It was a civilian, says Israel

By Kesava Menon

MANAMA, OCT. 16. The Israeli government believes that the person whom Hizbollah claimed to have captured yesterday is a businessman, Mr. Elhanan Tannenbaum, who was probably kidnapped while on a visit to Switzerland. Though a colonel in the U.S. military reserve, Mr. Tannenbaum was not currently involved in security or intelligence operations and his abduction is therefore akin to a mafia-like kidnapping, said the Israeli Prime Minister Mr. Ehud Barak, in a statement.

Yesterday, the Hizbollah Secretary General, Shiekh Hassan Nasrallah, had claimed, at a conference of religious and political leaders in Beirut, that his organisation had captured an Israeli colonel in a qualitatively complex operation. He had refused to divulge details, including the name of the abductee or the circumstances of his capture, saying that he would leave it to Israel to trace out ``his name and tale''.

The initial suspicion in Israel was that the abduction could have taken place along the northern border with Lebanon. Three Israeli soldiers on active duty had been captured by Hizbollah from the border zone nine days ago. Rosters of all army units posted in the area were checked and mayors and heads of communities living near the border were also asked to check for missing persons. It was later in the day that the family of Mr. Tannenbaum complained to the Defence Ministry that he had been out of contact for several days.

Mr. Tannenbaum was reported to have gone to Switzerland on a business trip. One line of speculation is that he was lured out of Israel by business associates who handed him over to Hizbollah. Further speculation is that he was not handed over directly to Hizbollah but either to a mercenary group who then handed him on. In keeping with the belief that Iran is directly involved in terrorist operations against Israel, there have been speculative reports that a person who has worked closely with Iranian intelligence agencies in the past is also involved.

All of this of course begs the question of why Hizbollah picked on this particular person when there are hundreds of Israeli reserve officers about and a good number of them could be out of the country or otherwise vulnerable to such types of operations.

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Section  : International
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