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Next month, convicted Israeli agent Jonathan Pollard will begin his 27th year in prison, and the Obama administration is displaying stunning insensitivity to what this means for the American Jewish community. Pollard was arrested in 1985 for transferring classified documents to Israel during his service at US Naval Intelligence. In 1987, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for his crime. Pollard's sentence contradicted his plea bargain agreement. It was based, among other things, on an impact assessment report of his crimes that was authored by CIA officer Aldrich Ames. At the time of Pollard's arrest, Ames had been spying for...

"Leading Republican White House hopeful Newt Gingrich discusses Jonathan Pollard in an Interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN Wednesday. Gingrich says he is leaning towards clemency in the case of Jonathan Pollard, but hasn’t all the information needed to make up his mind. . . ."

It's taken a long time - too long for my tastes - but it seems that Israel's Prime Minister might just be starting to discover that he has a backbone and that he can use it after all. Israel's Channel 2 is reporting that the Prime Minister has informed the United States that Israel will not release 'Israeli Arab' terrorists as a gesture to the 'Palestinians,' but that it will release them in exchange for Jonathan Pollard. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told US Secretary of State John Kerry that Israel would not release any Israeli-Arab prisoners in the fourth...

Gilad Shalit, the IDF soldier who was kidnapped by Hamas and imprisoned for 5 years, called on the US to release Jonathan Pollard on Tuesday. "I heard the request tonight, like everyone else, from Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to release Jonathan Pollard, who has sat for 29 years in prison," Shalit wrote to Yediot Aharonot. "After Israel has released terrorist prisoners back to the Palestinian Authority as a gesture [for negotiations], we ask for a mutual gesture." "I am sure that like me, the entire nation of Israel agrees that to demand such a simple gesture as Pollard's release is...

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will officially demand the release of Jonathan Pollard from the US, Channel 2 reported Monday. The unconfirmed report claims that Netanyahu will reportedly ask for Pollard's release in one of two frameworks: either for another exchange of more Arab terrorist prisoners, or as part of agreeing to the interim deal between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The agreement would follow the US's guidelines set for Israel and the PA for a peace agreement, the full outline of which is due to be presented in January 2014. On Sunday, the Prime Minister joined in the criticism from...

The Israeli cabinet took a courageous and politically unpopular step by approving the release of 104 Palestinian prisoners, including many terrorists who had murdered Israeli babies, women, the elderly and other civilians. According to Israeli intelligence some of these released murderers are likely to rejoin terrorist organizations and may kill again. Relatives and friends of the victims have protested the decision to release these killers. Yet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet withstood these pressures and ordered their release. The United States government had pressured the Israeli government to release these prisoners because the Palestinian Authority had made...

The US Department of Justice has released new files about convicted spy Jonathan Pollard’s bid for presidential clemency. Pollard was sentenced to life in prison in 1987 after passing more than a million highly classified documents to Israel while working as an intelligence analyst for the US Navy. Documents in the Freedom of Information Act response (PDF) reference 32 pages of government agency deliberative communications and 37 pages of new communications between Pardon Attorney Ronald Rogers and Pollard’s legal team — all produced since July of 2011. While the contents have been withheld, their existence signals that the Pollard commutation...

Former undersecretary of defense Lawrence Korb said Tuesday that convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard may be released soon. "Given Jonathan's deteriorating health they may consider clemency," Korb said in remarks that contradicted reports that Pollard's release was were baseless. "There is a chance." Korb also rejected that US President Barack Obama's silence on an emergency plea for Pollard's release from Israeli President Shimon Peres on humanitarian grounds was a definite "no" on clemency for Pollard. "Obama didn't respond to a letter sent by Prime Minister Netanyahu over a year ago, either, to my knowledge," Korb said. "He may be waiting...

WASHINGTON -- The government of Israel is again asking the United States to release convicted spy Jonathan Pollard, a former Navy analyst serving a life sentence for espionage. But the White House said Monday its position has not changed, and President Barack Obama has no intention of releasing Pollard. Pollard was arrested in 1985 and convicted in 1987. Democratic and Republican administrations alike have repeatedly refused Israeli appeals to release Pollard. The latest request was made Monday in a letter to Obama from Israeli President Shimon Peres, who asked that Pollard be released on humanitarian grounds because his health has...

It is not the business of Israel, although it seems to be the business of the politicians of Israel, to hector and harass President Obama about the release of Jonathan Pollard, who served as a certified espionage agent of the Jewish state in and against its one truly reliable ally, the United States of America. Maybe Pollard’s sentence was a bit harsher than it should have been. But I don’t even concede that. In any case, there are probably hundreds of thousands of convicts now in jail who can argue that their prison sentence was not equable or even just...

Officials in the Prime Ministers office have relayed to journalists that it is the intention of the Prime Minister to raise with the President, the issue of Jonathan Pollard’s release. As will be remembered, 14 months ago Prime Minister Netanyahu made an unprecedented official request for Pollard’s release. His request has not received the courtesy of a response to date. At this time hopes are mounting that during the upcoming meeting between the PM and the President, a positive response to Netanyahu’s request will be forthcoming. Even more so, in light of the dozens of appeals by high-ranking senior officials...

US vice president hosts Jewish leaders, political rivals for Rosh Hashana toast, says 'Israel is America's closest, dearest, most morally-based friend' WASHINGTON – At an annual event held at the US Vice President's residence in honor of the Jewish New Year, US Vice President Joe Biden said that "Israel is America's closest, dearest, and most morally-based friend". Biden added that there is no alternative to America's commitment to Israel. Among the guests present at the event were Biden's political rivals from the Republican Party, such as House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor, as well as leaders of the American Jewish...

U.S. President Barack Obama was set to release Jonathan Pollard but his vice president thwarted the move, The New York Times has reported. According to the report, Vice President Joe Biden met last week with 15 rabbis in Boca Raton, Florida, when he was asked by one of them why Pollard, who was convicted in 1986, was still in prison. In response to the question Biden said, “President Obama was considering clemency, but I told him, ‘Over my dead body are we going to let him out before his time.’” He added, “If it were up to me, he would...

Twelve years ago Eric Holder enabled the pardon of Marc Rich, the biggest tax thief in history, at Israel's request, instead of Jonathan Pollard, the Israeli spy now in his 27th year in prison. Now Israel is pushing for Pollard. It's again Holder's turn to call the shot. Don't think Pollard will get thumbs up from Holder as Rich did. Holder only does favors for four groups now as I explain below in my blog entry. (Only partly tongue in cheek.) Then there’s Eric (“the Unconscionable”) Holder, the guy who’s supposed to make the call. To get Holder to recommend...

Morris Pollard, the father of Jonathan Pollard, has died at age 95. HIs family has sent an urgent plea to President Obama, asking him to show mercy and allow Jonathan Pollard compassionate leave to attend his father's funeral. Jonathan Pollard was convicted for passing classified information to a foreign country and has been incarcerated for 26 years Pollard's father had been hospitalized for the last several months. During this period, activists on Pollard's behalf and various well-known Israelis, attempted to no avail to obtain permission for Jonathan to visit his father on a 24 hour leave. The refusal prompted MK...

Jonathan Pollard’s father is in serious condition, according to Pollard’s wife Esther. “Emergency phone call from Jonathan today,” Esther Pollard in an email message Saturday night. “He was crying. He was crying so much it was hard to understand. Now I am crying too.” “He told me he got an emergency phone call from his brother Harvey to tell him that his Dad is dying... they do not know if he will even make it through the day. “This was totally unexpected and a great shock. “Dad was in fairly good health. He is old but in very good shape....

The wife of Jonathan Pollard read a letter to American President Barack Obama appealing for her husband's release during a protest rally opposite the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem Wednesday night. The demonstration was aimed at Obama’s “cold shoulder” towards Israel. Pollard is serving a life sentence in a U.S. prison for spying for Israel. “Mr. Obama, my husband Jonathan Pollard has now served more than six times the usual sentence for the offense he committed," Esther Pollard said. "After more than two decades of the harshest afflictions in prison, including seven years in solitary confinement, it is time to release...

Professor Morris Pollard was laid to rest Monday, denied the privilege of having his son Jonathan present to recite the Kaddish – the traditional Jewish prayer for the dead – over his grave. Jonathan Pollard sat grieving for his father in his jail cell instead, his mother already having died -- also without his presence to comfort her in her final hours. Despite thousands of phone calls that flooded the White House switchboard, an appeal to the U.S. State Department by Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren and pleas by dozens of Israeli lawmakers, the Obama administration refused to allow Pollard to...

Israeli PM will demand release of Jonathan Pollard, convicted of spying for Israel against US in 1987, reports say. The Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu will link the release of former US naval intelligence analyst Jonathan Pollard, convicted of spying against the US for Israel, to progress in the US-sponsored peace talks with the Palestinians, Israeli media reported on Tuesday. The reports said Netanyahu would either demand Pollard's release when Israel signed a framework agreement, or as part of a prisoner exchange involving Arab citizens of Israel held for terrorist offences, who have always been excluded from previous agreements. Netanyahu's...

Three leading House Energy and Commerce Committee Democrats are calling for an oversight hearing on the Federal Communications Commission's Lifeline program, a phone subsidy for the poor that has been disparagingly referred to as the "Obama phone" program. The program, which began long before President Obama took office, has been notorious for waste and abuse. The FCC enacted reforms last year aimed at trimming billions of dollars from the program, but recent reports indicate that people who are ineligible for the program are still receiving subsidies. The program gained more attention last year when conservatives seized on a viral video...