Kerry Rep Suggests Senate Letter is a "Political Dirty Trick"

Justice4JP Release - July 19, 2004

Dr. Mark Zober is Chairman of Democrats Abroad Israel.

One of J4JP's readers asked Zober to comment on Kerry's position on the Pollard case. He sent Zober the J4JP release of 14 July 2004 "Questioning John Kerry's Position on Pollard And Israel" and the text of the infamous 1999 Senate letter, signed by Senator Kerry and 59 other senators opposing Jonathan's release.

Zober responded by questioning the existence of the Senate letter and speculating that the J4JP release is "a political dirty trick."

[See Zober's response below designated "Addendum Number 1"; and Esther Pollard's responses designated "Addendum Number 2A & 2B".]

In defense of Kerry, Zober's response recommended a hyper link to Jewish Virtual Library [JVL] which he represented as having "a good collection of Kerry statements related to Israel interests including Pollard."

J4JP clicked on the JVL hyper link and then on the Pollard sub link, and was dismayed to encounter endless lies about Jonathan Pollard!

The JVL hyper link rehashes all the old canards about Jonathan, which are as damaging to Israel as they are to Jonathan. Among other things, Jonathan is falsely portrayed as a mercenary who "sold" U.S. secrets to Israel. He is further mischaracterized as a renegade who participated in a rogue operation undertaken by an unauthorized branch of the government.

JVL's malevolent portrayal of Jonathan and the operation flies in the face of the facts which Israel officially admitted in 1998: namely that Jonathan was a bona fide Israeli agent who passed information to Israel; and that he was handled by a legitimate and authorized branch of the Israeli Government Intelligence services, under the auspices of the Ministry of Defense. [See: Document: Official Recognition of Pollard as An Agent by the State of Israel]

Nowhere does the JVL hyper link mention that Jonathan's release was repeatedly promised to Israel, including the commitment made by the U.S. as an integral part of the 1998 Wye Accords.

Although the JVL link does not specifically state that the senators signed a Senate letter, it does note that 60 senators, and Kerry among them, opposed Jonathan's release after Wye. This mention is, in fact, a reference to the infamous Senate letter.

The reason given for the Senators' opposition to Jonathan's release, according to JVL, is a quote from Senator Richard Shelby accusing Jonathan of damaging U.S. National Security and endangering the life of American agents - both false charges! Jonathan was never indicted for nor convicted of damage to the U.S. nor of harm to American agents. Nevertheless, U.S. officials like Shelby have repeatedly falsely accused Jonathan in the media - the court of public opinion - but never in a court of law where Jonathan could challenge the accusations. By signing the Senate letter which memorializes these lies, Kerry effectively endorsed them.

Moreover by recommending - whether privately or publicly - the Jewish Virtual Library which warehouses Kerry's position on Israel and on Jonathan Pollard, the Kerry camp effectively endorses all of the worst lies about Jonathan and Israel which the JVL link contains.

Another damaging case in point: the JVL hyper link maintains the myth that Israel broke a long-standing gentleman's agreement by spying in the U.S. The U.S. continues to use this canard to justify the grossly disproportionate sentence and the harsh treatment Jonathan has been subjected to, and it has pilloried Israel endlessly for her alleged one-sided betrayal.

In fact, the opposite is true: there have been a number of publicly-recorded instances of the U.S. spying on Israel - including cases that pre-date the arrest of Jonathan Pollard. The most recently revealed case involves an Israeli Cabinet Minster who spied for the U.S. around the time of the Six Day War! [See Israeli Cabinet Minister Spied for U.S. - New U.S. Docs Reveal - Hamodia - June 23, 2004]

As a related side issue one must wonder why the Jewish Virtual Library, a site that purports to promote strong U.S. - Israel relations, is aiding in the dissemination of all of the old canards about Jonathan Pollard - especially the blatant lie that Jonathan "sold" information to Israel. The JVL Board of Directors and its writers have ready access to up-to-date and accurate information on the case, yet the JVL continues to recycle the old politically-motivated lies about Jonathan Pollard and by corollary about Israel. This raises troubling questions about JVL.

To conclude: Justice4JP has been inundated with emails asking if our exposure of the truth about Kerry's position on Jonathan Pollard and Israel means that we support the incumbent in the upcoming presidential elections. We intend to address that issue more fully in a future release, but for now briefly, the answer is "no"; and our release should not be interpreted as expressing a position on either candidate.

Our purpose in the 14 July 2004 release was to expose the glaring contradiction between what Senator Kerry said on the one hand, when he recently told Jewish leaders that he knows nothing about the Pollard case; and what he did, on the other hand, when he lent his signature to a 1999 senatorial letter falsely impugning the character and actions of Jonathan Pollard and Israel, and damning any hope of relief for Jonathan.

We are stunned that the only response to this blatant contradiction to date, from anyone in the Kerry camp, suggests that the infamous 1999 Senate letter signed by Senator Kerry does not exist and speculates that J4JP may have invented it as a "political dirty trick".

J4JP's invitation to Senator Kerry to inform himself without delay by receiving a briefing from Jonathan Pollard's attorneys, Eliot Lauer and Jacques Semmelman and then - fully informed- to remove his signature from the infamous Senate letter and to set the record straight, publicly clarifying his position on the gross injustice of the Pollard case, still stands.

See Also:

• Document: Official Recognition of Pollard as An Agent by the State of Israel
• Text of Senate Letter
• Israelis Who Spied for The US Page
• Questioning John Kerry's Position on Pollard and Israel
• Kerry Didn't Know, But Signed Anyway; Brother Visits Yad Vashem
• The Wye Double-Cross Page
• The Court Case Page
• The Information Page