Israel Aware of Risks to U.S. Hostages in Abducting Sheik, Rabin Says

Israel took into account the risk that an American hostage might be killed in response to its seizure of a Shiite Muslim leader, but it went ahead with the mission in order to maintain a free hand to retrieve captive soldiers in Lebanon, Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin said Wednesday.

Rabin’s comments were the most detailed defense to date of Israel’s controversial decision to seize a member of the Hezbollah (Party of God) organization and exchange him for captives held in Lebanon.

In response to the abduction, Lebanese Muslim terrorists believed to be connected to Hezbollah made new threats on the lives of hostages and purportedly killed Lt. Col. William R. Higgins, an American Marine hostage.

‘All Possible Reactions’

“We took into consideration all the possible reactions on the part of activists in the Hezbollah organization,” Rabin told the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament. “We foresaw them all, including the action that already took place--and ones even worse.”

Later, a senior Israeli official said there is a “real problem” for Israel in Washington’s attitude toward Israeli tactics. The official said Israel needs latitude to deal with terror and that the hostages are a restraining factor that must be overcome from time to time.

“The American hostages became an instrument to prevent the free activities of Israel, in the way we prefer to do the fighting,” the official said. “Terrorism is something we have to deal with over a long time. It is not a periodic sickness, but a prolonged one. We don’t sit in Washington. We have to fight terrorists daily.”

The official added that Israel prefers to take direct military action to free hostages, action like the 1976 raid on the Entebbe airport in Uganda to liberate passengers from a hijacked jet. But when actions like that fail, he said, “we deal.”

Deals include prisoner exchanges. Last week, Israel seized the Shiite Muslim leader, Sheik Abdel Karim Obeid, and two associates in order to improve the chances that an exchange could be arranged for three Israeli soldiers.

After setting a deadline for Obeid’s release, the Organization of the Oppressed on Earth, a Hezbollah faction, said it had hanged Higgins.

Although Israeli sources say they have “solid evidence” that Higgins was killed last December, criticism from Washington and the uproar over Higgins’ reported death prompted Israel to defend its policies.

In his 20-minute speech Wednesday, Rabin said that before Obeid was seized, Israel had exhausted “every grain of possibility for dialogue” to negotiate the release of the three Israeli soldiers. Israel, he said, had been trying to work out a deal since the soldiers were captured in 1986.

Rabin disclosed that the Israeli Cabinet had approved Obeid’s abduction in June but that word of a possible prisoner exchange brought a postponement. There have been reports of direct talks at that time between Israeli officials and representatives of Iran.

When the exchange fell through, the kidnap plan was revived.

‘Property for a Swap’

“The government of Israel decided to allow the army to apprehend the leader of the Hezbollah in south Lebanon so we would have in our hands valuable property for a prisoner swap,” Rabin said.

He described the abduction as “very successful.”

“I want to send my blessings to the chief of staff and the commanders of the army and the unit that carried it out on the way this mission was carried out,” he said.

Rabin said Israel did not inform any other government of its plan to abduct Obeid. There have been complaints in Washington that the U.S. government was left in the dark on a matter that might adversely affect the eight U.S. hostages still held in Lebanon.

A senior Israeli official said that Israel, unlike the United States, has undertaken a special obligation to rescue captives in Lebanon.

“The difference between your (U.S.) hostages and ours is that, with the exception of Higgins, the Americans were in Beirut after being warned to leave. They weren’t sent (by the U.S. government). We the Israeli government, on the other hand, sent ours to Lebanon (to defend Israel’s northern border).”

These comments appeared to reflect domestic pressure on the government to recover captives. Israeli newspapers have reported that relatives of soldiers missing in Lebanon frequently call officials to press for their recovery. In addition, military leaders fear a decline in morale among Israeli troops if they feel they might be left indefinitely in the hands of captors.

The senior official said that Israel’s dedication to recovering its soldiers fits in with a broader policy of trying to ensure protection for Israeli citizens everywhere.

Also, he said, Israel takes frequent armed action in Lebanon, and if Israel were restrained by the presence in Lebanon of its own captives or the foreign hostages, it would be defenseless on its northern border.

The official gave two examples of the dilemma faced by Israel:

-- Last fall, when a car bomb killed seven Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon and Israel had to decide whether to strike back, one of the factors they considered was whether American hostages would be hurt. Israel went ahead and sent jets to bomb Hezbollah bases. Shiite groups holding two American hostages threatened to harm them, but there was no report of a vengeance killing.

-- Two and a half years ago, the United States asked that Israel not bomb Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, where some hostages were reportedly held. Rabin rejected the request. Thomas R. Pickering, then the U.S. ambassador to Israel and now ambassador to the United Nations, called on Rabin and told him that “you bear the consequences,” the Israeli official said.

U.S. Refuses Deals

While Washington’s policy of not dealing with hostage-takers may appear to be a tough policy, it cloaks paralysis, the official argued. He pointed out that the United States has not mounted a hostage rescue operation since 1979, when helicopter-borne troops failed in an effort to free American diplomats held in the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.

Because the United States refuses to make deals, the official said, “for all practical purposes, hostages can stay in Lebanon forever.”

He dismissed as “nonsense” the argument that trying to arrange prisoner exchanges encourages terrorism.

When making the decision to abduct Obeid, he said, Israel took into account three possible reactions from Shiite militants: that Israeli or foreign captives would be killed; that Lebanese Shiites might undertake attacks in the buffer zone along Israel’s northern border; that guerrillas might fire rockets into settlements within Israel.

“We feel much more responsibility than you do,” he said. “We are ready to take greater risks.”

As part of Israel’s public defense of the Obeid abduction, officials have begun to disclose information said to have been acquired from him under questioning.

A senior official said Wednesday that Obeid holds a higher position in the Hezbollah organization than was thought, although he is not one of the top leaders.

He was involved in the abduction of Higgins last year, the official said. The three men who abducted Higgins planned the operation at Obeid’s house, the official said, and their car was kept in Obeid’s garage for a month after the operation.

Further, he said, Obeid has revealed the names of Higgins’ abductors, and Obeid was involved in two car bomb attacks and guerrilla operations in southern Lebanon.

Israeli interrogators believe that Obeid is worried about the possibility of being extradited to the United States.

“Obeid is shrewd,” the official said. “He says that as far as he knew, Higgins is alive. He says he only knows through hearsay.”