Wife Rejects Barak Claim to be working for Pollard Release

Wife Rejects Barak Claim to be working for Pollard Release

Kol Yisrael Radio News - January 2, 2000

Esther Pollard, wife of Israeli agent Jonathan Pollard, today rejected earlier reports that Prime Minister Barak will seek the release of her husband during his meetings in Washington this week. Kol Yisrael's Idel Ross, asked Mrs. Pollard on what basis she rejected these reports.

Esther Pollard:

before a deal is made,

The minute that Barak really wants Pollard home, first he will be home, then there will be the noise in the media.

"Number 2: We have our own high-level contacts in Washington. They assure us that there has been no initiative until now by Barak on behalf of Pollard, and none is anticipated.

"Number 3: And I suppose that this will be the most convincing of all for your listeners. We - our attorney, Larry Dub and myself - recently, (within the last few days) met with Mr. David Ivri, who is on his way to the United States to take up his post as the new Israeli Ambassador.

"Mr. Ivri - before leaving to become the ambassador - has the position which is the equivalent of Sandy Berger in the United States; he is the head of Israel's National Security Council. You would think that someone in this position would - if there were anything going on for Jonathan Pollard - have some knowledge of it. In the meeting that our attorney and I had with Mr. Ivri, he made the following statements:

• Number 1

  : Ivri said he is

  not familiar with the Pollard case

  - which is shocking if you consider his position, as head of National Security.

• Number 2

  : Ivri said

  he had not received any briefing

  before departing for the US, from Barak or from any other government official regarding Pollard.

• Number 3

  : Ivri said

  he had received no instructions from Mr. Barak

  or from any other government official regarding Jonathan Pollard or the case.

• Number 4

  : Ivri said that

  there is no plan to do anything for Pollard

  . This flies in the face of the government's response to the Supreme Court regarding the petition that Jonathan Pollard filed in September against Ehud Barak."

Idel Ross

Esther Pollard

"The other thing is Barak would like the people of Israel to believe that if they withdraw from the Golan, then at least they would get Pollard. This is just an illusion that is being created without any basis in fact."

Mrs. Pollard told Ross that Mr. Barak is doing exactly what he accused Mr. Netanyahu of doing - making a lot of noise about Pollard in the media to serve his own domestic purposes while damaging Pollard's chances for freedom in the process. She said that the difference between them is that Netanyahu actually tried to get Pollard home, whereas Barak is just exploiting Pollard's situation for his purposes.

Mrs. Pollard indicated that the reports of how Barak is "working for Pollard" are nonsense. All Barak has to do, she said, is to ask Clinton to use his unlimited powers of executive clemency to free Jonathan - just as the president has recently done for 16 FALN Puerto Rican terrorists. Clinton freed these terrorists

in spite of the solid opposition

Ironically, Ross concluded the interview by citing the response of Mr. Barak's office:

Idel Ross