Word: obeid
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...latest crisis was sparked by events in Lebanon that dramatized the difference between the Israeli and American responses to hostage taking. On July 28, two dozen Israeli commandos staged a daring raid into the southern Lebanese village of Jibchit. Their goal was to seize Obeid, 32, whom the Israelis identify as a spiritual and military leader of the Shi'ite fundamentalist Hizballah (Party of God), a group with close ties to Iran that is holding most of the Western hostages. The Israelis say they wanted Obeid as a bargaining chip to gain release of three Israeli military men taken prisoner...
...June, after an earlier kidnaping failed to impress Mustafa Dirani, the man believed to be holding one of the soldiers. Last December, Israeli commandos seized Jawad Kasafi, a Dirani associate. But when Jerusalem offered a swap, Hizballah declined even to reply. Israel concluded it needed a bigger fish, and Obeid was selected...
...which reports only to chief of military intelligence Amnon Shachak. As Israeli jets flew overhead to drown out the noise, a darkened CH-53 helicopter landed after midnight on the outskirts of Jibchit. Lightly armed with silencer-equipped Uzis, pistols and a few small explosives, the commandos crept toward Obeid's house in the center of the village. One team guarded the neighborhood while another raided the house and abducted Obeid and two men who worked as bodyguards. Another man was killed by the Israelis when he stepped out of a neighboring house. Obeid's wife, bound and gagged...
...kidnaping was a success, two days later the larger plan appeared to be backfiring. Recognizing that the U.S. could be more easily pressured than Israel by threats against its hostages, a Hizballah front group calling itself the Organization of the Oppressed on Earth vowed to kill Colonel Higgins unless Obeid was released. Israeli Cabinet officials convened an emergency meeting to formulate a counteroffer. Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin proposed an exchange of Obeid and the estimated 150 Lebanese Shi'ites held in Israeli prisons for the release of the three Israeli soldiers and all the Western hostages...
Israel was also widely criticized for not informing Washington about its plans to seize Obeid, though advance consultation would have made the U.S. an accomplice to Israeli actions, further alienating Arab nations from the U.S. Some in both houses of Congress came to Israel's defense, stressing that to drive a wedge between the U.S. and its closest Middle East ally would merely serve the interests of the kidnapers. For its part, the White House called pointedly throughout the week for the release of all hostages -- presumably including Obeid...