Tanenbaum Calls Hezbollah Treatment "very good"

This is what he said while he was still in the clutches of Hezbollah.

Let's see what he has to say when he's no longer in any danger.

Good treatment? They kidnapped him for over three years. Sounds really nice.

Certainly we shouldn't rush to judgement here. The man is sure to say more in the following days. The other 3 Israelis, (kidnapped by illegal combatants in an illegal act of perfidity -- disguised as UN peacekeeper) won't be saying anything. They're dead.

Yet it is also a known psychological effect that hostages come to view their captors as the people who are actually keeping them alive.

http://www.mental-health-matters.com/articles/article.php?artID=469

On August 23rd, 1973 two machine-gun carrying criminals entered a bank in Stockholm, Sweden. Blasting their guns, one prison escapee named Jan-Erik Olsson announced to the terrified bank employees "The party has just begun!" The two bank robbers held four hostages, three women and one man, for the next 131 hours. The hostages were strapped with dynamite and held in a bank vault until finally rescued on August 28th.

After their rescue, the hostages exhibited a shocking attitude considering they were threatened, abused, and feared for their lives for over five days. In their media interviews, it was clear that they supported their captors and actually feared law enforcement personnel who came to their rescue. The hostages had begun to feel the captors were actually protecting them from the police. One woman later became engaged to one of the criminals and another developed a legal defense fund to aid in their criminal defense fees. Clearly, the hostages had "bonded" emotionally with their captors.

While the psychological condition in hostage situations became known as "Stockholm Syndrome" due to the publicity – the emotional "bonding" with captors was a familiar story in psychology. It had been recognized many years before and was found in studies of other hostage, prisoner, or abusive situations.....