"Leaking With Malice" Maligns Jonathan Pollard

Esther Pollard (Mrs. Jonathan Pollard) - May 9, 1997
Response to The Jerusalem Post editorial, "Leaking With Malice"

Sir:

In the above cited editorial, your naming my husband, Jonathan Pollard as the "worst spy in the history of Israeli-American relations" is offensive, and not consistent with the truth.

Jonathan's

case

may very well be 'the most hyperbolized spy case in Israeli-American relations'. And Jonathan certainly has been 'the most maligned and misrepresented spy in Israeli-American relations'. Growing numbers of prominent American legislators concur that Jonathan is ' the most over-punished spy in Israeli-American relations'. But it simply is not honest to call him "the worst spy".

If Jonathan's case placed 'the worst strain on Israeli-American relations', it is not so much because of what Jonathan did, as because his operation exposed the undeclared intelligence embargo that the Americans had imposed on their Israeli ally - an embargo that the Israeli political echelon simply did not have the moral courage to confront openly. If the Americans are still smarting, it is primarily because Israel continues to deny her role in the affair.

High ranking Israeli Military and Government officials abandoned Jonathan 13 years ago, and to this day continue to deny their involvement and their responsibility. We hope that the petition that Jonathan recently filed with the Israeli High Court of Justice will finally strip away the cloak of "implausible deniability" with which they have tried to shield themselves all these years, from their responsibility for securing Jonathan's release.


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