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Who's Afraid of Jonathan Pollard
Who's Afraid of Jonathan Pollard?
Why Isn't Israel Doing More to Bring Jonathan Home?
Exclusive OpEd by Jonathan Pollard
New Jersey Jewish News - August 14, 1997
Introduction:
Jonathan Pollard worked for the State of Israel. Why then have
Israel's efforts to secure his release been so half-hearted? In recent
years Jonathan has had to give up any illusion that the Government
of Israel is making a credible attempt to secure his release. Even
ordinary people now understand that the betrayal that began 13
years ago when Israel threw her own agent out of the Embassy and
into the waiting arms of the FBI, and then turned over all the
documents necessary to indict him -- never really ended, but just
changed its public mask.
We are constantly being asked, "But why doesn't Israel want
Jonathan home?" "Does he know something?" "Why are they so
afraid of him?" Jonathan and I have agonized over these same
questions. We can state with certainty that there is no security issue
and no deep dark secret that Jonathan possesses. We have been
able to deduce that those elements in Israel who sabotage and
undermine the effort to secure Jonathan's release have their own
personal and self-serving reasons for doing so.
In discussion, Jonathan described the mindset of those individuals
that seem to be at work to prevent his release. Here are Jonathan's
descriptions as they were told to me.
Esther Pollard
------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are essentially three categories or groups of individuals who
are playing a role in determining why the State of Israel has not
been willing or able to secure my release. The first group fall into
what I call the "Servile" category. This group includes individuals
who are either so in awe of the United States, or so in need of
identifying with the US in some way, that they are afraid to rock
the boat over my case. They put maintenance of the US-Israel
relationship ahead of the security and welfare of any individual
including those who served the State.
The case of Ron Arad illustrates how this category of thinkers has
no qualms about sacrificing the life of an individual on the altar of
their own political agenda. In other words, why did the Government
of Israel agree to attend the Madrid Conference in 1992, without
first securing the release of Ron Arad and the rest of our MIAs?
There have always been simple clear-cut solutions to resolve the
tragic plight of our MIAs. They are not acted upon for fear of
ruffling the sensibilities of the American "Empire".
The second category of individuals who are active in undermining
the effort to secure my release are a group that I refer to as the
"Lavonites". The name is derived from the Lavon Affair of the
1950's when the Government of Israel completely abandoned a
group of Israeli agents to their fate in an Egyptian prison after a
failed operation in that country. The agents were Egyptian Jewish
volunteers. All of them were tortured in Egyptian captivity; some
died. The ones that survived were left in Egypt to endure cruel
punishment for 13 long years while the Government of Israel turned
its back and disclaimed all responsibility. Sound familiar? These
hapless souls were not rescued until after the Six Day War when
Israel negotiated the release of its pilots, and the pilots refused to
leave without the Lavon Affair victims!
The "Lavonites" in my case, are those individuals who have dirty
hands and dirty consciences because of direct involvement. They
are fearful of protecting their reputations and careers. Most of these
individuals can be found in the political arena and in the Ministry
of Defense, which ran my operation. These are the types who had
no qualms about selling me out. More will be known about their
deeds once our hearing in the Israeli High Court of Justice gets
underway. In the meantime, they are working actively behind the
scenes to undermine any serious attempt to secure my release,
afraid that any reopening of the case will reposition the "roaming
spotlight" on them.
The third group of individuals opposed to my repatriation are the
"Yossi Amit" group. IDF Major Yossi Amit was arrested in Israel
in 1986 and sentenced in a secret hearing to 12 years in prison for
espionage on behalf of the United States. So much for the outrage
that the Americans expressed about allies spying on each other. The
"Servile" types saw to it that the arrest and sentencing of Amit was
a private affair so as not to cause the American "Empire" any
discomfort.
Not much was seen or heard of this case until Amit was suddenly
mysteriously released in 1993 after serving only a few years of his
sentence. The "Amit types", for my purposes, are that group of
individuals who in spite of their Israeli citizenship and credentials
have sold their Jewish souls to work as spies for the US in Israel.
This group is only "doing their job" when they work to prevent my
release.
Does America really spy on Israel? During the recent Mega Spy
affair, intelligence experts affirmed that the Israeli secret code
"Silon," that was compromised by the Americans, could only have
been broken with the help of a very high-level American mole
within Israeli Intelligence. In a 1988 essay "Shredded Secrets"
featured in Penthouse Magazine, Edward Jay Epstein described a
degree of American penetration into the Israeli intelligence, military
and political establishments that is stupendous. The documents
Epstein cited were produced by a broad range of individuals
occupying positions all across the spectrum within the Israeli
government.
That the Epstein charges have gone unheralded, unnoticed and
uninvestigated all these years is tragic in its consequences for
Israel's national security. In my own work for the government of
Israel, I never revealed the names of American agents even though I
was sorely pressed to do so by my handlers. This is documented in
"The Memorandum In Aid of Sentencing" which has been
submitted, in part, as evidence for the hearing in the High Court of
Justice. The document also states that I had not deleted the
informant source numbers from any of the documents I passed to
Israel. A source number does not reveal any information about the
identity of an agent, nor can it be used to trace the identity of an
agent. But depending on how high the number is, it can shed some
light on just how badly a county's security has been penetrated.
My Israeli handlers were dumbfounded to see the number 200 and
up on documents that I gave them. This number indicated that there
were at least 200 or more well-placed sources within the Israeli
intelligence, defense and political ranks that were illegally feeding
Israel's secret information to the Americans.
The three groups -- "The Serviles", "the Lavonites" and "the Amits"
-- are not homogeneous. The lines are blurred where one group
leaves off and the next one begins. Many individuals in highly-
placed positions fit into more than one of the three categories. But
the net effect of all of these influences has been to block efforts to
seek my release.
For example: the recent case of the non-Jewish American Lt. Cdr.
Michael Schwartz, who was indicted in America for spying for the
Saudis, should have provided the Israeli Government with a golden
opportunity to secure my release. But the opportunity has been
pointedly ignored. Schwartz, who committed the same offense as I,
will not spend a single day in prison. Out of America's deference to
the sensitivities of her Saudi ally, his only punishment was
dismissal from the American Navy.
The blatant disparity in the way a Saudi agent was treated versus
the life sentence that was meted out to me, an Israeli agent,
presented Israel with the leverage to press the Americans for equal
treatment as an ally and to insist upon my release. At the same time,
Israel also had a national obligation to insist that the damage
assessment of Schwartz's espionage be shared with them so that
Israel could take appropriate remedial action.
Strangely enough, Israel did neither. Instead, the political, military,
and intelligence departments all chose to play deaf, dumb, and
blind to the whole affair. As far as they were concerned, this story
that was covered in every major newspaper of record from the
Washington Post to The New York Times, never happened.
The "Serviles" prefer not to know what Schwartz may have
compromised regarding Israel's security for fear of being compelled
to confront the US.
The "Amit" types are just "doing their job" in preventing any
serious damage assessment of Schwartz's actions by the
Government of Israel.
The "Lavonites" don't want to focus any attention on Schwartz or
even acknowledge his existence. Because of the information I gave
them, they do know exactly what information on Israel Schwartz
was capable of handing over to the Saudis. But, an investigation
would just refocus attention on me and what my operation was
about -- something that all of the groups want to avoid more than
anything else -- even at the cost of Israel's national security.
The actions of all of the individuals described above suggests that
what they all fear most about my release is the fear of exposure.
They betrayed not only me but the State of Israel when they placed
their personal goals and political agendas ahead of Israeli national
security and national honor. They have blinded themselves to the
fact that without national honor there can be no national security.
The people of Israel want Jonathan Pollard home. They intuitively
understand that this case is not about just one man, but about every
Jew who in any way puts on a uniform in service of the State of
Israel. If one Jew is permitted to be sacrificed to serve political ends
and to protect private careers then no Jew is safe, and neither is the
State of Israel. Esther and I are taking the Pollard case to the Israeli
High Court of Justice not only to fight for my freedom, but also to
restore national integrity and national honor to a nation that has
been sorely bereft of these qualities by its leadership. Our victory
will be a victory not only for us but for all of the people of Israel.
Jonathan Pollard
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