In October 2000, an Israeli reserve colonel, Elhanan Tannenbaum, was captured by the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah after being lured to the Persian Gulf on a false passport. Tannenbaum, who later admitted he was involved in a drug deal through which he hoped to pay off his debts, was held for more than three years in Lebanon before being released in a prisoner swap.
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Hezbollah is currently holding two Israeli soldiers it captured in July, 2006, in a raid that sparked a fierce monthlong conflict with Israel. The men's condition is unknown.
Sharon is being held by official Lebanese authorities, not by Hezbollah, making his prospects for good treatment far better.
Sharon's father, Moshe Sharon, told Israel's Army Radio on Sunday that his son had only good intentions.
Asked if Daniel was an Israeli spy, he said, "No, no, there is no chance. This boy doesn't even smoke, he doesn't drink, he's not a criminal."
Daniel was "childish" and it's possible that he could get mixed up "with the wrong people and didn't know what he was getting into," Sharon said.
Sharon, who said he had thought Daniel was in Cyprus, said he heard about his arrest in the media on Saturday and contacted Israel's Foreign Ministry and German authorities, because his son is German through his mother.
"We feel totally helpless because we're an enemy country, and there's nothing I can do besides receive information about him and let the authorities deal with it," Sharon said, adding he feared Daniel could be held in Lebanon for years.
Exceptional among Israeli Jews for his identification with Arab culture, a young Sharon was interviewed by the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot in 1996, after his first visit to Lebanon.
In the article, Sharon said he had been in Beirut during an Israeli offensive against Hezbollah, and said he felt "disappointed" when he saw an Israeli assault helicopter flying overhead evade a Lebanese missile.
Photographed wearing an Arab headdress around his neck, Sharon recounted how he bought a copy of the Quran, the Islamic holy book, at age 16 and later converted to Islam. Disillusioned with Israeli policy, he said, he went AWOL from his Israeli combat engineering unit while doing compulsory military service and was discharged early after serving five months in an army jail.
"To a certain extent I feel I don't have any connection to Judaism, I'm Muslim," Sharon said.
He went to Jordan after the two countries signed a peace deal in 1994, and later traveled to Lebanon.
"I love the Lebanese. They're the most wonderful people in the Middle East," Sharon told the paper, praising Beirut's beaches and nightlife.
On Sunday, Israel's Foreign Ministry said only that it was looking into the matter. Germany's ambassador to Lebanon was in contact with Lebanese authorities about the case, a German Foreign Ministry official said on customary condition of anonymity.
During Israel's 18-year occupation of a border strip in southern Lebanon, Lebanese authorities arrested and jailed many people on charges of spying or working for Israel. Israel pulled out of Lebanon in 2000.
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