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That Special Something & eanly g,...31 an tgos ttinzd, .g.E.n. 0)249 tL BEST wia L a:,. f f , J i . 399-442) eaoki, 11. 100 FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1991 -4\ 968-NOSH Local & Nationwide Delivery Tel Aviv (JTA) — An Israeli raid into southern Lebanon, in which comman- dos kidnapped three Lebanese security suspects last week, has been criticized in defense estab- lishment circles here for its faulty execution and poor timing. But the Israel Defense Force, rejecting such conclu- sions, hailed the operation as a deterrent to future guerrilla attacks on the IDF and its allies in the region. Nevertheless, the three suspects, who were seized by an IDF elite unit in southern Lebanon and transported to Israel for questioning, were returned unharmed to Leb- anon through the Interna- tional Red Cross. The Israeli interrogation apparently failed to link the three to Hezbollah or any other radical group harass- ing the IDF and its allied South Lebanon Army. Two of the prisoners were identified as working jour- nalists and the third is a butcher. The Israeli raid was de- nounced by Lebanese au- thorities as an aggressive act and a massive intel- ligence failure that led to snatching the "wrong men" from Lebanon. But an official statement issued by the IDF said, "The chief of staff rejects outright the claim that there might have been an intelligence error in the context of the IDF's activity in Lebanon last week." The statement said the commando raid was one of varied tactics employed by the IDF "to thwart and disrupt terrorist activity from Lebanon and makes clear to the terrorists that the IDF operates in the areas outside the security zone where they organize." But defense establishment officials, expressing fear of an intelligence foul-up, questioned the wisdom of kidnapping Lebanese from their own soil at a time when Israel is engaged in bilateral peace negotiations with Lebanon. According to media reports, a crack commando unit was helicoptered to the northern edge of the security zone. The unit proceeded on foot to Jibchit village, 7.5 miles north of the zone, where it set up a roadblock to intercept passersby heading toward Nabatiya, where Hezbollah is known to have a headquarters. The road was said to be frequented by Hezbollah of- ficials. The commandos reportedly stopped about 12 men at the roadblock, releasing all but three after brief questioning. The three were questioned intensively in Israel but ap- parently could not be con- nected to guerrilla activity. According to reports from Lebanon, two of the men worked for a cable television station in Nabatiya and one of them, Shawki Fahs, was also a part-time reporter for the Reuters news agency. The third man was a local Jibchit butcher, Kamal Abed Nahal. He collapsed on returning home to learn that his two young sons had been killed, along with a third boy, when one of them pick- ed up a booby-trapped flashlight they found in Nahal's car after he was kidnapped. Lebanese security officials charged the device had been planted by the Israelis. The IDF denied any connection, saying it was not its practice to leave booby-traps in the reach of children. The Israeli daily Ha'aretz, quoting a senior military of- ficial, said the debriefing of the commando unit confirm- ed that the IDF special forces operated according to the high standards govern- ing such activities and no mishap resulted from their operation. The newspaper also quoted military sources as saying unofficially that there must have been an intelligence failure because the people detained were of no impor- tance to security. Another daily newspaper, Yediot Achronot, noted that the IDF has a problem in- filtrating Hezbollah strongholds because the pro- Iranian Shi'ite fundamenta- list organization, whose name means "Party of God," is composed largely of re- ligious zealots. An IDF spokesman de- scribed the commando operation as routine within the context of preventing terrorist acts against the IDF in southern Lebanon. Military correspondents were told at a briefing that the raid made clear to ter- rorists that they do not enjoy immunity and that the IDF is capable of reaching anywhere and seizing any- one. Ha'aretz military analyst Ze'ev Schiff said the opera- tion signaled an impasse in negotiations to exchange Sheik Obeid for airman Arad and predicted that the sheik would be joined in con- finement by other leading Shi'ite fundamentalists. Mr. Schiff said Israel was also sending a message to Western countries that pressured it to free Arab prisoners to facilitate the release of their own hostages. Once all of the Western hostages were free, those countries promptly forgot the Israeli prisoners left behind, Mr. Schiff wrote. Finally, Mr. Schiff said, the commando raid demon- strated to the various radical groups in southern Lebanon that it was no problem for the IDF to capture senior figures of Hezbollah or the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. Yediot Achronot agreed that the operation taught a lesson. "The Hezbollah, operating under the auspices of the Lebanese army, believed the IDF would not dare confront the Lebanese army. In that, they were proven mistaken," the newspaper said. Holland Rejects Asylum Bid Tel Aviv (JTA) — Pro- testing loudly, 43 Soviet emigres who sought asylum in Holland after im- migrating to Israel were returned to Ben-Gurion Air- port in the custody of 20 Dutch policemen. All had left Israel during the past year complaining that they could not adjust to life here. But the Netherlands government rejected their appeal for refugee status on grounds they did not "fulfill the criteria for asylum," which is persecution in their country of origin. "Maybe the situation in Israel is bad, but they are not suffering any persecu- tion," said Netherlands Justice Ministry spokesman Gert Ribhagen. Nearly 100 Soviet olim departed for Holland this year. Most of those who were returned are families of mixed marriages. Several ohm admitted they were non-Jews.