MIDEAST. . . KIDNAPING ROILS ISRAEL-PLO PEACE

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A videotaped plea from a kidnaped Israeli soldier today shocked Israelis and threw talks with Palestinians into the deepest crisis since the Sept. 13, 1993 handshake on the White House lawn. Early today, Islamic militant group Hamas released the tape, in which 19-year-old Army Corporal Nachshon Waxman begged Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin to accede to Hamas demands and set 200 Palestinian prisoners free. The Israeli reaction: Rabin said he'd hold PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat personally responsible if the hostage, a joint U.S.-Israeli citizen, was killed; in the meantime, he closed off the Gaza Strip and suspended talks on expanding self-rule in the West Bank. Waxman is the 10th Israeli soldier kidnaped since 1989 -- all were killed -- yet Israel has until today bent over backwards to keep the PLO peace moving, says TIME Jerusalem bureau chief Lisa Beyer. So why risk it all now? Beyer says Israelis were deeply shaken when Hamas terrorists opened fire in a "safe" area of the city Su