Will Jonathan Pollard Be Home for Passover?
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
Nathan Guttman March 7, 2013
It may sound farfetched to Americans. But some Israelis are hoping Barack Obama will free Jonathan Pollard as a goodwill gesture ahead of the president’s upcoming visit to the Middle East
Activists and even members of Knesset are pressing for the release of the convicted Israeli spy and some have even suggested that Obama bring Pollard with him on Air Force One.
“I pray to that on the day we welcome the President of the United States, we will get to see Pollard walk on the land of Israel,” said Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, a Labor Party lawmaker during a special discussion held on the Knesset floor Wednesday about the Pollard case.
Other lawmakers were equally forceful in their pleas to Obama. They are pressing him, at the least, to discuss Pollard’s fate during his visit to Jerusalem.
“Many Israelis view Pollard as a Prisoner of Zion,” said Likud MK Reuven “Ruby” Rivlin. “The Americans should know that Pollard’s case cannot be considered simply another point of disagreement that both countries can live with.”
Administration sources were quoted in the Israeli press last week as saying Obama has no intention of making any decision about Pollard before his visit to Israel, not to mention bringing the spy with him to Israel. The White House received an official request from Israeli president Shimon Peres last year to release Pollard, who has already served 26 years of his life sentence in a federal prison in Butner, N.C. But the administration has yet to reply.
Avoiding the issue altogether during the Jerusalem visit, however, could be impossible. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has already made clear he will ask him about it. Netanyahu met on Monday with Pollard’s wife, Esther, and promised her he’d raise the issue in his talks with Obama.
It won’t be the first time Obama hears the request. He is unlikely to respond any differently than in previous times, by listening, without providing much input in response.
Israel’s minister of information and Diaspora affairs, Yuli Edelstein, expressed his hope during the Knesset hearing that Jonathan Pollard will sit at the seder table this Passover as a free man. Based on the administration’s views and actions, Edelstein is setting Israelis up for a disappointment.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
