Smiling Polhill Arrives in U.S. to Subdued Welcome : Hostages: The White House criticizes Congress for a resolution it indicates may jeopardize the release of other captives.

Freed hostage Robert Polhill grinned broadly and gave the thumbs-up sign in a sun-drenched but subdued homecoming here Thursday as the White House criticized Congress for passing a resolution that could undermine other hostage releases.

An Air Force jet flew Polhill, his Lebanese wife, Firyal, and his two grown sons by his first marriage from West Germany. The former hostage, released Sunday in Beirut and turned over to American officials in Damascus, Syria, had been taken to a U.S. military hospital in Wiesbaden for medical examinations and debriefing.

On the tarmac at Andrews, the 55-year-old Polhill shook hands with the assistant secretary of state for consular affairs, Elizabeth Tamposi, and the base’s vice commander.

Polhill did not stop to respond to reporters’ shouted questions, telling them, “I can’t.” He smiled and made a throat-cutting gesture to underscore the point, then was whisked away in a sedan past about 60 spectators, most of them uniformed Air Force personnel.

Later, as he entered Walter Reed Army Medical Center for several days of physical rehabilitation and neurological examinations, he told reporters in a hoarse voice, “I’m very happy, very happy.”

Before Polhill’s arrival, White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater rebuked the House for its passage Tuesday of a resolution recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and declaring that it “must remain an undivided city.”

The United States keeps its embassy in Tel Aviv and officially recognizes no Israeli capital.

Noting that “Congress needs to consider these resolutions more seriously,” Fitzwater said the House move “can have unintended consequences” for the seven American hostages remaining in Lebanon.

On Wednesday, Lebanese Shiite Muslim leader Hussein Moussawi, a reputed mentor of the pro-Iranian kidnapers who freed Polhill, said the resolution would complicate efforts to free other hostages.

The resolution’s chief sponsor, Rep. Eliot L. Engel (D-N.Y.), called the White House comments “absolutely ridiculous. The fact is, these terrorists will release these hostages when it’s in their best interest to do so. . . . The U.S. Congress will not bow to their pressure.”

The resolution, passed by a 378-34 vote, came in response to President Bush’s statement last month that Israel should stop settling Soviet Jewish emigres in East Jerusalem, which Israel wrested from Jordan in the 1967 Six-Day War. The Senate on March 22 passed a similar resolution.

A State Department spokesman played down the House resolution as “non-binding,” and he added: “We feel the Congress is entitled to express its view. We can’t control that.”

When asked if the resolution would compromise release efforts, he said, “We remain hopeful that more will be released.”

However, the special U.S. hostage debriefing team assembled for Polhill’s release flew out of Wiesbaden on Thursday, indicating the declining short-term prospects for another hostage release.

A four-room suite at Walter Reed has been reserved for Polhill and his wife, who are expected to travel next week to a festive greeting in his native upstate New York.

Times staff writer Norman Kempster in Washington contributed to this report.