Tobin’s argues:
The problem with injecting Pollard into peace talks is that it is the sort of American concession for which Israel will pay a disproportionate price with little prospect of receiving what it wants.
Israel should make no further concessions to keep the peace process going regardless if Pollard is released. She is being blackmailed to give further concessions. Ted Belman
By Jonathan S. Tobin, COMMENTARY
Over the last 20 years, the name of Jonathan Pollard has hovered around the margins of the Middle East peace process. Almost every time the United States wanted to push the Israelis to make concessions that were unpalatable, some have suggested that the Jewish state might be enticed to swallow one bitter pill or another by the release of the former U.S. Navy analyst. Pollard, who has been imprisoned in the United States since 1985 for spying for the Jewish state, is a sore point for many Israelis as well as some Americans who believe, not incorrectly, that his sentence of life in prison was disproportionate to the crime and far more draconian than anyone else ever convicted of espionage for a U.S. ally. So it is hardly surprising that now that the peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians are imploding once again, talk of releasing Pollard has returned as well.
As it always does, the prospect of Pollard’s release will tempt the Israelis. Though what Pollard did was a crime and did great damage to the U.S.-Israel relationship and to American Jewry, Israelis rightly feel that he was sacrificed and left to rot in prison by their political leadership at the time of his actions (a troika that included the late Yitzhak Rabin and Yitzhak Shamir as well as Shimon Peres, who is currently serving as Israel’s president). But as much as Prime Minister Netanyahu may wish to secure Pollard’s release (something that he tried to do in negotiations with President Clinton in 1998), he shouldn’t take the bait. The odds are, Washington is bluffing about letting Pollard go. But even if President Obama is willing to take the heat from the U.S. security establishment and spring Pollard, Netanyahu should not trade the freedom of a score of Arab terrorist murderers (some of whom are Israeli citizens rather than residents of the West Bank) for Pollard.
The current impasse revolves around the Palestinian Authority’s refusal to agree to the framework for ongoing peace talks suggested by Secretary of State John Kerry because it mentions that peace means recognition of Israel as a Jewish state and would commit the Palestinians to ending the conflict. PA leader Mahmoud Abbas wants no part of such a deal and, as has clearly always been his intention, would prefer to end any talks that might put him in the position of refusing a two-state solution preferred by Israel but which he has neither the will nor the ability to get his people to accept. But with the PA walking out of talks, Netanyahu sees no reason to follow through on the last batch of Arab prisoners whose release was part of the ransom offered to Abbas last year as the price for returning to the peace table after years of boycotting them.
Abbas has already seen that his intransigence won’t cause either President Obama or much of the Western media to blame him for the collapse of the talks. He thinks he is in the catbird seat and can make further demands on the Israelis in the form of the release of Fatah’s Marwan Barghouti (serving five life sentences for murders of Israeli civilians during the second intifada) and a settlement freeze in order to keep talking secure in the knowledge that the West will blame Israel no matter what he does.
So in order to get Netanyahu, who has reluctantly agreed to Kerry’s framework that Abbas rejected, to keep paying, the Americans will have to come up with some form of pressure or gimmick. Though I doubt that President Obama is prepared to do battle with the U.S. intelligence community (which has an irrational obsession with keeping Pollard in prison until he dies) to make good on such an offer, the mere suggestion of the idea may be enough to keep the Israelis from walking away in frustration from the process.
But this is a bad deal for Israel on many levels.
As I wrote on the 25th anniversary of his imprisonment, Pollard’s case is a mixed bag for supporters of Israel. As much as his sentence was an injustice, he is no hero and did grave harm. Moreover, the prospect that someone who committed espionage in the belief that he was helping Israel would gain his release in exchange for the freedom of those who indiscriminately shed Jewish blood is more than an irony; it’s an outrage that even the spy should reject.
Having already released scores of Arab murderers, who have been subsequently honored and embraced by Abbas, there is little incentive for Netanyahu to keep letting them out if the Palestinians are not going to commit to peace talks whose purpose is an end to the conflict. If he is going to be blamed for the collapse of Kerry’s initiative no matter what he does, it would be a mistake to start making further concessions that will come back to haunt him later. The problem with injecting Pollard into peace talks is that it is the sort of American concession for which Israel will pay a disproportionate price with little prospect of receiving what it wants. That’s what happened the last time he offered to make territorial concessions in exchange for Pollard’s freedom. In the end, the Palestinians got the land, and Israel got neither Pollard nor peace.
If the Palestinians want something from Israel they should be prepared to pay for it by demonstrating their willingness to end the conflict and accept the legitimacy of a Jewish state no matter where its borders are drawn. In essence a trade for Pollard now would be a substitute for getting the Palestinians to make those assurances. However much they may want Pollard, making such a swap would be against the long-term prospects of both Israel’s security and peace.
Pollard should be freed unconditionally!!!
In fact, it should be Israel who should refuse to come the the negotiating table — and not the Palestinians — unless and until Pollard is released!!! Period.
@ Bear Klein:
The Prime Minister’s Office turned down requests for comment on the issue. Tzipi Livni, the justice minister and the top negotiator with the Palestinians, said last week that there was never an “automatic commitment to release prisoners unrelated to making progress in negotiations.”
The Israeli government has informed us through the American mediator that it will not abide by its commitment to release the fourth batch of Palestinian prisoners scheduled for tomorrow, Saturday 29,” Jibril Rajoub told AFP.
“Israel has refused to commit to the names that were agreed upon of prisoners held by Israel since before the 1993 Oslo agreements,” Rajoub said.
Israeli officials had no immediate comment.
But Israeli ministers have said previously that the prisoner releases were always conditional on progress in the talks, which had failed to materialize.
@ Bear Klein:
I just received an update that Israel said NO to the release of any more prisoners.
The 26 prisoners were set to have been released on Saturday as part of ongoing peace talks. Israeli law requires that the government make the names of the prisoners selected for release known at least 48 workday hours before they are set free, to allow for the processing of High Court of Justice appeals. But the relevant five-minister committee chaired by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had not convened by Friday
That’s a good point. Pollard is now being held no longer as a one convicted of a crime, but as a hostage.
Let him be. He’s up for parole, i believe, in 2015 or 2016. Let’s hope he’s released at that point, although I’m sure the anti-semites in government, especially the intelligence agencies and DOJ, will try to come up with some ridiculous allegatons to show that he would be some kind of threat if released.
American anti-semitism at its most effective.
@ Yidvocate:
I did the test first and you were right. Abba tutu or whatever his name was is off my list. As it has been said before….birds of a feather. With dweller what finished him for me was his cold heartless behaviour towards the 6 million who perished in the holocaust….
@ Bear Klein:
I hear ya. I’m working on gathering the troops here in Canada. (will keep you posted)
@ Bear Klein:
@ the phoenix:
I pray for the day that Israel finally says “enough is enough – All Muslims out of our country”. Far less intractable conflicts have seen the resolution of transfer throughout recent history. The Torah was precise about what to do with the “inhabitants of the land”. All must go or they will forever “be a needle in your eye and thorn in your side”. How prescient those words and how vital the advice. Israel take heed! They are killing us by a thousand cuts with the aid of the antisemitic international community. It’s high time to stem the bleeding and send this hoard across the river or to hell for that matter. Better yet, we should build giant rafts and cast them off the shore in the Mediterranean. The world loves these pali-posers and will no doubt offer them a safe harbor. Eurasia for sure!
Alas they have were to go. But for us it is only this tiny sliver of dry land and nowhere else that offers us self-determination and safe refuge from the hoard of Jew haters world-wide.
Bulls make money…. Bears make money…. But PIGS get slaughtered….
It is blatantly obvious that these musloid bastards have been emboldened by the lack of opposition and timid reaction from our side…
I hope and pray that one of the first things on Bennett’s agenda once he unceremoniously disposes of this traitor crayon-wielding empty suit, would be to put these bastards in their place using the same brutality that was unfortunately seen in amona and elsewhere.
Let me be plain. We need to SCREAM NO FREEING ANY MORE TERRORISTS! These people want to murder us and have killed Jews!
Pollard himself has said he does not want to be freed for terrorists.
These Palestinians want all of Israel period. NO Peace is possible so we NEED Make sure no more accommodations to sooth Obama and Kerry.
The latest outrage was that Palestinian Religious Leaders: Jews Must not Pray at Kotel
PA claims the Western Wall of Temple Mount is part of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, too, and therefore off limits for Jews.
@ the phoenix:
Amen that!
@ ArnoldHarris:
Well said, Mr. Harris.
No more of these fucking demands on the part of this fading US empire for Jewish national concessions. It’s too bad about Pollard, who obviously is being held as nothing more than a hostage by this most despicable presidency in the history of the United States. And if Netanyahu does not have the sense of honor to stand fast in the face of Obama’s and Kerry’s last-ditch efforts to screw the Jewish nation and Jewish state out of our historic homeland, then I hope Naftali Bennett and other Jewish patriots bring down his government.
In a truly honorable Jewish society, anybody who even talked about giving up Jewish national land would not be allowed to take charge of the government, and if they got into power despite that, they would be taken out and put to death like any other traitors.
I wish America could be run by a government such as that of Russian president Vladimir Putin, who keeps his mouth shut but always acts in the national interest of the Russian nation. And I wish even more so that Israel could have such a government, instead of these imbecilic ass-lickers, whose American wire-pullers despise them in any case.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
Obama and Kerry are desperate to save face. Dangle the carrot and throw mud in our face instead!