Elhanan Tannenbaum, (Hebrew: אלחנן טננבוים, born 12 August 1946) is an Israeli businessman who is also a reserve colonel in the Israel Defense Forces, who was kidnapped and held for more than three years by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
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Elhanan Tannenbaum was captured after being lured under the false pretenses of a drug deal. He was traveling on a forged passport.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah declared on 16 October 2000 on al-Manar TV station: "We have an Israeli colonel in our hands". Israel was initially unsure who that person might be, until Nasrallah confirmed it was Tannebaum a few days later. Tannenbaum was a reserve colonel in the artillery. According to Ronen Bergman, he had an important position in the IDF Northern Command, doing 150 days of reserve duty a year and was thus privy to many important military secrets. Bergman writes that only five days before his abduction he was on duty at the Northern Command bunker in Safad overseeing a sensitive exercise: a full scale war with Hezbollah and Syria. Tannenbaum could expose the details of Israel's war plans to Hezbollah. Israel therefore decided to try to get him back as quickly as possible.[1]
His capture is claimed to have been conducted by Imad Mugniyah, a senior member of Hezbollah. The capture was executed by Qais Obeid, an Israeli Arab, a grandson of former Knesset member Diyab Obeid, who crossed the lines to become senior officer for Hezbollah. Obeid was a close friend of Tannenbaum.
Tannenbaum was released in January 2004 as part of a prisoner swap with Hezbollah. The swap, mediated by Germany, resulted in the exchange of 435 prisoners held by Israel in return for Tannenbaum's release and the return of the bodies of three soldiers killed during an ambush along the Israeli-Lebanese border.[2] Following his release, Tannenbaum was placed under arrest for his illegal actions that led up to his capture. He agreed to a plea-bargain and admitted to the reasons behind his travel to Dubai and described the details of his capture. In exchange, he was not tried for any crime and served no jail time.[3] Among the 435 people released were Mustafa Dirani and Abdel Karim Obeid. These two individuals were kidnapped, in 1994 and 1989 respectively, for use as bargaining chips in the effort to secure the release of the most famous of the Israeli MIAs, Ron Arad. Fearing the release of these men would end any hope of finding Arad, his family attempted to take legal action to prevent their release. Nothing came of this effort.
In December 2006, Tannenbaum, for the first time, admitted that he went to Dubai to complete a drug deal. He had expected to make $200,000 (€152,000) on the deal.[4]