Looking back at past issues of the Jewish Exponent for the monthly “Remember When” article, one thing is clear: History really does repeat itself.
Thirty-five years ago, hostages were once again in the news; even if most weren’t Israeli, Israel was impacted.
Anyone thumbing through the Aug. 11, 1989, edition would have found the article, “Side effect of hostage crisis may be an improved U.S.-Iran relationship.” Obviously, that side effect did not occur.
But as reported by Exponent Washington Correspondent Wolf Blitzer — yes, that Wolf Blitzer — “Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani is believed to be quietly working to resolve the hostage crisis in Lebanon, well-placed U.S. officials said this week.”
Lebanon regularly took hostages in the 1980s to prevent the United States and others from retaliating against the 1983 Marine barracks and embassy bombings in Beirut by Hezbollah that killed 241 Americans and 48 French.
Later, Blitzer wrote,” The State Department said Monday that the United States would neither ‘concur nor object to Israel’s pursuing its own policy’ toward winning the release of the hostages, including three Israeli soldiers and three others officially described as missing in action.”
The article notes that while U.S. officials said they would not negotiate with terrorists, it was believed it would go along with any prisoner exchanges orchestrated by Israel. In addition, officials insisted they would not permit the Hezbollah terrorists to drive a wedge between Jerusalem and Washington, D.C.
A separate article on the topic included an interview with U.S. Rep. William Gray III, the Philadelphia Democrat who was the House of Representatives’ new majority whip.
Gray made it clear that he and most of Congress supported Israel.
“We have to stop this nonsense, this absurdity,” he said of the notion that members of Congress blamed Israel for precipitating the crisis by abducting Shiite fundamentalist Sheikh Abdel Karim Obeid a few days earlier.
Obeid was kidnapped as revenge for a bus attack in Israel that killed 16. He was held in prison in Israel until 2004, when he and others were released in exchange for captured Israeli civilians and troops.
Hostage coverage