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| By israelinsider staff May 22, 2007 |
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| Cooking up an anti-Semitic stew ... with Rice? Ambassador Richard Jones meets with the Secretary of State (Photo: www.state.gov) |
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US Ambassador to Israel Richard Jones issued a formal apology Tuesday for remarks he made Monday regarding convicted Pentagon spy Jonathan Pollard. He had implied that Pollard was guilty of treason, deserving of death, and that the fact that the US did not execute Pollard should be considered an act of mercy.
In a signed official press release, Jones said that the remarks attributed to him were taken out of context, and called them "misinformed and misleading". He left it ambiguous whether he was admitting that his words were incorrect and deceptive, or whether that the "misinformed and misleading" result was due to misquoting or de-contextualizing what he had said.
Jones, however, did not retract his words or clarify what he intended, except to say that the comments did not reflect his own opinion or that of the US administration. "I certainly do not personally believe that Mr. Pollard should have received capital punishment -- I was appalled to learn that I had given that impression," Jones said. "I regret any distress that I may have caused Mr. Pollard's family and loved ones."
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"Unless and until Jones takes retracts these egregious lies and corrects the record, his apology is is at best incomplete, and at worst insincere."
Esther Pollard, responding to Jones' official statement
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Asked by media outlets for their reaction to the apology issued by Ambassador Richard Jones for his egregious statements about Jonathan Pollard at Bar Ilan University yesterday, Esther Pollard made the following statement :
"Jonathan and I were gratified to learn that a first step has been taken by the US Ambassador in recognizing the evil that was done. However, the Ambassador's apology to Jonathan and myself, in the absence of a complete retraction and correction of the false charges that he laid upon my husband, is inadequate.
Ambassador Jones falsely accused my husband of treason, falsely accused my husband of spying for money, and falsely accused him of harming the United States. He suggested that Jonathan ought to have been executed, reinforcing the false charge of treason. All of these false charges made by Richard Jones against Jonathan Pollard are still out in the public domain and doing damage. Unless and until Jones takes retracts these egregious lies and corrects the record, his apology is is at best incomplete, and at worst insincere."
Responding to a written question during an academic conference, Jones became visibly agitated. "It came out in the trial very clearly," he claimed. "Jonathan Pollard took money for what he did, he sold out his country," Jones at Bar Ilan University, near Tel Aviv. "The fact that he wasn't executed is the mercy that Jonathan Pollard will receive."
Pollard, a civilian intelligence analyst for the US Navy, passed military secrets to Israel while working at the Pentagon. He was arrested in 1985 and pleaded guilty at his trial, as part of a bargain that was never honored. He is serving a life sentence in a US federal prison and is reportedly in ill health.
"This is a very emotional issue in the United States," Jones said. "I know he was helping a friend but that's what makes it even more emotional for Americans, if a friend would cooperate in aiding and abetting someone who is committing treason against his own country."
Jones' unprecedentedly blunt attack on Israel for "aiding and abetting someone who is committing treason" (sic) raised eyebrows in the audience, and caused outrage among Pollard's supporters. Two current Israeli ministers, Vice Premier Shimon Peres and Minister of Pensioners Rafi Eitan were directly responsible for overseeing and authorizing Pollard's activities.
The wife of the imprisoned spy decried Jones' remarks as "malicious incitement" and "gross slander" against her husband, and urged Prime Minister Olmert to send the US Ambassador packing for "lies and slander."
"Jones's declaration that Pollard 'got off easy' because he deserved to be shot is wantonly malicious, especially since he knows that Jonathan did not commit treason, which is the only crime which carries a death penalty," Esther Pollard said in a written response.
"In point of fact, Jonathan was charged with the least serious of the espionage statues: one count of passing classified information to an ally. The median sentence for this offense is 2 to 4 years," she added.
Pollard said that Jones's claim that her husband sold out his country is without foundation.
"Jonathan's indictment specifies that he was not charged with harming the United States, and his sentencing transcript clearly shows that the court recognized this fact. Consequently the court did not impose a monetary fine as it would have if he had spied for money. Most important of all, Israel formally admitted in 1998 that Jonathan Pollard was a bona fide Israeli agent. The formal recognition of Jonathan as an Israeli agent puts the lie to any claims that Jonathan spied out of mercenary motives," she said.
Pollard's noted that no one in American history has every gotten a life sentence for spying for an ally.
She added that former US special envoy to the Middle East Dennis Ross states, in his book 'The Missing Peace,' that Pollard continues to be held by the US as a bargaining chip against Israel.
[Esther Pollard's full remarks are here.]
Pollard was used as bait in persuading former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to sign off on the Wye accords. Ross himself was reportedly instrumental in persuading the U.S. that Israel would agree to the deal even without getting Pollard.
Some analysts speculate that the Ambassador's inciteful remarks were tied to pressure on Israel to make concessions and part of a concerted effort to raise the specter of American Jewish dual loyalty in the run-up to the public trial of former AIPAC executives.
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