A Chance To Do Something Good For Israel

The Obama Administration has not been at all even handed in its dealing with Israel in the Administration’s quest for peace in the Middle East.  That is not the reason the process had fallen apart–there will not be peace in the Middle East until both sides acknowledge the right of the other side to exist.  Until that hurdle is overcome, true peace is not possible.

Now the President has a chance to do something good for Israel and for America.  The Jerusalem Post reports that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will ask President Obama to release Jonathan Pollard, an Israeli spi who has been in prison in the United States for 25 years. 

According to the article:

“Netanyahu will issue a public, formal and official call in upcoming days for Obama to release the Israeli agent , the Prime Minister’s Office announced in a press release Tuesday.

“”I intend to continue to act with determination to free Pollard, both because of the ethical obligation Israel has toward him and because Jonathan should have the right to live with his family and rehabilitate his health after so many years in jail,” Netanyahu said in the press release.”

It’s interesting to note that Jonathan Pollard, who was spying for a country that is supposed to be a strong ally, has been held longer than any spy from a country that is not considered friendly to the interests of the United States. 

The Middle East Forum pointed out in 1997:

“Life imprisonment is apparently the harshest punishment ever meted out to someone found guilty of spying during peace time. Indeed, since the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in 1953, during the Korean War, no spy has received a harsher sentence, even during war time. The severity of Pollard’s sentence is in itself noteworthy.

“It is all the more so in light of two other factors. First, Pollard did not stand trial for his crime. Rather, he received his life sentence after entering into a plea-bargain agreement in which the government promised not to seek a life sentence. Entering into that agreement, Pollard relinquished his right to a trial, cooperated with government investigators, pleaded guilty — all, presumably, with the expectation that some leniency would be shown in his sentence. The expectation was reasonable, but it proved illusory. Secondly, Pollard was sentenced to life in prison despite the fact that he was never accused of delivering classified information to an enemy of the United States. Rather, he was accused of delivering such information to Israel, a close and staunch American ally. There may be no other case of a life sentence imposed for spying on behalf of a strategic ally.”

Some of the information I have found on this case indicates that Mr. Pollard was supplying Israel information on its enemies that the United States had, but had not shared.  He was not simply spying to sell damaging information to our enemies–he was trying to help Israel survive the continuing attacks from its neighbors.

Unless the classified documents surrounding his conviction are made public, we will never know the true reason for the harsh sentence.  Until that happens, I think the best thing to do is free Mr. Pollard and send him home to his family.  Israel is not an enemy of the United States, and we need to treat them as friends–not adversaries.