Israelis Riveted by Kidnaping; Stakes Are High

Israelis on Wednesday were riveted to their television sets as a grainy videotape of a frightened young soldier played on some of their worst fears.

“These guys, the Hamas here, have kidnaped me,” 19-year-old Cpl. Nachshon Waxman, who holds dual Israeli-American citizenship, said as he faced the camera. A masked gunman stood behind him.

“They want the release of their prisoners,” Waxman said. “If not, they will kill me.”

Such a trade was first demanded by Hamas in another videotape played on Israel Television on Tuesday night. Hamas said in that tape that it was holding Waxman and will kill him by Friday night unless Israel releases about 200 Palestinians from its prisons. Among prisoners it listed was Sheik Ahmed Yassin, founder of the organization.

The political fallout from the proposed trade has already been enormously complex. At stake, the Israeli government has said, may be no less than the negotiations on the transfer of governing authority in the occupied West Bank from Israel to the Palestine Liberation Organization.

There have been previous attacks on Israelis by Palestinians operating from Gaza--most recently Sunday night, when two Hamas gunmen opened fire in a pedestrian mall in Jerusalem, killing two people and wounding 13.

But Waxman’s kidnaping raised a red flag for the nation and the government. By carrying out such a brazen operation in Israel--targeting a soldier and holding him hostage--Hamas is seen to be pointedly challenging PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat’s authority in the newly autonomous Gaza Strip. Israelis are demanding that Arafat respond to the challenge by confronting Hamas directly.

“This is not a single instance,” said Education Minister Amnon Rubinstein on Wednesday as he emerged from a special Cabinet session on the crisis. “We are dealing with a series of crimes and murders of the most brutal kind, and we have not seen serious action taken by the Palestinian Authority.

“(They) have ample information, they know who the (Hamas) leaders are, they know where they are. They must put an end to open activity by Hamas in Gaza,” he said.

The drama of Waxman’s capture is an especially painful one for Israelis, most of whom have either served in the army or have relatives who have served.

Throughout the day Wednesday, Esther Waxman’s tearful pleas for her son’s safe return were broadcast on Israel Radio and Television, juxtaposed against the videotape of the dazed-looking soldier and his presumed captor. Esther Waxman, who immigrated here from New York City 25 years ago, said she also expects the U.S. government to work to free her son.

U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher, in the region on a fresh round of shuttle diplomacy between Israel and Syria, strongly condemned the kidnaping and Tuesday night called Arafat to urge quick action.

At the eye of the storm stand two men whose relationship has always been uneasy and marred by mutual suspicion--Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Arafat.

“They are clinging to each other for survival right now,” said Rafi Israeli, a professor of Middle East studies and Islam at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

After Hamas’ first videotape aired Tuesday night, Rabin moved swiftly to say he would hold Arafat personally responsible for Waxman’s release. In a telephone call to Arafat the same night, the prime minister warned that the outcome of the kidnaping could determine the future of Israeli-Palestinian relations.

To emphasize the point, Rabin suspended talks on elections that were under way between Israel and the PLO in Cairo.

In Gaza, Arafat ordered his security forces to do all that they could to find the soldier, even as Palestinian officials insisted he was not being held in territory they control. Palestinian police threw up roadblocks and searched cars and the homes of suspected members of Iziddin al-Qassam, the military unit of Hamas that claims it is holding Waxman. Arafat met with leaders of Hamas and told them he holds them responsible.

Arafat’s problem is that in Gaza and among many Palestinians elsewhere, the kidnaping is popular, a Palestinian scholar explained.

Just as Israelis can identify with the family of the kidnaped soldier because this is a nation with a people’s army, Palestinians can identify with the kidnapers, because they are seeking the release of Palestinian prisoners and have attacked a soldier, whom Palestinians see as part of an oppressive apparatus that has controlled their lives for 27 years.

“Look, Israel is an occupation authority, so Palestinians have to defend themselves in any reasonable way,” said Ibrahim Yazuri, a co-founder of Hamas, in a telephone interview Wednesday.

“Let’s agree that this operation is different than the one in Jerusalem (on Sunday night),” said Ziad abu Amer, political science professor at Bir Zeit University in the West Bank. “A soldier is regarded as a legitimate target. People believe that what was done in Jerusalem was in bad taste.”

Arafat and Israel have been locked in frustrating negotiations over about 4,000 Palestinians who remain in jails, with Israel saying it does not want to release Palestinians who murdered Israelis and pushing the PLO to crack down on Hamas and pardon suspected collaborators with Israel in exchange for the remaining prisoners.

The PLO continues to demand that all prisoners be freed unconditionally. Hamas is gambling that it can score a significant public-relations coup if it is seen as better able to secure prisoner releases through direct action than the PLO is through talking to Israel.

“Arafat is walking a tightrope,” said Israeli, the Hebrew University professor. “Whichever way this goes, he loses.”