Despite Progress, Israel Expects Long Battle for Hostages’ Release

Despite apparent progress Sunday in resolving the hostage crisis, Israeli officials are digging in for protracted and arduous negotiations to bring about the release of three Israeli soldiers and more than a dozen American and Western civilians being held by Shiite Moslem groups in southern Lebanon.

Experts on terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism say it could be weeks or even months before the situation is resolved.

On Sunday, one of the many Shiite factions holding hostages outlined conditions under which it was prepared to release American hostage Joseph Cicippio. Its message was seen as an encouraging sign that the hostage situation could be resolved.

But the leader of another Shiite group, called the Islamic Amal, threatened to kill an Israeli soldier in its custody unless Israel immediately released Sheikh Abdul Karim Obeid.

The release of Obeid, whom Israeli commandos seized from his home in southern Lebanon on July 28, was also a key condition of the Revolutionary Justice Organization, which is believed to be holding Cicippio and another American hostage, Edward Tracy.

The group released a photo of Tracy in Beirut on Sunday, along with a statement demanding that Israel release Obeid and 450 other Arab prisoners, including 300 detained for activities connected with the Palestinian uprising in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

But by Sunday evening, Israel had not yet received official word of demands from groups affiliated with the Islamic fundamentalist Hezbollah, or Party of God. They are expected to be communicated through the International Committee of the Red Cross, though the organization has denied any involvement in negotiations.

U.S. AND ISRAEL NOW COOPERATING

The Israeli government has repeated its offer to release Obeid and a limited number of Arabs imprisoned in Israeli facilities, in return for the freeing of three Israeli prisoners and foreign hostages held by Hezbollah factions.

Much of Sunday’s regular Cabinet session was devoted to the hostage and prisoner exchange issue. Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Foreign Minister Moshe Arens each presented reports.

Arens told his colleagues he was in constant telephone contact with U.S. Secretary of State James Baker. He said there was now full cooperation between the two countries on the hostage affair, following public disagreements and criticism on the first two days of the crisis.

Operative discussions will take place within the 12-member Inner Cabinet, and ministers and senior officials may be expected to be tight-lipped.

Little news is available from official sources, and the Israeli news media are relying heavily on foreign press reports.

According to unconfirmed reports from London, Obeid is being held in a villa overlooking the sea just north of Tel Aviv.

For the first few days of his detention, he reportedly was held in complete isolation, not seeing even his guards. Food was put into his room through a small opening in the door.

But for the last few days, the British reports say, he has been sipping coffee in a salon with a group of interrogators. Senior intelligence officers are said to sit with psychologists, analyzing tape recordings of the interrogation sessions.

London reports also say that instead of Obeid, Israel had first planned to abduct Sheikh Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, the spiritual leader of the Hezbollah.

EXECUTIONS NEVER CARRIED OUT

Fadlallah holds the most senior position among the militant spiritual leaders of the Iranian-backed extremist group, many of whose members got their start in the Palestine Liberation Organization.

But Fadlallah lives in Beirut, and his kidnapping presented too many problems and dangers to the Israeli military unit that ultimately carried out the capture of Obeid.

Experts warn that the extremist and frequently contradictory statements reported to come from the Hezbollah in recent days should be seen in their proper perspective — as opening bargaining positions that do not necessarily represent the outcome of any direct or indirect negotiations over the hostages that may take place.

Dr. Ariel Merari, a specialist on international terrorism at Tel Aviv University’s Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, said in an Israel Radio program over the weekend that the Hezbollah had in the past frequently announced its plans to execute hostages, but had up to now always withdrawn or postponed its threats.

He claimed that there was evidence that no hostage had actually been executed as threatened, even though four or five hostages had died, with their deaths announced as executions.

He said evidence had shown that all had died during torture, with one death due to an illness suffered by the hostage at the time of his abduction and made worse by his incarceration.

To cover up the torture aspect and increase the threat value, the deaths were announced by Hezbollah as deliberate executions.

This is believed to have been the case with U.S. Marine Lt. Col. William Higgins, who Israeli intelligence has said died under torture late last year.

Obeid’s faction of Hezbollah, the Organization of the Oppressed on Earth, claimed it hanged Higgins last Monday.