FOIA Doc: March 10, 1987 Statement of Conference of Presidents of Major
American Jewish Organizations after Pollard is sentenced to Life March 4,
1987
J4JP Release November 19, 2002
The following press statement was recently obtained as part of an Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA) request. It was released to the media 6 days after
Jonathan Pollard was sentenced to life.
SEE J4JP Comment below.

Statement by Morris B. Abram, Chairman, Conference of Presidents of Major
American Jewish Organizations, on the Pollard Affair -- March 10, 1987

The espionage activity for which Jonathan Pollard was justly sentenced was a
serious crime and should never have taken place.
I am also deeply concerned by the public perception of the official
treatment accorded Colonel Sella and Rafael Eitan, and will raise these
concerns with the proper authorities next week during a visit to Israel.
The State of Israel, through its then Prime Minister Shimon Peres,
apologized to the highest levels of the United States government for an
unauthorized operation. The Pollard activities were inexcusable and offend
all Americans. I know that relations between the US and Israel, two
democracies whose vital interests are intimately linked, are strong enough
to weather this deplorable incident. Israel needs America. America needs
Israel. This interdependence will and must be the overriding consideration
binding the two countries in their common devotion, to freedom, to justice
and to human dignity.

J4JP Comment:
This March 10, 1987 statement by Morris Abram on behalf of the Conference of
Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations put its seal of approval
on the grossly disproportionate sentence of life which was meted out to
Jonathan Pollard only 6 days earlier. It assured the American government
that it could do as it pleased with Pollard without fear of protest from the
Jewish community and its leadership.

The statement which insists that Pollard was "justly sentenced" takes no
note of the fact that that Pollard received his life sentence in complete
violation of a plea agreement which Pollard honored and the government
violated. It also makes no mention of the false charge of TREASON that was
leveled at Pollard by Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger in his
last-minute memorandum to the sentencing judge.

By falsely accusing Pollard of treason, Weinberger was attempting to create
a de facto legal redefinition of Israel as an enemy state. From the time
that Pollard was sentenced in 1987 right up to this very day, none of his
security-cleared attorneys have been permitted to access the Weinberger
Memorandum in order to challenge it in a court of law.

In all the ensuing years there has never been any serious protest from the
Conference of Presidents -or any other major Jewish organization - about the
government's blatant violations of Jonathan Pollard's constitutional rights,
about his grossly disproportionate sentence, or about his unusually harsh
treatment. To this day, the issue of Jonathan Pollard has never been on the
official agenda of Jewish leaders in any of their meetings with the White
House. On November 21, 2002, Jonathan Pollard begins his 18th year of a life
sentence with no end in sight.

SEE ALSO:
FOIA Doc: Conference of Presidents Letter to US Sec. of State Betraying
Pollard
FOIA Doc: Sec. of State Response to Conference of Presidents Letter
Betraying Pollard
Letter to An American Friend: Soured Promise - Jlem Post
http://www.jonathanpollard.org/7890/031087.htm
Note: this oped, a must-read by Shlomo Avineri was written in angry response
to the March 10, 1987 press statement by the Conference of Presidents