating in armed attacks against the SLA; others are said to be their relatives or villagers from communities considered centers of resistance to the Israeli presence in southern Lebanon.

The Israel Factor

Israel’s effort to locate and verify the condition of seven soldiers, abducted in or shot down over Lebanon since Israel invaded that country in 1982, is considered key to resolving the entire Mideast hostage drama. Here is a look at what is known of the seven:

* Ron Arad: Air force navigator shot down over Lebanon in 1986. Captured by Amal, a Lebanese Shiite Muslim militia unrelated to the Iranian-backed Hezbollah extremists holding the Western hostages. Reportedly later turned over to a Shiite extremist cell. Of the seven servicemen, he is the only one thought to be alive.

* Yossi Fink and Rahamim Alsheikh: Wounded and captured in a 1986 ambush in Lebanon and thought to have been held by Hezbollah. Sheik Abdel Karim Obeid, the Shiite leader abducted by Israel in 1989, told Israeli officials that both died of wounds.

* Zvi Feldman, Zachary Baumel and Yehuda Katz: Captured in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley by Syrian troops in a tank battle during the 1982 invasion of Lebanon. They were paraded through Damascus on their tank, reports there said. They were reported held by Saiqa, a small, Syrian-backed Palestinian extremist group, as well as by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, also backed by Syria. Damascus never publicly acknowledged that the soldiers were captives. They are now thought to be dead.

* Samir Assad: Captured in 1983 near Lebanese port of Sidon. A year after his capture, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a Palestine Liberation Organization faction, said it held Assad but claimed that he died in an Israeli air raid on Tripoli in northern Lebanon.