Text: Jonathan Pollard's Letter to Israeli Ambassador Merridor [Oct. 22, 2007]
J4JPNews - October 31, 2007
To: Ambassador Sallai Merridor
Date: October 22, 2007 B"H
No. of Pages (incl. this one): 3
Special Delivery c/o Consulate of Israel, Atlanta Ga.
From: Jonathan Pollard 09185-016
FCI Butner POB 1000
Butner North Carolina
USA 27509-1000
Email: c/o justice4jp@gmail.com
Dear Mr. Ambassador,
A 17th century English diplomat and poet, Sir Henry Wotton, wrote: "An ambassador is a man of virtue sent abroad to lie for his country." This quote seems quite apt in light of our meeting in prison on 25 August 2007. Allow me to review the chronology of events leading up to our meeting and until the present.
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June 2007:
- My rabbi, Ha Rav Mordecai Eliyahu shlita visits me in prison and is visibly alarmed by my appearance. He alerts my wife, Esther, about my medical condition and his fear for my life.
July 2007:
- My condition continues to deteriorate. In prison critical blood-pressure medication is being withheld. My blood pressure is completely out of control, alternately skyrocketing and then plummeting wildly. I too begin to fear for my life. Esther goes into action and makes a tumult wherever she can, trying to get help for me. One of the places she turns to in desperation is the Foreign Ministry of Israel. A low-level Israeli functionary (with a good heart) is dispatched to visit me.
August 2007:
- Subsequently, the director of the Foreign Ministry requests that you, as Israel's ambassador to Washington, pay me a visit. The visit takes place August 25th in the presence of a monitor from Washington, and my confidant, Rabbi Pesach Lerner.
After 22 years in captivity, it is reasonable to expect that you will come to the prison with news of negotiations for my release and with a plan of action to ensure that I am home in time for Rosh Hashanah. But you walk in empty-handed. No plans. No news. No update. Nothing.
Nevertheless, there is good chemistry between us, and you insist that you want to help. I outline for you a series of initiatives that Israel can and must do, at once, in order to secure my immediate release. These are all of the basic steps that the Government of Israel has never taken in the 22 years which I have been in prison. You take notes - a total of 16 points - and promise to immediately relay the information to Jerusalem.
Your departure is emotional. You promise to stay in regular contact, to visit again shortly and to keep visiting regularly until my freedom is achieved. Your parting words to me are that you want to be the one to escort me on the plane home very soon.
September 2007:
- Shortly before candle-lighting on Erev Rosh Hashanah, my wife receives a telephone call from a well-meaning official of the Israeli Foreign Ministry. He calls with "good news."
"The good news" is that Foreign Ministry has contacted the Bureau of Prisons to discuss my medical situation. "Aren't you happy, Mrs. Pollard? Isn't that what you wanted?"
"No, I am not happy," my wife responds. "It is Erev Rosh Hashanah. My husband has been in prison for 22 years. The only thing a representative of the government of Israel should be calling to tell me tonight is that he is on his way home!"
October 2007:
- Between August and October there is no contact from you at all.
On October 7, 2007 I send you a letter via the consulate in Atlanta and I obtain confirmation that you have received it.
My letter reminds you that I am still waiting to hear from you. My letter also asks that you relay my request to the Prime Minister for an apology and a retraction of the lies being disseminated by his office to citizens of Israel. I enclose a sample of a letter, provided to us by an Israeli citizen, which states that my wife and I and my "close associates" are receiving "full support in every respect" from the Government of Israel. I send you documents which prove that in 22 years my wife and I have never received a cent from the Government of Israel.
On October 18, 2007, I mark my 8000th day in captivity. The same day the Prime Minister's office releases another letter to the media, claiming that it has been holding secret talks for my release, for years. The letter is a complete lie, and the statements it makes are baseless and indeed laughable.
Obviously, if there were any current efforts for my release your mission, when you visited me, would have been to brief me to ensure that my wife and I would cooperate, and not say or do anything to jeopardize sensitive efforts. But, as you sadly admitted when we met, you had no information for me of any official Israeli initiative, past, present or future.
On October 18, 2007, Israeli President Shimon Peres is touring the Golan Heights at the same time as a group of Israeli students. One of the teachers, Simon HaLevi, confronts Mr. Peres, "What about Pollard?" Mr. Peres tries to duck the question, but finally when pressed, replies, "It is not in Israel's hands; it is not up to us."
On his next stop in Tzfat, Mr. Peres pre-empts the Pollard question by making a statement about me to the media. He excuses Israel's inaction on my behalf by blaming American intransigence. He offers a tale about how Israel once secured my release and then lost it when the CIA objected. The story is so vague that everyone who hears it reads into it whatever they wish. Mr. Peres then delivers the poison in the pablum by endorsing Olmert's lies, stating that the Government of Israel continues to make intensive efforts to secure my release.
Mr. Ambassador, if there were any truth to the claim that the Government of Israel is taking steps to secure my release, why is it that not a single one of the very basic steps that I outlined for you has been implemented, and not a single promise that you made to me has been kept? Why have you avoided all contact with me since August?
Why is it that that my wife continues to live in poverty and distress and I continue to rot in prison, while the government of Israel continues to lie blatantly about supporting us and about efforts for my release?
When we met in prison on 25 August 2007, it was as obvious to you as it is to me, that it does not take two decades to negotiate the release of a captive who is being held by Israel's closest ally. Especially a captive for whom Israel has already paid the full price (at Wye); and especially a captive who has served 22 years in prison for an offense that has a median sentence of 2 to 4 years!
Indeed, it does not take forever to secure the release of one single captive, unless that has been the plan all along
Jonathan Pollard
cc Rabbi Pesach Lerner