Obama Administration “has no intention to release Pollard.”

Ed Note: Pollard was an American spy for a foreign nation, and he is subject to the laws of his country and punishment as such, period.

By Gilad Atzmon

Ynet reported today that the “White House announced on Monday that the US administration has rejected President Shimon Peres’ request to grant convicted spy Jonathan Pollard clemency.”

Jonathan Jay Pollard worked as a civilian intelligence analyst before being convicted of spying for Israel . He received a life sentence in 1987.

However, the Obama Administration declared today that it “has no intention to release Pollard.”

We also learned recently that master swindler Bernie Madoff and Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard are prison pals.

I guess that the two will be able to continue to enjoy each others company in the near future.

Peres to Obama: Release Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard

Written by Barak Ravid

U.S. President Barack Obama meets with President Shimon Peres in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, April 5, 2011. AP

Haaretz – President Shimon Peres sent a personal letter to U.S. President Barak Obama on Monday, urging Obama to consider granting clemency to Jonathan Pollard, citing the convicted spy’s deteriorating health.

Officials at Peres’ bureau indicated that the president’s diplomatic adviser handed the missive to U.S. envoy in Israel Dan Shapiro, with U.S. officials confirming that Obama received the letter in the afternoon.

In a statement released by Peres, the president thanked Obama for what he said was the friendliness his administration has shown Israel, citing the Passover seder the American president held last week at the White House, and reiterating the importance of the value of freedom to the Jewish holiday.
Peres updated his U.S. counterpart on a conversation he conducted a few days ago with Esther Pollard, the convicted spy’s wife, stressing that the Pollard family, as well as the Jewish people, were concerned about Pollard’s health.

The president sent the missive after receiving a petition signed by 80 MKs, urging Obama to release the Jewish spy, as well as intense pressure from the lobby working to secure Pollard’s release ahead of Peres’ White House visit planned for June.

During that meeting, Peres is expected to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which, the Pollard lobby argues, the president should refuse until the convicted spy is released.
Peres’ missive comes over a year after Netanyahu send a similar plea to the American president in January 2011, a letter which represented the first time Israel officially requested the spy’s release.

Netanyahu since raised the Pollard during his several meetings with Obama, although he did not always receive a U.S. response.

Israeli officials estimated that, as with Netanyahu’s attempts, Peres’ missive serves, for the most part, as a declarative measure, one which won’t likely draw out any U.S. reply and that won’t advance Pollard’s release.

Pollard, 49, was a civilian intelligence analyst for the U.S. Navy when, in the mid-1980s, he copied and gave to his Israeli handlers enough classified documents to fill a walk-in closet. He was given a life sentence.

Pollard, who was not paid when he began spying in 1984 but later began receiving several thousand dollars per month, was caught in November 1985 and arrested after unsuccessfully seeking refuge at the Israeli Embassy. He initially denied he worked for Israel, but later confessed.

His case has been a sticking point in U.S.-Israeli relations. The Israeli government, which granted Pollard citizenship, repeatedly has pressed for his release.

A 1998 U.S.-brokered peace accord between Israel and the Palestinians nearly foundered when then-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly linked his agreement to the deal with clemency for Pollard.

Editing: Debbie Menon

Gilad Atzmon

Gilad Atzmon is an Israeli-born British jazz saxophonist, novelist, political activist and writer.

Atzmon’s album Exile was BBC jazz album of the year in 2003. Playing over 100 dates a year,[4] he has been called “surely the hardest-gigging man in British jazz.” His albums, of which he has recorded nine to date, often explore the music of the Middle East and political themes. He has described himself as a “devoted political artist.” He supports the Palestinian right of return and the one-state solution in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

His criticisms of Zionism, Jewish identity, and Judaism, as well as his controversial views on The Holocaust and Jewish history have led to allegations of antisemitism from both Zionists and anti-Zionists. A profile in The Guardian in 2009 which described Atzmon as “one of London’s finest saxophonists” stated: “It is Atzmon’s blunt anti-Zionism rather than his music that has given him an international profile, particularly in the Arab world, where his essays are widely read.”

His new book The Wandering Who? is now availble at Amazon.com