The Public Lynching of Jonathan Pollard.Again
By Esther Pollard - November 14, 2006

No matter how many different ways the same lies about my husband, Jonathan
Pollard, are repackaged, they are still lies. Whether as a well-orchestrated
series of "leaks" to the media by unnamed American officials; whether
deliberately leaked to a Jewish writer for recycling in New Yorker Magazine;
or whether repackaged in a slick new book by a "retired" American
intelligence officer ---they are all lies.

For 21 years, the government of Israel has turned its back on Jonathan,
enabling hostile elements in the American intelligence community to use his
case as a weapon against Israel and the Jews. These enemies of Israel
continue to point to Jonathan as "proof" that Israel cannot be trusted as an
ally, and that American Jews are not loyal citizens. Ever vigilant, lest
this valuable weapon against Israel be released from prison, the American
intelligence community continues to lobby fiercely to keep Jonathan in
prison forever.

Hiding behind a veil of secrecy which denies Jonathan's attorneys access to
their own client's sentencing docket, American intelligence officials are
able to make the most outrageous claims against Jonathan, knowing that they
will never have to substantiate them, or be challenged in a court of law.

Following the same strategy that was first used at the 1998 Wye summit, US
intelligence officials have once again turned to the ever-willing Israeli
media as a vehicle to attempt to torpedo any chance of Jonathan's release.
The strategy works like this: lies about Jonathan are entrusted to the
Israeli media in the guise of an "exclusive" scoop. In Israel this
"exclusive" is picked up by the foreign press, relayed around the globe and
back to the American press. By the time the circuit is complete, public
opinion has been so thoroughly galvanized against Jonathan's release that
his life sentence is virtually ensured.

This time, the patsy given the "exclusive" was Israel TV Channel 10, and the
scoop, an "exposé" about Jonathan Pollard by "retired" intelligence officer,
Ronald Olive, in the form of a new book, just published by the US Navy's
own press.

The book, not only repeats all the old lies about Jonathan, it reveals that
the US Navy even created its own video about Pollard for the Defense
Intelligence Agency to train new intelligence recruits about treason. In
spite of the fact that Jonathan was never charged, indicted or convicted of
treason - a crime which applies only to those who spy for enemies of the
US - Olive claims that this video makes the name "Pollard" synonymous with
the crime of "treason."

That the Navy deliberately chose to misrepresent Israel as an enemy state by
making Jonathan the poster boy for treason, speaks volumes. It is
significant that the Navy deliberately featured an Israeli spy over all the
others it was holding at the time, including spies for Cuba, China, North
Korea and the Soviet Union. This sends a strong message to new intelligence
recruits that America regards Israel as the greatest threat to her national
security!

Indifferent to the extreme sensitivity of the timing - the eve of Bush and
Olmert's meeting - Channel 10, in a striking departure from professional
practice, chose not to question any of Olive's allegations or the American
intelligence community's motivation in continually blocking Jonathan's
freedom. Channel 10's complete failure to investigate the validity of the
claims against Jonathan is unethical and morally reprehensible. It ignores
the impact on a victim whose ability to defend himself against these lies is
virtually non-existent.

Part of the Channel 10 "exclusive" presentation featured an American office
surveillance video provided by Olive. The video shows a clip of Jonathan
putting documents into a brief case, a routine part of his job as an
intelligence analyst. The commentary by Olive however, reinterprets the film
as "Pollard caught in the act of stealing a million documents." Never
questioning the content of the video, nor the vitriolic voice-over provided
by Olive, nor the timing of its release 2 decades later, Channel 10 (and
then rest of the Israeli media) dutifully rebroadcast this film and included
it for replay on a host of web sites.

Still following Olive's lead, Channel 10 breathed new life into the canard
that Jonathan will automatically go free in the year 2015. This is another
blatant lie. In the year 2015, after 30 years in prison, Jonathan would be
entitled to make another request for clemency, nothing more. Jonathan
Pollard is not in prison for what he did, but for what he represents -
Israel and the Jews. Those who oppose his release after 21 years in prison
will continue to oppose it forever.

Nevertheless, and not to be outdone by Israel TV Channel 10 which broke the
Pollard "scoop" with two days of feature programming, the media in this
country (with few exceptions) jumped on the bandwagon and embraced the lies
about my husband as if they were documented fact.

Not a single media outlet asked Jonathan's Navy accusers for hard evidence
or factual documentation. No one asked the basic simple question: "If
Pollard is guilty of such crimes as spying for multiple countries, why was
he never charged, indicted, or tried for these crimes?"

No evidence exists to substantiate the claim that Jonathan spied for other
countries. If there were any evidence, he would surely have been indicted.
The accusation itself is absurd!

Media outlets which normally call us every time Jonathan sneezes, this time
had no questions for us about all of these allegations against Jonathan, and
sought no comment from us. Why is Jonathan again being falsely accused in
the media of crimes which he never committed? Whose interests are being
served by this public pillorying?

As for Channel 10, without advising me in advance that they were airing a
new smear campaign about Jonathan, they invited me to take part in "a
program about Jonathan for the 21st anniversary of his incarceration." On
air, the trap was sprung; as soon as I began to refute the false allegations
with documented facts, I was hustled off the air and out of the studio. I
heard an on-the-set director give the order to get me out of there! Channel
10 is not interested in promoting the truth.

There is an urgent need on the part of the Israeli public to understand why
the government of Israel has so cruelly abandoned Jonathan Pollard for more
than 2 decades. The media's marketing of all of the old lies about Jonathan
as if they were fact, simply exploits this need. It reinforces the public
impression that the absolute indifference of Israel, of the American Jewish
leadership and of the Israeli media to Jonathan's plight, after all, is not
unreasonable.

Jonathan has already served 21 years in prison - far longer than the median
sentence of 2 to 4 years that such an offense usually carries. No one
blinked when a recent decision of a US Court sentenced to a mere 3 months, a
pentagon analyst who had spied for China for more than a decade. For China's
spy, 3 months in jail is enough. But for Israel's spy, even 21 years is not
enough?!

The original sin of betrayal and abandonment by Israel remains the root
cause of this latest smear campaign against Jonathan. The Israeli government
has failed once again, to come to the defense of her agent; and once again
Jonathan has been lynched in the court of public opinion.

The utter silence of Israeli officials, commentators and opinion-makers as
Jonathan is about to enter his 22nd year of an unlimited life sentence
screams to the Heavens.

What other country in the world demonstrates such an abject lack of national
honor?

Shame! .