Jewish World Review / Oct. 29, 1998 /9 Mar-Cheshvan, 5759
Pollard's Release
Is a Key to Peace Deal
WHY ARE SO MANY PEOPLE so
outraged that Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
asked for Jonathan Pollard's
freedom at last week's painfully
slow but ultimately successful Mideast peace
talks?
Obviously, I wasn't there when Bibi threw the
Pollard chip at President Clinton during the last
hours of the conference. But I do know that
Washington disclaimers notwithstanding, it
wasn't the first time the two have discussed
clemency for the ex-spy for Israel as part of the
price of progress on Mideast peace.
In fact, Pollard has been on the table at almost
every Bibi-Bill direct discussion. And as I
reported in this space earlier, Pollard's fate was
recently discussed in talks between Israeli
officials and Secretary of State Albright's senior
staff.
On each occasion, the Israelis have made it
clear that above and beyond the humanitarian
issue, freeing the former U.S. naval intelligence
officer from his life sentence and allowing him
to leave for Israel would make it a lot easier for
Netanyahu to sell the peace plan to Israel's right
wing --- for whom Pollard's freedom is a major
issue.
Clinton has a special talent for giving the
impression he has said one thing --- when he
means something different. Netanyahu is
nobody's fool. If anything, despite the lack of
personal warmth between the two, they share
a certain slickness. Still, it's conceivable that
Netanyahu thought he had agreement in
principle for a presidential pardon, when in
fact, he didn't. Well, not exactly, and not quite
yet.
Nonetheless, for people to be shocked that Bibi
would link Pollard's freedom to progress on
peace is, at best, sophomoric. "What's next,"
asks former CIA Deputy Director Robert Gates,
"giving a pardon to get a terrorist out of jail as
part of a deal in the Middle East?" Actually, yes!
Part of the Wye River pact has Israel releasing
750 Palestinians --- none of whom is in jail for
traffic violations.
I never cease to be amazed at the animus the
Pollard case arouses in certain Washington
quarters. Yes, he committed a serious crime
when he gave the Israelis U.S. data on Arab
military systems. Yes, it was right to punish him
— but within reason. Pollard's not the first
American caught spying for an ally. Yet he's the
only one ever given a life sentence --- despite a
plea-bargain agreement that the U.S. clearly
reneged on.
And newspapers like the New York Daily News and
journalists like myself have been stonewalled
by the government every time we have tried to
interview Pollard under reasonable journalistic
rules.
The pound-of-flesh people continue to claim
Pollard profoundly damaged U.S. security and
betrayed U.S. agents. But they never give
details. More than 13 years later, all the talk
remains just that. Joseph diGenova, the federal
prosecutor in the case, says that freeing Pollard
would be "an outrageous undercutting of
American security interests." Why? Spell it out.
Some of the anti-Pollard choir is just off the
wall. TV blow-hard John McLaughlin got so
carried away on Sunday that he equated
Pollard with Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who
gave nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union! Even
"McLaughlin Group" regular Pat Buchanan —
no great friend of Israel --- blanched at that.
So what happens now? The deal at Wye was a
good one for everyone --- Israelis, Palestinians,
Clinton. But there's a lot harder dealing ahead.
With help from his new foreign minister, Ariel
Sharon, and from the Labor Party, Netanyahu
is ready to buck the extremists and
right-wingers to push the deal through. Arafat
seems girded for similar combat.
Let's hope Clinton can move the process (and
mercy) ahead by finally freeing
By Richard Z. Chesnoff
JWR contributor and veteran journalist
Richard Z. Chesnoff is a senior correspondent at US News
And World Report and a columnist at the NY Daily News.
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