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Photo: AP
'Netanyahu isn't concerned about Pollard, he is concerned about his survival'
Photo: AP
Shimon Shiffer

Netanyahu's feigned concern for Pollard

Op-ed: If the prime minister is so worried about the Israeli spy's fate, why didn't he bring about his release six months ago when he had the chance?

Over the weekend, the Prime Minister's Office reported, Benjamin Netanyahu had spoken to US Secretary of State John Kerry and pleaded with him to release Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, who has been hospitalized.

 

 

Netanyahu had also spoken to Pollard's wife, Esther, and told her that after 30 years in prison it was time to release her husband.

 

If anyone still thought that the elections would be postponed, Netanyahu's statement indicated that all the attempts to replace the outgoing government with an alternative government which would include the ultra-Orthodox parties had failed. From now on, each to his fate, whether in the next coalition or in the next opposition.

 

Netanyahu's appeal to the Americans, and mainly the release of his conversation with Kerry, mark a new record in the things a politician allows himself to do in order to hunt votes from the right-wing camp, which has adopted Pollard as one of its flags. If Netanyahu was really so concerned about Pollard's fate, why didn't he bring about his release six months ago when he had the chance to do so?

 

Netanyahu. No sacred principles (Photo: AP) (Photo: AP)
Netanyahu. No sacred principles (Photo: AP)

 

In a rare moment, the Obama administration, which saw Kerry's efforts to save the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians go down the drain, agreed to release Pollard ahead of Passover in exchange for Netanyahu's consent to release a group of Palestinian prisoners as part of the talks with Mahmoud Abbas and support, in principle, an outline for a permanent agreement with a land swap based on the 1967 borders and a Palestinian state with a capital in East Jerusalem.

 

The agreement included an Israeli commitment that after his release, Pollard would avoid speaking to the media and would not expose America's secrets in the future.

 

Netanyahu, who violated his previous declarations and released the worst terrorists in exchange for kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit, agreed in his talks with Kerry to throw his principles in the bin for the sake of Pollard's release as an ultimate means of persuasion towards the right-wing camp.

 

But the agreement did not materialize. Pollard remained in prison and the Americans learned that Netanyahu is made of elastic material which one cannot rely on. He can be bent, but he quickly folds back to the opposite direction.

 

So unfortunately, Pollard will likely only be released in a few years, after serving his full term in prison. None of the presidents in the relevant period was convinced by the persuasion attempts of senior American lawyers, who pleaded with the White House to pardon Pollard. None of those sitting in the Oval Office was moved by the appeals made by Israeli prime ministers, some of whom had no intention of butting heads with the administration.

 

Late Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, for example, believed that Pollard should serve his life sentence and that Israel should not turn the administration and request his early release. He thought that a spy who has been caught should know that part of the deal is enduring the punishment and keeping quiet, and he knew that there are other reasons preventing Israel from submitting such a request to the Americans.

 

Shamir would have never thought of selling interests that he perceived as "national," like the Greater Land of Israel idea, in exchange for Pollard's release.

 

Netanyahu has no sacred principles. Everything's for sale: Appealing to right-wing voters through Pollard, the willingness to make concessions in the talks with the Palestinians, including releasing murderers, in exchange for getting Pollard involved in this mess, etc.

 

So don’t be impressed by Netanyahu's concern for Pollard, who is rotting in the American jail. The only thing he is concerned about is his survival.

 


פרסום ראשון: 12.10.14, 15:13
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