Letter from Ruth Matar (Women in Green) Jerusalem
Thursday, May 31, 2007
On May 28, 2007 Arutz Sheva News published an interesting article about US Ambassador Richard Jones’ recent remarks. It is republished here in its entirety:
Jones Video Adds Fuel to Pollard Fire
by Hillel Fendel
(IsraelNN.com) With the publication of a video of US Ambassador to Israel Richard Jones’ remarks against Jonathan Pollard, calls increase for a retraction and correction – and for clemency for Pollard.
The Justice for Jonathan Pollard (J4JP) organization has circulated a video link at which Ambassador Richard Jones can be seen and heard making his infamous remarks about Pollard. Speaking last week at a Bar Ilan University conference on US-Israeli relations, Jones said twice that Pollard committed treason against the United States. He added bitingly that “it came out clearly in the trial that Jonathan Pollard took money” and that he “sold out” his country.
While J4JP easily and quickly rebutted these claims, other accusations by Jones were less widely publicized. He implied that the American people were punishing Israel itself when he said, “I know he was doing this [spying] for a friend [Israel – ed.], but that’s what makes this even more emotional for Americans – that a friend would cooperate in aiding and abetting someone who is committing treason against his own country.”
Jones’s final biting comment, coming in the context of the above remark, was the most explosive of all: “The fact that he wasn’t executed is the mercy that Jonathan Pollard will receive.” The double implication that Pollard deserved to be put to death, even though he was convicted on only one count of passing classified information to a friendly nation, and that he would never be freed, had Pollard supporters up in arms and demanding an apology.
The pressure was apparently strong enough to elicit an apology within a matter of hours. Jones said his remarks were “misinformed and misleading,” and “did not reflect my personal views nor those of the Bush Administration.”
Apology not Accepted by All
The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations welcomed the apology the next day. Though it reiterated its call for Pollard’s quick release, the organization said, “We accept Ambassador Jones’ explanation and retraction and believe that it puts this matter to rest.”
Other groups, however, were less willing to bury the issue. Rabbi Pesach Lerner, Executive Vice President of the National Council of Young Israel, wrote, “I believe the case cannot be closed. The apology, as is, is still missing a correction of Jones’ comments. His facts were wrong [and] he needs to admit that… We must demand a full retraction, correction and perhaps an official inquiry into the sources of his information, the source of his directive to respond with such lies, etc.”
J4JP noted that though Jones apologized for daring to say that the US had shown mercy in not executing Jonathan – who never faced anything near a death penalty – he “did not apologize for falsely accusing him of treason or of having taken money. These false charges are soundly contradicted by Jonathan’s indictment and by his sentencing transcript, and most important of all by Israel’s formal recognition of him as her agent.”
Some in the Israeli press, too, were unhappy with the apology – and with Israel’s lukewarm response. Two major Israeli dailies, Yediot Acharonot and Haaretz, ran strikingly similar editorials saying that if Israel were “self-respecting” [Haaretz] or “well administered” [Yediot], it would have summoned Jones to the Foreign Ministry and demanded a clarification of his statements.
“It’s difficult to accept or understand the American lust for revenge when it comes to Pollard,” wrote Yossi Melman of Haaretz. “There’s something irrational about it. Jones’s remarks were rude and bereft of diplomatic tact, reflecting this American pathology that aspires to keep Pollard from ever being pardoned. Even though Jones has apologized, he deserves to be denounced. By essentially ignoring his comments, Israel is adding insult to the injury it has already done Pollard.”
Chief Rabbi Metzger Takes up the Cause in the US
Israel’s Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger, currently on a short visit to the New York Jewish communities of Jamaica Estates and Great Neck, is making the most of the recent developments to ask American Jewry to redouble their efforts to work for Pollard’s release. The rabbi said today that after he visited Pollard in prison over two years ago, he wrote a letter to US President Bush asking for clemency – and had it signed by every living past and present Israeli chief rabbi.
“I planned to give it by hand to the President,” Rabbi Metzger said, “but we received a message that it would be better not to bring it because the subject was too [sensitive] – and so I gave it to the US Ambassador, and he promised that he would give it to the President, but as of now, I have not yet received an answer… We have only two ways to act: Jews all over the world must put a lot of pressure on President Bush as his term draws to a close, and we must pray to G-d that He will save Jonathan’s life and rescue him.”
Pollard’s wife Esther, speaking on the Knesset television channel last week, said that Prime Minister Olmert could capitalize on the situation and make up for past government inaction by raising the matter quietly with President Bush and asking for the release of Pollard as an Israeli agent.
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MY COMMENTS:
It seems that there was strong pressure from various quarters on US Ambassador to Israel, Richard Jones, for his infamous remarks about Pollard.
Apparently the pressure was strong enough to elicit an apology from Ambassador Jones within a matter of hours. Ambassador Jones said his remarks were “MISINFORMED AND MISLEADING,” and “DID NOT REFLECT MY PERSONAL VIEWS, NOR THOSE OF THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION.”
Then, whose views was Jones expressing? I think this is the most incredible non-apology I have ever come across!
Even the two major Israeli dailies, Yediot Acharonot and Haaretz ran editorials demanding that at the very least Jones be summoned to the Foreign Ministry and that a clarification of his statements be required. However, there is no chance for that with Tzippi Livni as head of the Foreign Ministry, who, if an American official spat in her face, would say: “It’s raining”!
US Ambassador Jones is said to have officially apologized, even though his apology is not really genuine. Therefore Ambassador Jones deserves to be denounced!
By ignoring his untrue and vicious comments Israel is, in effect, accepting thinly veiled anti-Semitism.
In all fairness, it behooves us to write President George Bush and ask for what reason he does not pardon Jonathan Pollard, when individuals who have done real harm to the United States have gotten very light punishments. Even a former Director of Central Intelligence, James Woolsey, has said emphatically that Pollard has been punished enough.
The United States State Department has a long record of anti-Semitism. For instance, the US State Department led by Breckinridge Long, during the Holocaust, was responsible for the deaths of many Jews.
As written by David S. Wyman in his book titled “A Race against Death” (2002):
“The State Department not only had failed to pursue rescue opportunities, but had even obstructed rescue efforts that American Jewish organizations attempted on their own. Breckinridge Long and the State Department had secretly cut immigration to less than 10% of the quotas. In addition, in early 1943, a critically important channel for the flow of Holocaust information out of Europe to the United States was blocked by the State Department, which instructed the American Legation in Switzerland to stop transmitting such information.”
Is anti-Semitism still alive and well in the State Department and among its representatives?
Dear Friends,
All justice seeking individuals must do all they can to work for Pollard’s release from prison. We implore you: write to your representatives in the US and to President Bush telling them we demand Justice for Jonathan Pollard!
With Blessings and Love for Israel,
Ruth Matar
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