Posted on 12/23/2013 8:14:56 PM PST by Eleutheria5
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will ask US President Barack Obama to commute the life sentence of convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard at a critical stage of the diplomatic talks with the Palestinian Authority, Channel 2 diplomatic correspondent Udi Segal reported Monday night.
Netanyahu had tied Pollard’s release to talks with the Palestinians in the past. He reached a deal with former US president Bill Clinton to commute Pollard’s sentence in 1998 as part of the Wye River Accord, but Clinton reneged on the deal after then-CIA director George Tenet threatened to quit.
The prime minister reportedly asked the US for Pollard’s freedom six months ago when Israel committed to release 104 Palestinian terrorists as diplomatic negotiations were restarted. Netanyahu has brought up Pollard with the Americans repeatedly since then.
The Channel 2 report, which the Prime Minister’s Office would neither confirm nor deny, suggested two possible alternatives for when Netanyahu could insist on Pollard’s release when US Secretary of State John Kerry announces his framework for concluding an agreement between Israel and the PA as early as next month, or when Israel releases the final round of 26 Palestinian terrorists in April.
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(Excerpt) Read more at jpost.com ...
I think just about everyone gathers intelligence from just about everyone. This is by means which are open to everyone.
Spying against your own country is something different, it is treason.
Actually, it isn’t, except if he gave aid and comfort to America’s enemies, made common cause with those enemies, or took up arms against the United States. Look in the Constitution. But I’m no Pollard booster, so don’t think I’m defending him.
I see what you are saying and I think you are right but if a country is using a person who is a citizen of that country to obtain state secrets, are they not being enemies at that time?
And yes I consider us and Israel as friends over all.
Obama has no conscience and his ego is sufficiently inflated that he will acknowledge no inconsistency.
The difference is that Pollard was spying to ensure Israel’s survival, while the data we gather on Israel is used by Obama, to undermine Israel’s interests.
In that case, all spying is ipso fatso treason, and all foreign agents gathering intelligence should be hanged, and US agents should expect the same treatment, even from friendly nations. Instead, they trade one another’s agents like baseball cards.
It’s possible to make out a case that Pollard committed treason, btw. He didn’t just spy for Israel, but also for the USSR, among others, from Australia to N. Korea. But he plead guilty only to the charge of spying for Israel, so the prosecutors never tried to make out a case of spying for the USSR, which would have been treason. This was a deal to keep the classified info he revealed out of the court room, I think. But the judge gave him life, so he has been trying to elicit sympathy by pretending he was a great friend of Israel and only revealed that Iraq was working on a reactor, instead of the cheap mercenary with a coke habit that he was. That’s why I don’t care for him. Even so, he’s not in for treason. At the same time, it’s contrary to Israel’s interests to make even more concessions for the sake of this character. He’s not worth it.
Agreed. Then why are the politics of releasing Pollard of any benefit to Netanyahu? I can understand leftists wanting him released, but not anyone else.
Regrettably, the left isn’t the only faction with a large dumbass population. Pollard’s support in Israel is mostly from the right, because they buy into his act. He’s wearing a yarmulke and has a beard now. Perhaps he’s sincere in his profession of religion. Perhaps the spying he did for Israel was some sort of patriotic thing, whereas his other spying was just for his ego and to get cash to buy coke. I can’t judge. But that does not make him a hero in my book. Unfortunately, to others he is.
You jest staid a moufull.
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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The President is correct there's no connection. The connection is made when one of our sources is physically caught. Not simply caught like the President has. Related threads
Netanyahu: Spying 'unacceptable' between friends In first official response to NSA espionage
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