Anyone but Peres!

Jonathan Pollard's Statement on Peres' Candidacy for President

Justice4JPnews - June 5, 2006

Jonathan Pollard relayed the following statement from his jail cell in Butner NC where he is serving his 22nd year of a life sentence for his activities on behalf of Israel:

I hold no brief for any of the candidates for the office of President of Israel but the candidacy of Shimon Peres is so offensive that it beggars the imagination.

The office of the President of Israel is supposed to reflect the honor and integrity of the State of Israel. Instead, it has been plagued for years by problems of immorality, starting with Ezer Weizman and his extra-marital affairs and financial irregularities; followed by Moshe Katzav who has recently been indicted on charges of rape and financial corruption. If Shimon Peres is successful in his bid for president, there is no doubt that he will continue this shameful tradition of corrupt and immoral presidents of Israel.

To illustrate the character of this ruthless and power-hungry man:

Twenty-two years ago, then-PM Shimon Peres chose self-interest and personal power over his legal and moral obligation to rescue an Israel agent in peril. He deliberately, knowingly sold out an Israeli agent who had faithfully served the security needs of the State. That agent was me.

According to the 1987 Eban Commission Report (the Knesset Committee appointed to investigate the Pollard affair) the same day I was arrested Peres spoke with US Secretary of State George Schulz, denying any knowledge of the operation and promising to do everything in his power to assist the Americans in prosecuting me. Instead of defending me - his agent - or negotiating for my release, Peres sold me out. He knowingly lied when he told Americans that I was a free-lancer who had acted independently for profit.

Worse, Peres personally initiated and authorized the return to the US of all of the documents which I had provided to Israel, with my finger prints still upon them! Without these documents as evidence, the US had no case against me.

My case is the first and only case in the history of modern espionage in which a prime minister actively assisted in the indictment and prosecution of his own country's agent. Thanks to Mr. Peres, Israel now has the disgraceful distinction of being the only country in the world ever to cooperate with the prosecution against its own agent.

According to the Eban Report, Peres testified that he had secured a commitment from the US not to use the documents to prosecute me. Yet as soon as the documents were returned, the US immediately used them against me, and there was no protest from Peres or from Israel. In fact, if such a commitment did exist, why is it that Peres did not inform me at the time so that I could protect myself legally? I did not learn of this commitment until the year 2000 when I finally obtained a copy of the Eban Report (13 years after its initial publication).

Not long ago I filed suit in Israel's Supreme Court against the Government of Israel asking the court to compel the government to press for my release on the basis of the US' abrogation of the commitment as described in the Eban Report. I was stunned when the State itself responded to the court that there is no evidence that any such deal ever existed. In other words, the State of Israel had no shame in telling the court that then-PM Peres had lied under oath in order to justify his having returned the documents to the US without first negotiating the safe return of Israel's agent. This is criminal negligence for which Peres has yet to answer.

In the 22 years that have ensued, Peres has had no pangs of conscience for callously incriminating me and then abandoning me. His sole motive for selling me out was to protect his own personal reputation and his career. Documents submitted to the Israeli Supreme Court as part of my recent filings, show beyond a doubt that all of Israel's top officials including Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin, and Ehud Barak were fully aware of and directly involved in my operation. For example, when Peres, Rabin and Barak authorized the Israeli Air Force to bomb PLO headquarters in Tunis, they were able to risk the pilots' lives because they knew that information about the location and layout of the terrorist headquarters was reliable because I had provided it.

Peres' lies about me to the American investigators and his efforts to transfer all of the blame to me by returning the documents and having the Israeli team submit false affidavits against me, were nothing but frantic efforts to distance himself from the operation so that his career ambitions and personal fund-raising abilities in the US would be protected. Peres was not in the least concerned about the impact of the exposure of the operation on Israel or about the fate of an Israeli agent in captivity. Then as now, his only concern was to insulate himself from criticism to further his own ambitions.

Over the years, various Israeli officials have visited me then went back to Israel to seek Peres' support in lobbying for my release. These officials, one by one, reported back to me that Peres' response is consistent: 'It's him or me. Forget Pollard. He is a lost cause. You have more important things to do, and I can help you.'

Peres' ability to act so ruthlessly, to destroy the life of one who has faithfully served the State and sabotage rescue efforts; and his capacity for maintaining this immoral stance without remorse for more than two decades, is terrifying in its implications if this man should become president of the State of Israel. A man capable of acting without conscience solely for his own self-interest reflects a personality that is devoid of honor. Any man so totally invested in his own self-aggrandizement and personal power represents a clear and present danger to the State and the People.

The fact that a man like Peres could even be considered for the office of presidency reflects the degree of rot which currently permeates Israel's political system. The successful candidate for the office of president is determined solely by a majority vote of Israel's 120 Knesset Members, who routinely demonstrate their willingness to sell their vote in return for political favors.

The top headline story in Yediot Achronot this past weekend quotes leaders of an influential Knesset party which currently participates in the governing coalition: "Prime Minister Olmert wants Peres to be president and he is willing to pay big time for it. We are not going to do anything to hurt Peres' chances." It is staggering that Israeli politicians have become so corrupt that they now announce publicly and without shame that their vote for president has been auctioned off and sold to the highest bidder!

It is not rocket science that PM Olmert's weak and teetering government is strongly promoting Shimon Peres for president, so that in return Peres may use his personal influence and power-mongering to ensure that Olmert's government is not toppled.

MKs who vote for Peres know that they are being complicit in keeping Olmert's dishonorable government in power. Worse still, they know that they are being complicit in signing a death sentence for me - one that Shimon Peres issued against me 22 years ago which is still in effect to this very day.