Salon Newsreal | A conversation with Jonathan Pollard

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One big happy family
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The election was a referendum on morality, after all, but Americans voted for tolerance, not vengeance
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The "young lady" who got under Kenneth Starr's skin
By Joan Walsh
U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren is pressing the independent counsel to think harder about when he learned of Linda Tripp's tapes
(11/25/98)
Letter from San Francisco
By Lisa Margonelli
Twenty years after Dan White murdered George Moscone and Harvey Milk, his old neighborhood is still spawning leaders who divide by race -- but these days they're Asian, not white
(11/24/98)
Why "Birthright Israel" can't work
By Samuel G. Freedman
Diaspora in America is better than physical danger and religious infighting in Zion
(11/23/98)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Starr
By Gary Kamiya
When the real Kenneth Starr finally stood up before the House, he turned out to have a split personality
(11/20/98)
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A CONVERSATION WITH JONATHAN POLLARD | PAGE 1, 2
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Pollard is a smart political strategist and an even better spinner. His professed optimism that Clinton may now be emboldened, by the election results and by Gingrich's fall, to turn around and grant him clemency rings more than a little hollow. The conventional wisdom among both Washington insiders and Pollard supporters these days is that after the blow-up at Wye, the reanimation of bitter resistance to his release by the U.S. intelligence community and Gingrich's replacement as speaker by the less avidly pro-Israel Robert Livingston, the earliest prospect for Clinton to grant Pollard clemency and let him fly to Israel would be the waning days of the president's tenure in office in January 2001.
Yet if Pollard is despondent over the shattering denouement of Wye, he gives no evidence of it. During his 13 bitter years of imprisonment, including six years in solitary confinement, Pollard has become accustomed to seeing his hopes for liberation repeatedly dashed by what he characterizes as a malevolent brew of fear, loathing and covert anti-Semitism in the U.S. intelligence community; long-standing reluctance on the part of the Israelis to acknowledge that his spying activities in the early 1980s were anything more than a rogue operation; and a less than ardent advocacy for his freedom by American Jewish leaders clearly fearful of being charged with dual loyalty.
Through it all, Pollard has managed to preserve his profane sense of humor and considerable charm while dealing with journalists. But sadly, he has unleashed his mounting fury at his situation on his family, friends and supporters from the early years of his imprisonment. Among those he accuses of having bungled the effort to free him and with whom he has broken off all ties are his former wife, Anne, who served four years in prison for her knowledge of his espionage activities, his sister Carol, who led the worldwide Free Jonathan Pollard campaign for the first six years he was in prison, and his frail parents, Morris and Mollie, who are well into their 80s.
Lately, after years of disappointment, momentum had appeared to at last be running in Pollard's direction. Last year his long-standing application for citizenship was granted by the Israeli government and beginning last fall a string of Israeli cabinet ministers began making the pilgrimage to visit him at Butner. In May 1998, Netanyahu publicly acknowledged what had been evident all along; that Pollard had not been a rogue spy during the 1980s but an official Israeli operative whose mission was known at the highest levels of the government in Jerusalem.
Finally, in September, Israeli Absorption Minister Yuli Edelshtein, himself a former refusenik jailed for several years by the KGB, visited Washington and met with a number of top Republican legislators and aides on Capitol Hill. According to Edelshtein aide Vera Golovinsky, the Republicans made clear that they would not oppose a decision by Clinton to grant clemency to Pollard "as long as Pollard were taken out of the country quietly and not as a hero."
Among the influential Republicans from whom Pollard insists Edelshtein received a sympathetic response to his appeal on behalf of Pollard was Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Golovinsky declined to directly confirm that Edelshtein had met with Hatch, saying that the minister's Capitol Hill meetings were off the record, but confirmed that Edelshtein had formed the impression while in Washington that Hatch "could live with" the release of Pollard to the Israelis. She noted that even in a post-Wye interview on CNN in which Hatch criticized the tying of Pollard into the negotiations, he nevertheless "was much more conciliatory toward Jonathan than Gingrich had been. It wasn't in the same spirit at all."
Hatch foreign policy advisor Paul Matulick dismissed the contention that Hatch was softer on Pollard than his GOP counterparts and said that while he could not confirm that Hatch had met Edelshtein, he was incensed "by the idea that any minister who had a closed door meeting in Sen. Hatch's office would talk to the press about it."
If influential Republicans on the Hill indeed signaled to Edelshtein that they would countenance a decision by Clinton to release Pollard as long as it was done discreetly, the problem for Pollard was that discretion concerning the jailed spy was the last thing Netanyahu wanted as the Wye summit reached its frenzied climax. On the contrary, faced with the prospect of an open rebellion by hardcore right-wing supporters who were deeply distressed that the prime minister had finally signed on to an agreement to turn over 13.1 percent of the West Bank to the Palestinians, Netanyahu decided that the best means he had available to assuage their wrath was to triumphantly bring Jonathan Pollard home with him on his own plane after the White House signing ceremony.
On Nov. 11, the New York Times reported that the premature leak on the morning of Oct. 23 of Clinton's alleged understanding with Netanyahu to release Pollard caused CIA Director George Tenet to immediately inform the president that he would resign if Clinton did so. Since Clinton had agreed with the Israelis and Palestinians to use the CIA to monitor Palestinian efforts to prevent terror attacks against Israelis, he had special reason not to cross the agency at such a sensitive moment. According to Kenneth Timerman, a neo-conservative Washington policy analyst and Pollard supporter, Tenet warned the president that "releasing Pollard will hurt you in the elections as the Republicans will accuse you of damaging national security."
Timerman notes that Tenet had reason to be confident of such GOP outrage, as he himself called Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, that morning to express his anger concerning Pollard's release. Shelby immediately released a statement strongly denouncing it. Reached for comment, Laura Cox, a spokeswoman for Shelby, said she "assumed" that Shelby spoke out about Pollard "after being contacted by CIA people." She stressed, "Sen. Shelby's position on this issue has nothing to do with Israel, but with a belief that Jonathan Pollard is a convicted spy against this country and to release him would send a very dangerous message to anyone who would spy against the U.S." Asked whether Shelby wants Pollard to spend the rest of his life in prison, Cox responded, "Absolutely."
Within a couple of hours of the release of Shelby's anti-Pollard statement, Gingrich and Lott rushed forward with their own. Pollard believes that Gingrich's motives may have been as much political as involved with supposed concern with U.S. security. Pollard says Gingrich was "royally pissed" at his erstwhile Israeli ally, Netanyahu, for ignoring repeated requests that he delay holding the summit so as not to give Clinton a foreign policy triumph in advance of the November elections -- and also because Netanyahu did not push Clinton to allow Gingrich and Lott to attend the White House photo-op for the signing.
According to Pollard, "It was pay-back time on Newt's part, and what better way to stick it to Bibi than to make sure he wouldn't have me to bring home? "
Pollard says informed sources reveal that Clinton has already made his latest review and decided to reject clemency once again. But he has by no means given up hope. In the wake of a terror bombing in Jerusalem, the Netanyahu government has delayed carrying out the Wye agreement until Arafat cracks down more firmly on the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist networks and until the Palestinians revoke once and for all articles in their charter calling for Israel's destruction. Since Arafat seems unable to go far enough to meet Netanyahu's demands, Pollard reasons, the Clinton administration is likely to have to intervene all over again to get the parties to implement the agreement.
"Both the Israelis and Palestinians are giving up a lot in this deal," Pollard reasons. "The Israelis are trading a big chunk of land and putting their security more at risk, and the Palestinians are being forced to crack down on their extremists and temper their animosity toward Israel. Both parties will have to adapt to have the CIA operating in the West Bank to monitor compliance. So what is the U.S. trading? It is no longer the honest broker, but a full-fledged participant in the peace process. It has to give something too." The best card the U.S. has to trade at this point, Pollard clearly feels, is himself.
SALON | Nov. 30, 1998
Walter Ruby is a New York writer whose work has appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Village Voice and Israeli newspapers.

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R E L A T E D_.S A L O N_.S T O R I E S

Renewal of vows Aided by a dying King Hussein, Israel's Netanyahu brings Israel back to where it was in the peace negotiations 18 months ago.
By Daryl Lindsey
Oct. 23, 1998
Why Clinton caved in to Israel The Lewinsky scandal has claimed one of its first big victims by ruining the Middle East peace process.
By Jonathan Broder
July 28, 1998
Fish or cut bait If he wants to save his proudest foreign policy accomplishment, President Clinton will have to face down Israel.
By Jonathan Broder
April 1, 1998
Shape of things to come Unless the Clinton administration does something to rescue the Middle East peace process, there will be more Saddam Husseins -- and more Luxor massacres.
By Jonathan Broder
Nov. 19, 1997

T A B L E+T A L K What would be the Republican dream ticket for the 2000 election? What about the Democrats? Play pundit in Table Talk's Politics discussion area R E C E N T L Y One big happy family By Alan Wolfe The election was a referendum on morality, after all, but Americans voted for tolerance, not vengeance (11/25/98) The "young lady" who got under Kenneth Starr's skin By Joan Walsh U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren is pressing the independent counsel to think harder about when he learned of Linda Tripp's tapes (11/25/98) Letter from San Francisco By Lisa Margonelli Twenty years after Dan White murdered George Moscone and Harvey Milk, his old neighborhood is still spawning leaders who divide by race -- but these days they're Asian, not white (11/24/98) Why "Birthright Israel" can't work By Samuel G. Freedman Diaspora in America is better than physical danger and religious infighting in Zion (11/23/98) Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Starr By Gary Kamiya When the real Kenneth Starr finally stood up before the House, he turned out to have a split personality (11/20/98) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Browse the Newsreal Archives - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - S A L O N E M P O R I U M FREE! 12-ounce bag of Salon Blend with a purchase of $30 or more. While supplies last.
		A CONVERSATION WITH JONATHAN POLLARD \| PAGE 1, 2 - - - - - - - - - - Pollard is a smart political strategist and an even better spinner. His professed optimism that Clinton may now be emboldened, by the election results and by Gingrich's fall, to turn around and grant him clemency rings more than a little hollow. The conventional wisdom among both Washington insiders and Pollard supporters these days is that after the blow-up at Wye, the reanimation of bitter resistance to his release by the U.S. intelligence community and Gingrich's replacement as speaker by the less avidly pro-Israel Robert Livingston, the earliest prospect for Clinton to grant Pollard clemency and let him fly to Israel would be the waning days of the president's tenure in office in January 2001. Yet if Pollard is despondent over the shattering denouement of Wye, he gives no evidence of it. During his 13 bitter years of imprisonment, including six years in solitary confinement, Pollard has become accustomed to seeing his hopes for liberation repeatedly dashed by what he characterizes as a malevolent brew of fear, loathing and covert anti-Semitism in the U.S. intelligence community; long-standing reluctance on the part of the Israelis to acknowledge that his spying activities in the early 1980s were anything more than a rogue operation; and a less than ardent advocacy for his freedom by American Jewish leaders clearly fearful of being charged with dual loyalty. Through it all, Pollard has managed to preserve his profane sense of humor and considerable charm while dealing with journalists. But sadly, he has unleashed his mounting fury at his situation on his family, friends and supporters from the early years of his imprisonment. Among those he accuses of having bungled the effort to free him and with whom he has broken off all ties are his former wife, Anne, who served four years in prison for her knowledge of his espionage activities, his sister Carol, who led the worldwide Free Jonathan Pollard campaign for the first six years he was in prison, and his frail parents, Morris and Mollie, who are well into their 80s. Lately, after years of disappointment, momentum had appeared to at last be running in Pollard's direction. Last year his long-standing application for citizenship was granted by the Israeli government and beginning last fall a string of Israeli cabinet ministers began making the pilgrimage to visit him at Butner. In May 1998, Netanyahu publicly acknowledged what had been evident all along; that Pollard had not been a rogue spy during the 1980s but an official Israeli operative whose mission was known at the highest levels of the government in Jerusalem. Finally, in September, Israeli Absorption Minister Yuli Edelshtein, himself a former refusenik jailed for several years by the KGB, visited Washington and met with a number of top Republican legislators and aides on Capitol Hill. According to Edelshtein aide Vera Golovinsky, the Republicans made clear that they would not oppose a decision by Clinton to grant clemency to Pollard "as long as Pollard were taken out of the country quietly and not as a hero." Among the influential Republicans from whom Pollard insists Edelshtein received a sympathetic response to his appeal on behalf of Pollard was Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Golovinsky declined to directly confirm that Edelshtein had met with Hatch, saying that the minister's Capitol Hill meetings were off the record, but confirmed that Edelshtein had formed the impression while in Washington that Hatch "could live with" the release of Pollard to the Israelis. She noted that even in a post-Wye interview on CNN in which Hatch criticized the tying of Pollard into the negotiations, he nevertheless "was much more conciliatory toward Jonathan than Gingrich had been. It wasn't in the same spirit at all." Hatch foreign policy advisor Paul Matulick dismissed the contention that Hatch was softer on Pollard than his GOP counterparts and said that while he could not confirm that Hatch had met Edelshtein, he was incensed "by the idea that any minister who had a closed door meeting in Sen. Hatch's office would talk to the press about it." If influential Republicans on the Hill indeed signaled to Edelshtein that they would countenance a decision by Clinton to release Pollard as long as it was done discreetly, the problem for Pollard was that discretion concerning the jailed spy was the last thing Netanyahu wanted as the Wye summit reached its frenzied climax. On the contrary, faced with the prospect of an open rebellion by hardcore right-wing supporters who were deeply distressed that the prime minister had finally signed on to an agreement to turn over 13.1 percent of the West Bank to the Palestinians, Netanyahu decided that the best means he had available to assuage their wrath was to triumphantly bring Jonathan Pollard home with him on his own plane after the White House signing ceremony. On Nov. 11, the New York Times reported that the premature leak on the morning of Oct. 23 of Clinton's alleged understanding with Netanyahu to release Pollard caused CIA Director George Tenet to immediately inform the president that he would resign if Clinton did so. Since Clinton had agreed with the Israelis and Palestinians to use the CIA to monitor Palestinian efforts to prevent terror attacks against Israelis, he had special reason not to cross the agency at such a sensitive moment. According to Kenneth Timerman, a neo-conservative Washington policy analyst and Pollard supporter, Tenet warned the president that "releasing Pollard will hurt you in the elections as the Republicans will accuse you of damaging national security." Timerman notes that Tenet had reason to be confident of such GOP outrage, as he himself called Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, that morning to express his anger concerning Pollard's release. Shelby immediately released a statement strongly denouncing it. Reached for comment, Laura Cox, a spokeswoman for Shelby, said she "assumed" that Shelby spoke out about Pollard "after being contacted by CIA people." She stressed, "Sen. Shelby's position on this issue has nothing to do with Israel, but with a belief that Jonathan Pollard is a convicted spy against this country and to release him would send a very dangerous message to anyone who would spy against the U.S." Asked whether Shelby wants Pollard to spend the rest of his life in prison, Cox responded, "Absolutely." Within a couple of hours of the release of Shelby's anti-Pollard statement, Gingrich and Lott rushed forward with their own. Pollard believes that Gingrich's motives may have been as much political as involved with supposed concern with U.S. security. Pollard says Gingrich was "royally pissed" at his erstwhile Israeli ally, Netanyahu, for ignoring repeated requests that he delay holding the summit so as not to give Clinton a foreign policy triumph in advance of the November elections -- and also because Netanyahu did not push Clinton to allow Gingrich and Lott to attend the White House photo-op for the signing. According to Pollard, "It was pay-back time on Newt's part, and what better way to stick it to Bibi than to make sure he wouldn't have me to bring home? " Pollard says informed sources reveal that Clinton has already made his latest review and decided to reject clemency once again. But he has by no means given up hope. In the wake of a terror bombing in Jerusalem, the Netanyahu government has delayed carrying out the Wye agreement until Arafat cracks down more firmly on the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist networks and until the Palestinians revoke once and for all articles in their charter calling for Israel's destruction. Since Arafat seems unable to go far enough to meet Netanyahu's demands, Pollard reasons, the Clinton administration is likely to have to intervene all over again to get the parties to implement the agreement. "Both the Israelis and Palestinians are giving up a lot in this deal," Pollard reasons. "The Israelis are trading a big chunk of land and putting their security more at risk, and the Palestinians are being forced to crack down on their extremists and temper their animosity toward Israel. Both parties will have to adapt to have the CIA operating in the West Bank to monitor compliance. So what is the U.S. trading? It is no longer the honest broker, but a full-fledged participant in the peace process. It has to give something too." The best card the U.S. has to trade at this point, Pollard clearly feels, is himself. SALON \| Nov. 30, 1998 Walter Ruby is a New York writer whose work has appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Village Voice and Israeli newspapers. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - R E L A T E D_.S A L O N_.S T O R I E S Renewal of vows Aided by a dying King Hussein, Israel's Netanyahu brings Israel back to where it was in the peace negotiations 18 months ago. By Daryl Lindsey Oct. 23, 1998 Why Clinton caved in to Israel The Lewinsky scandal has claimed one of its first big victims by ruining the Middle East peace process. By Jonathan Broder July 28, 1998 Fish or cut bait If he wants to save his proudest foreign policy accomplishment, President Clinton will have to face down Israel. By Jonathan Broder April 1, 1998 Shape of things to come Unless the Clinton administration does something to rescue the Middle East peace process, there will be more Saddam Husseins -- and more Luxor massacres. By Jonathan Broder Nov. 19, 1997