Israeli Ambassador to Bypass Pollard

March 6, 2005/25 Adar 5765 - Arutz7 - IsraelNationalNews.com

Israel's U.S. Ambassador, Danny Ayalon, will be speaking in Raleigh, North Carolina Monday night but will not visit Jonathan Pollard, who is serving a life sentence just 30 miles to the north.

In an interview given over a year ago in the Bnei Akiva journal "Zeraim" (Seeds), Prime Minister Sharon said that had given Israel's ambassador instructions to "make occasional visits to Pollard." However, the Committee to Bring Jonathan Pollard Home reports that since then, not a single such visit has been made. The organization views the current incident in which the Ambassador arrives in the area and yet pointedly does not bother to stop off to see Pollard as particularly grave. "It sends a message to the US as to just how low Pollard's release is on Israel's list of priorities," a Committee representative said.

Ambassador Ayalon himself, asked last summer about paying an official visit to Pollard, responded that he is ready to visit Pollard as soon as he receives instructions to do so.

Ambassador Ayalon is scheduled to speak at Temple Beth-Or in Raleigh on Monday night in the framework of a fund-raiser for the relief of tsunami victims in southeast Asia. "No relief is planned for an Israeli agent in peril who has been incarcerated for his activities on behalf of Israel for the last 20 years," state Pollard activists.

Pollard has been imprisoned in the U.S. for close to 20 years, convicted on one count of passing classified information to a friendly country - Israel. Contrary to public perception, he was not convicted of treason. Despite agreeing to a plea bargain and cooperating with the U.S. government, Pollard received the maximum sentence: life imprisonment.

For more information, see jonathanpollard.org.