Israel has informed the United States and other countries that it would consider releasing Shi’ite prisoners as part of a deal to win the freedom of Western hostages held by Shi’ite groups in Lebanon, but only if those groups agree to release Israeli prisoners of war.
Under no circumstances will Israel make a unilateral gesture in order to get American or other Western hostages released, if Israeli prisoners are not included, Ze’ev Schiff, a well-informed political and military commentator, reported Wednesday in the Hebrew daily Ha’aretz.
That is the essence of Israel’s policy, and it is well known in Washington and other countries whose citizens are being held hostage, Schiff said.
But Israel apparently felt the policy had to be restated in light of remarks made Tuesday in Teheran that concessions are expected from the other side, following the release of two American hostages by pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon in the last two weeks.
Robert Polhill was freed April 22, after three years in captivity. Frank Herbert Reed, kidnapped in 1986, was released in Beirut on Monday.
There was no known quid pro quo, and there has been no known direct appeal to Israel by any country for a one-sided gesture.
In Washington, the Bush administration continued to be coy Wednesday about whether it was signaling Israel to release some of the Shi’ite prisoners.
State Department deputy spokesman Richard Boucher said that when President Bush was asked about this Monday, he replied that “we would have no objection to their release, but it was a matter for others to determine.”
ISRAEL PREPARED TO FREE OBEID
Boucher said the U.S. position remains that “we do not deal for hostages.”
But he also said the United States favors the release of all hostages, which some interpreted to include the Shi’ites detained by Israel.
Unlike official U.S. policy, Israel is willing to bargain with the kidnappers, because it feels it has a higher obligation to soldiers sent into Lebanon on military missions.
The missing soldiers include airman Ron Arad, shot down in Lebanon in September 1986; Israel Defense Force soldiers Rahamim Alsheikh and Yosef Fink, seized in an ambush; and three other soldiers missing after a bloody tank battle at Sultan Ya’acoub in Lebanon, during Israel’s invasion of June 1982.
In exchange for them, Israel is prepared to discuss the release of Sheikh Abdul Karim Obeid, spiritual mentor of a faction of the Islamic fundamentalist Hezbollah, whom Israeli commandos seized from his home in Lebanon on July 28, 1989.
But “not even one hair of Sheikh Obeid, who is in our hands, will be returned without the release of the Israeli captives,” a senior Israeli official told foreign representatives.
(JTA correspondent David Friedman in Washington contributed to this report.)
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