you know that numerous Americans including George Schultz and Henry
Kissinger, and former CIA director Woolsey have asked President Obama to
pardon him?
VP Biden's outrageous statements about Pollard show where this
administration stands. Now is the time to write President Obama and tell
him: Enough is enough! Let Jonathan go.
Naomi
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Column One: Justice for Jonathan Pollard
By CAROLINE B. GLICK
10/07/2011 12:10
American Jewish leaders deserve praise for their willingness to plead on
Pollard's behalf. Pollard committed a crime. But his punishment far
outweighs his misdeeds
Next month, convicted Israeli agent Jonathan Pollard will begin his 27th
year in prison, and the Obama administration is displaying stunning
insensitivity to what this means for the American Jewish community.
Pollard was arrested in 1985 for transferring classified documents to Israel
during his service at US Naval Intelligence. In 1987, he was sentenced to
life imprisonment for his crime.
Pollard's sentence contradicted his plea bargain agreement. It was based,
among other things, on an impact assessment report of his crimes that was
authored by CIA officer Aldrich Ames. At the time of Pollard's arrest, Ames
had been spying for the Soviet Union for two years.
Ames was arrested for espionage in 1994. He was responsible for the deaths
of at least 10 agents working for US intelligence in the USSR.
Ames reportedly blamed Pollard for some of the agent deaths caused by his
own espionage.
Pollard's life sentence was grossly disproportionate to the sentences
routinely given to offenders who transfer classified information to
US-allied governments. The median sentence for such crimes is two years in
prison.
Until last year, there was a longstanding consensus in the US political and
intelligence communities opposed to granting clemency to Pollard.
This consensus evaporated last year. In late 2010, US President Barack Obama
received letters recommending commutation of Pollard's sentence to time
served from former CIA director R. James Woolsey, and from retired senator
Dennis DeConcini, who served as the chairman of the Senate Select Committee
on Intelligence at the time of Pollard's arrest and sentencing.
Obama received similar letters from former secretaries of state George
Schultz and Henry Kissinger. He received requests for commutation from Sen.
John McCain and former attorney-general Michael Mukasey.
Lawrence Korb, who served as assistant defense secretary under Caspar
Weinberger, has spearheaded the effort to release Pollard. Korb has stated
categorically that Pollard's harsh sentence was the result of Weinberger's
antipathy for Jews.
Other US luminaries who have called for Obama to grant Pollard clemency
include former congressman and presidential adviser Lee Hamilton, former
senator and presidential adviser Alan Simpson, Harvard law professor and
Obama mentor Charles Ogletree, US Appellate Court Judge Stephen Williams and
former deputy attorney- general Phillip Heymann. Scores of congressmen,
several senators and more than 500 clergymen have called for Pollard's
release from prison.
Answering public entreaties from Korb and Pollard's wife, Esther, in early
January, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu became the first Israeli leader
to issue a formal, public appeal for clemency for Pollard. Netanyahu read
the text of his appeal to Obama from the Knesset podium and submitted it to
the White House on January 4.
One of the main reasons for the urgency of the current appeal is Pollard's
failing health. Aside from that, the basic arguments given by his advocates
are the disproportionate length of Pollard's sentence; his deep, repeatedly
stated remorse for his actions; his exemplary behavior in prison; and the
fact that deterrence has been achieved.
OBAMA HAS failed to respond to Israel's formal request for clemency.
He has been silent in the face of lesser requests as well. When Pollard's
father, Morris, was on his deathbed in June, Obama did not respond to formal
requests to permit Pollard to visit him in the hospital. He similarly failed
to respond to formal requests for Pollard to attend his father's funeral.
Obama's cold silence was broken last week by his agent Vice President Joseph
Biden. According to the New York Jewish Week, in a meeting with 15 rabbis in
South Florida on September 23, Biden provided an unsolicited monologue about
Pollard's case. Repeatedly referring to Pollard as a "traitor," Biden said,
"It would take the Third Coming before I would support letting Pollard out."
According to The New York Times, in making the statement, Biden, who is
considered a friend of the US Jewish community and of Israel, served as
Obamaג's fall guy. Biden's job was to deflect criticism of Obama's unstated
decision not to release Pollard away from the president.
In the event, Obama's decision to send Biden out to reject calls for
Pollard's release backfired.
Rather than killing the issue, Biden's unbridled assault on Pollard caused
the US Jewish leadership to unify around Pollard and call for his release.
As Anti-Defamation League National Director Abe Foxman told Channel 2 on
Wednesday, Jewish leaders had never discussed Pollard's case publicly, but
after Biden went public, they decided that they must follow suit. The
leaders of the Reform, Conservative and Orthodox movements were all quoted
by Jewish Week calling for Pollard's release.
Their calls came just before Biden's previously scheduled Rosh Hashana
reception for Jewish leaders. So at the party on Wednesday, Biden was beset
by leaders asking him to reconsider his position and recommend clemency for
Pollard. In response, Biden agreed to meet with a small group of Jewish
leaders in the near future to discuss Pollard's case.
Biden's assault on Pollard was strange for two main reasons. First, it was
bad politics. Obama reportedly tasked Biden with rebuilding Jewish support
for the administration. That support has frayed in the face of Obama's harsh
treatment of Israel.
It is odd that in the context of Biden's outreach attempts, he chose to
express a hostile position on Pollard that couldn't help but raise the
hackles of the very community he was dispatched to woo. Rather than bringing
the US Jewish community closer to the administration, Biden accomplished the
astounding feat of unifying the fractured community in opposition to his
position.
The second reason that Biden's anti-Pollard harangue made no sense is
because it flew in the face of the claim that Obama has turned over a new
leaf on Israel. Obama's supporters have argued that his speech at the
General Assembly last month where he opposed the PLO's efforts to gain UN
membership as a sovereign state was a watershed event for the president. In
announcing his intention to veto a Palestinian statehood resolution in the
UN Security Council, his supporters argue that Obama abandoned his previous
hostility towards Israel and embraced it as an ally.
BIDEN'S ATTACK on Pollard is just the latest in a stunning line of rebukes
of Israel by Obama's senior surrogates over the past 10 days that cast a
pall on that supposed watershed event. First Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton said the US opposes even symbolic recognition of Israel's capital
city Jerusalem. Then she attacked Israel for approving new housing
construction in Jerusalem.
Following on Clintonג's heels, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta launched a
public assault on Israel both ahead of and during his visit early this week.
Panetta seemingly made US support for Israel contingent on Israel's
willingness to make concessions to its increasingly radicalized neighbors,
saying, "As [the Israelis] take risks for peace, we will be able to provide
the security that they will need in order to ensure that they can have the
room hopefully to negotiate."
Panetta further accused Israel of isolating itself diplomatically due to its
unwillingness to take what he considers sufficient risks. Just weeks after
US intervention was needed to force Egyptג's military junta to prevent the
murder of six Israeli embassy guards besieged by a mob of Egyptian rioters
who took over the embassy in Cairo, Panetta added, "Real security can only
be achieved by both a strong diplomatic effort as well as a strong effort to
project your military strength."
Besides blaming Israel for the absence of peace with the Palestinians and
for post-Mubarak Egypt's rapid radicalization, Panetta publicly rejected
Israel's right to take military action to prevent Iran from acquiring
nuclear weapons, claiming all action against Iran must be multilateral. In
stating this position, Panetta effectively gave a green light for Iran to
develop nuclear weapons.
This is the case because the sanctions policy the Obama administration
clings to has already demonstrably failed to deter Iran from advancing its
nuclear weapons program.
Clinton's attack on Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem, Panetta's assault on
Israel's right to defend itself from the threat of genocide, and his
unrestrained criticism of Israel's refusal to genuflect before increasingly
belligerent neighbors all indicated that Obama's speech at the UN was not a
new chapter in his administration's treatment of Israel. Rather, it was a
one-off response to concern about the loss of American Jewish support for
the president. That concern was spiked by the Republican victory in New
York's Ninth Congressional District's special election last month.
Biden's assault on Pollard and through him, the American Jewish community,
was a similar sign that Obama has not let go of his antipathy for Israel.
Obama's behavior on Israel following the Democrats' congressional upset
replicates his response to Republican Sen. Scott Brown's upset victory in
the special Senate election in Massachusetts in January 2010. Brown was
elected at the height of the debate on Obama's nationalized healthcare plan.
For the first couple of weeks after Brown's election, Obama and his
surrogates signaled their willingness to compromise with Republicans in
light of Massachusetts voters' rebuke of their partisan brinksmanship on the
healthcare issue. But within two months of Brown's victory, Obama and his
allies had doubled down and passed their highly controversial healthcare
program with no Republican support and against the opposition of the
majority of American voters.
In the case of both Israel and healthcare, Obama has opted to ignore the
political consequences of his actions and press on with his ideological
agenda.
The lesson Pollard and his supporters in the US and in Israel should take
from Obama's behavior is that they must continue to press on in their
campaign for Pollard's release as energetically and as relentlessly as
possible. As the election date nears, if Obama's polling numbers continue to
drop, it is possible “although unlikely" that he will decide that
desperate times call for desperate measures and grant Pollard clemency.
Even if Obama fails to act in such a politically sensible fashion, a public
and outspoken campaign for Pollard's release still makes sense. At a
minimum, it can set the conditions for a new president to grant Pollard
clemency immediately upon taking office, by causing Obama's Republican
opponent to commit to such a course of action.
Speaking of Pollard's case with Jewish Week, Rabbi David Saperstein,
director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, said, "In the
midst of the Days of Awe, as we ponder the wrongdoings we have committed and
pray for God's mercy, we pray as well that President Obama will act with
mercy and grant Mr. Pollard long-overdue clemency.’'
American Jewish leaders deserve praise for their willingness to plead on
Pollard's behalf. And they should be urged to continue to highlight
Pollard's plight and call for his immediate release.
Pollard committed a crime. But his punishment far outweighs his misdeeds.
Whether Obama releases him from his long suffering or not, it is
heartwarming that due to Biden's unbridled assault on Pollard, the American
Jewish leadership has found its voice and is calling for justice to be done.
caroline@carolineglick.com
--Naomi
www.naomiragen.com
Check out my new book on Amazon - http://tinyurl.com/39r5j5v
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kissinger, and former CIA director Woolsey have asked President Obama to
pardon him?
VP Biden's outrageous statements about Pollard show where this
administration stands. Now is the time to write President Obama and tell
him: Enough is enough! Let Jonathan go.
Naomi
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Column One: Justice for Jonathan Pollard
By CAROLINE B. GLICK
10/07/2011 12:10
American Jewish leaders deserve praise for their willingness to plead on
Pollard's behalf. Pollard committed a crime. But his punishment far
outweighs his misdeeds
Next month, convicted Israeli agent Jonathan Pollard will begin his 27th
year in prison, and the Obama administration is displaying stunning
insensitivity to what this means for the American Jewish community.
Pollard was arrested in 1985 for transferring classified documents to Israel
during his service at US Naval Intelligence. In 1987, he was sentenced to
life imprisonment for his crime.
Pollard's sentence contradicted his plea bargain agreement. It was based,
among other things, on an impact assessment report of his crimes that was
authored by CIA officer Aldrich Ames. At the time of Pollard's arrest, Ames
had been spying for the Soviet Union for two years.
Ames was arrested for espionage in 1994. He was responsible for the deaths
of at least 10 agents working for US intelligence in the USSR.
Ames reportedly blamed Pollard for some of the agent deaths caused by his
own espionage.
Pollard's life sentence was grossly disproportionate to the sentences
routinely given to offenders who transfer classified information to
US-allied governments. The median sentence for such crimes is two years in
prison.
Until last year, there was a longstanding consensus in the US political and
intelligence communities opposed to granting clemency to Pollard.
This consensus evaporated last year. In late 2010, US President Barack Obama
received letters recommending commutation of Pollard's sentence to time
served from former CIA director R. James Woolsey, and from retired senator
Dennis DeConcini, who served as the chairman of the Senate Select Committee
on Intelligence at the time of Pollard's arrest and sentencing.
Obama received similar letters from former secretaries of state George
Schultz and Henry Kissinger. He received requests for commutation from Sen.
John McCain and former attorney-general Michael Mukasey.
Lawrence Korb, who served as assistant defense secretary under Caspar
Weinberger, has spearheaded the effort to release Pollard. Korb has stated
categorically that Pollard's harsh sentence was the result of Weinberger's
antipathy for Jews.
Other US luminaries who have called for Obama to grant Pollard clemency
include former congressman and presidential adviser Lee Hamilton, former
senator and presidential adviser Alan Simpson, Harvard law professor and
Obama mentor Charles Ogletree, US Appellate Court Judge Stephen Williams and
former deputy attorney- general Phillip Heymann. Scores of congressmen,
several senators and more than 500 clergymen have called for Pollard's
release from prison.
Answering public entreaties from Korb and Pollard's wife, Esther, in early
January, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu became the first Israeli leader
to issue a formal, public appeal for clemency for Pollard. Netanyahu read
the text of his appeal to Obama from the Knesset podium and submitted it to
the White House on January 4.
One of the main reasons for the urgency of the current appeal is Pollard's
failing health. Aside from that, the basic arguments given by his advocates
are the disproportionate length of Pollard's sentence; his deep, repeatedly
stated remorse for his actions; his exemplary behavior in prison; and the
fact that deterrence has been achieved.
OBAMA HAS failed to respond to Israel's formal request for clemency.
He has been silent in the face of lesser requests as well. When Pollard's
father, Morris, was on his deathbed in June, Obama did not respond to formal
requests to permit Pollard to visit him in the hospital. He similarly failed
to respond to formal requests for Pollard to attend his father's funeral.
Obama's cold silence was broken last week by his agent Vice President Joseph
Biden. According to the New York Jewish Week, in a meeting with 15 rabbis in
South Florida on September 23, Biden provided an unsolicited monologue about
Pollard's case. Repeatedly referring to Pollard as a "traitor," Biden said,
"It would take the Third Coming before I would support letting Pollard out."
According to The New York Times, in making the statement, Biden, who is
considered a friend of the US Jewish community and of Israel, served as
Obamaג's fall guy. Biden's job was to deflect criticism of Obama's unstated
decision not to release Pollard away from the president.
In the event, Obama's decision to send Biden out to reject calls for
Pollard's release backfired.
Rather than killing the issue, Biden's unbridled assault on Pollard caused
the US Jewish leadership to unify around Pollard and call for his release.
As Anti-Defamation League National Director Abe Foxman told Channel 2 on
Wednesday, Jewish leaders had never discussed Pollard's case publicly, but
after Biden went public, they decided that they must follow suit. The
leaders of the Reform, Conservative and Orthodox movements were all quoted
by Jewish Week calling for Pollard's release.
Their calls came just before Biden's previously scheduled Rosh Hashana
reception for Jewish leaders. So at the party on Wednesday, Biden was beset
by leaders asking him to reconsider his position and recommend clemency for
Pollard. In response, Biden agreed to meet with a small group of Jewish
leaders in the near future to discuss Pollard's case.
Biden's assault on Pollard was strange for two main reasons. First, it was
bad politics. Obama reportedly tasked Biden with rebuilding Jewish support
for the administration. That support has frayed in the face of Obama's harsh
treatment of Israel.
It is odd that in the context of Biden's outreach attempts, he chose to
express a hostile position on Pollard that couldn't help but raise the
hackles of the very community he was dispatched to woo. Rather than bringing
the US Jewish community closer to the administration, Biden accomplished the
astounding feat of unifying the fractured community in opposition to his
position.
The second reason that Biden's anti-Pollard harangue made no sense is
because it flew in the face of the claim that Obama has turned over a new
leaf on Israel. Obama's supporters have argued that his speech at the
General Assembly last month where he opposed the PLO's efforts to gain UN
membership as a sovereign state was a watershed event for the president. In
announcing his intention to veto a Palestinian statehood resolution in the
UN Security Council, his supporters argue that Obama abandoned his previous
hostility towards Israel and embraced it as an ally.
BIDEN'S ATTACK on Pollard is just the latest in a stunning line of rebukes
of Israel by Obama's senior surrogates over the past 10 days that cast a
pall on that supposed watershed event. First Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton said the US opposes even symbolic recognition of Israel's capital
city Jerusalem. Then she attacked Israel for approving new housing
construction in Jerusalem.
Following on Clintonג's heels, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta launched a
public assault on Israel both ahead of and during his visit early this week.
Panetta seemingly made US support for Israel contingent on Israel's
willingness to make concessions to its increasingly radicalized neighbors,
saying, "As [the Israelis] take risks for peace, we will be able to provide
the security that they will need in order to ensure that they can have the
room hopefully to negotiate."
Panetta further accused Israel of isolating itself diplomatically due to its
unwillingness to take what he considers sufficient risks. Just weeks after
US intervention was needed to force Egyptג's military junta to prevent the
murder of six Israeli embassy guards besieged by a mob of Egyptian rioters
who took over the embassy in Cairo, Panetta added, "Real security can only
be achieved by both a strong diplomatic effort as well as a strong effort to
project your military strength."
Besides blaming Israel for the absence of peace with the Palestinians and
for post-Mubarak Egypt's rapid radicalization, Panetta publicly rejected
Israel's right to take military action to prevent Iran from acquiring
nuclear weapons, claiming all action against Iran must be multilateral. In
stating this position, Panetta effectively gave a green light for Iran to
develop nuclear weapons.
This is the case because the sanctions policy the Obama administration
clings to has already demonstrably failed to deter Iran from advancing its
nuclear weapons program.
Clinton's attack on Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem, Panetta's assault on
Israel's right to defend itself from the threat of genocide, and his
unrestrained criticism of Israel's refusal to genuflect before increasingly
belligerent neighbors all indicated that Obama's speech at the UN was not a
new chapter in his administration's treatment of Israel. Rather, it was a
one-off response to concern about the loss of American Jewish support for
the president. That concern was spiked by the Republican victory in New
York's Ninth Congressional District's special election last month.
Biden's assault on Pollard and through him, the American Jewish community,
was a similar sign that Obama has not let go of his antipathy for Israel.
Obama's behavior on Israel following the Democrats' congressional upset
replicates his response to Republican Sen. Scott Brown's upset victory in
the special Senate election in Massachusetts in January 2010. Brown was
elected at the height of the debate on Obama's nationalized healthcare plan.
For the first couple of weeks after Brown's election, Obama and his
surrogates signaled their willingness to compromise with Republicans in
light of Massachusetts voters' rebuke of their partisan brinksmanship on the
healthcare issue. But within two months of Brown's victory, Obama and his
allies had doubled down and passed their highly controversial healthcare
program with no Republican support and against the opposition of the
majority of American voters.
In the case of both Israel and healthcare, Obama has opted to ignore the
political consequences of his actions and press on with his ideological
agenda.
The lesson Pollard and his supporters in the US and in Israel should take
from Obama's behavior is that they must continue to press on in their
campaign for Pollard's release as energetically and as relentlessly as
possible. As the election date nears, if Obama's polling numbers continue to
drop, it is possible “although unlikely" that he will decide that
desperate times call for desperate measures and grant Pollard clemency.
Even if Obama fails to act in such a politically sensible fashion, a public
and outspoken campaign for Pollard's release still makes sense. At a
minimum, it can set the conditions for a new president to grant Pollard
clemency immediately upon taking office, by causing Obama's Republican
opponent to commit to such a course of action.
Speaking of Pollard's case with Jewish Week, Rabbi David Saperstein,
director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, said, "In the
midst of the Days of Awe, as we ponder the wrongdoings we have committed and
pray for God's mercy, we pray as well that President Obama will act with
mercy and grant Mr. Pollard long-overdue clemency.’'
American Jewish leaders deserve praise for their willingness to plead on
Pollard's behalf. And they should be urged to continue to highlight
Pollard's plight and call for his immediate release.
Pollard committed a crime. But his punishment far outweighs his misdeeds.
Whether Obama releases him from his long suffering or not, it is
heartwarming that due to Biden's unbridled assault on Pollard, the American
Jewish leadership has found its voice and is calling for justice to be done.
caroline@carolineglick.com
--Naomi
www.naomiragen.com
Check out my new book on Amazon - http://tinyurl.com/39r5j5v
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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