Israeli Advises U.S. to Take Hostages

Former Israeli Chief of Staff Rafael Eitan said Wednesday that the United States should take hostages to bring about the release of American captives in Lebanon.

“The United States should kidnap those whose kidnaping will influence those kidnapers,” Eitan said on Israel television, without further elaboration.

He added, however, that the United States “won’t do it. We (Israel) can do it. We’ve done it in the past and we should have done it a few more times.” Again, he did not elaborate.

Eitan, who led several clandestine Israeli raids into Lebanon when he served as chief of staff between 1978 and 1983, said that if the United States launched a military operation “they have to have very exact intelligence and to act with such speed that those guarding the hostages won’t have time to shoot them.”