'Jonathan Wanted So Much to Say Goodbye to Sharon'

Esther Pollard and Nadia Cohen - both wives of Israeli spies - describe the connection former Prime Minister Sharon had with their families.

Tova Dvorin - Arutz7 News - January 13, 2014

Both emphasized to Channel 2 News how much the former Prime Minister meant to the men and their families.

"It was important to Jonathan that I attend [Sharon's funeral]," Esther Pollard stated. "Jonathan hoped he'd be able to come home to say goodbye to Sharon before he died. He would call home - he has only a very few minutes to make calls from prison - and he was using his time to get updates on Sharon's condition."

"He told me that Sharon was the only one fighting for him against the directives of then-Prime Minister Shimon Peres, and the entire Cabinet, not to give the US documents with his [Jonathan Pollard's] fingerprints on them," Pollard explained. [J4JP: According to the 1987 Eban report, Sharon fought with Peres and his cabinet colleagues, prior to the cabinet vote to ratify Peres' imprudent promise to US Secretary of State George Shultz to return all the documents, insisting, "first you rescue the agent, then you do what you have to. But you do nothing until the agent is first pulled out of harm's way. When the vote was taken and Sharon was outvoted, he declared: "You have just killed the agent!"].

"To this day, Jonathan feels a debt of gratitude to Sharon, and really wanted to say goodbye," continued Esther Pollard. While Jonathan did not have the opportunity to see Sharon before his death, "the US can still release my husband as a gesture of "chessed shel emet", in Sharon's memory," she said.

Effie Lahav, head of the Free Pollard movement, was also present at the funeral. "We are here thanks to the important value that Sharon taught us: not to leave anyone behind in the field," Lahav stated. "Jonathan is a prisoner left behind for almost 29 years, and we are here to remind leaders of the value Sharon left us: return Pollard, and the sooner the better."

Nadia Cohen, the widow of Israeli spy Eli Cohen, also felt the need to honor the former Prime Minister. "I see in Sharon the way to true Zionism, his whole self was [dedicated to] the people and the state," Cohen explained.

According to Cohen, Sharon was the only official who could bring back the remains of her late husband to Israel. Cohen was killed in Syria in 1965, and his grave site has never been revealed.

"When he [Sharon] was elected, I saw someone who would listen to me and return Eli to me," she said . "We met two years before he fell ill. I held a meeting with him and my daughter; I remember that he said to me with a smile, 'Nadia , what can I do for you?'"

"I think if he was still alive, he would have done much for our country," Cohen continued. "Israel's national interests were always on his mind, and I was very impressed after that meeting. If he was healthy, maybe he could have brought about peace."

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