Release of Jonathan Pollard Called ‘Inevitable’
The release of Jonathan Pollard, the convicted Israeli spy serving a life sentence in a U.S. prison, is “inevitable” and could take place shortly on “technical grounds,” a a prominent Jewish leader and supporter of U.S. President Obama told Haaretz.
The comment, made by Jack Rosen, chairman of the Council for World Jewry, who is in Jerusalem to chair the International Conference of Mayors, came in an apparent contradiction to the Obama administration’s staunch refusal to discuss Pollard’s release.
Notably, late last year the New York Times quoted U.S. Vice President Joe Biden as telling Jewish leaders that the convicted spy would be released “over my dead body.”
While later Biden denied he used that exact phrase, he did, however, confirm that the sentiment expressed in that rejection was indeed his own.
Speaking to Haaretz, Rosen, however, said: “Right now, it looks like he’ll be released in the next few years – shortly,” he said. “There are some technical reasons, I’m told, why he’ll be released. I think there’s an inevitability to that happening.”
For more, go to Haaretz.com
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
