According to the Maariv newspaper – as reported by the JTA, US Secretary of State Condi Rice reportedly rejected a plan to set Jonathan Pollard free.
The report states that on the eve of the Gaza withdrawal, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon put together a plan that Israel would free jailed Marwan Barghouti, if the United States would in turn release Pollard.
According to the newspaper, Israel’s ambassador to Washington at the time, Danny Ayalon, approached Condi Rice with the plan – but she quickly squashed it.
“Pollard’s release is out of the question,” Ma’ariv quoted her as telling Ayalon. “Danny, I’d advise you not to pursue this any further. Pollard betrayed his country and that issue is taboo in Washington.”
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20 Responses
I never liked Rice. This kind of news does not surprise me. In fact, it seems once someone becomes Secretary of State, they quickly become infected by the rabid anti-semites that permeates the State Department.
I am not really trying to defend the Sec of state,but this isuue is more complex than it seems. Yes- the one’s who have the power ARE able to grant him clemency. But- presidential advisers aren’t always the big shots they may seem they are.There is a lot of classified info which goes with the Pollard issue [which he isn’t guilty of at all, of course] that certain factions wish to keep hush-hush and we have to assume that these sections of the system can strong arm Mrs. Rice behind the scenes and it simply isn’t in her power to go head on against them. Let’s just hope that the right time will come along for the leaders responsible to finally give the green light.
may Condelicious Rice always have a schvartz yohr
Right on, Joseph. But any deal releasing an arch-terrorist isn’t worth even getting Pollard out.
Interesting. He betrayed his country. I could understand that if he’d leaked plans to Russia or to a country we were at war with.
But with Israel? The U.S.A. was betraying an ally by not giving them information they needed about a mutual enemy. Pollard gave an ALLY secret information about an ENEMY. How is that betraying his country? It was information that the U.S.A. was duty-bound to give Israel, but nevertheless refused to.
The only thing one could say he PERHAPS betrayed was a putative tacit decision to keep silent the fact that the U.S.A. was hurting its supposed ally by denying them intelligence information they needed.
This, in fact, is what many say is the reason that Washington D.C. refuses to release Pollard: because he embarrassed them.
I wonder if there is more to it, and if there is perhaps something more that they are afraid he will spill if they release him and he leaves the country.
It will take a Ba’al Moifes to free Pollard. There is little logic to why he is still in jail, consequentially there is little logic to expect him to be released through any “deal”.
what do you expect, its a known fact [for a long, long time] that she’s a rabid anti-semite, [along with her boss, bush & all their cronies]
they dont call her carolina rice for nothing. she has rishus written all over her. we should all xtra kavonoh when we say matir asurim
I Cant Believe My Self What I See Here A Picture From A Goto On A Jewish Hiemish Web Site Whats Going On Here
JOSEPH: do you really think Rice acted out of “rabid” anti semitism?? Please thjink before you spew comments as inane as yours!!
gezintumenucho, read before you write. I said the State Department is permeated with rabid anti-semites. I did not state (nor will I now address) how Rice herself acted in this instance.
If you are too eidele a neshamah and can’t handle a picture of a “Goto”, perhaps you shouldn’t be on the internet at all.
I don’t like seeing the use of degrading name-calling, [On a Jewish Heimish Web Site Whats Going On Here] even against Rice. At the very least it is a very bad habit to get into, and it adds nothing of value to the discourse. At the worst, it reflects badly on all of us.
esg78,
If thre is name -calling amongst ourselves, how do you expect anyone to stop mocking Rice or any other unsympathetic personality involved in ANY news on this site??
JOSEPH:I suggest you read your own post…it states:”…once someone becomes secretary of state, they quickly become rabis anti semites.” Does this not refer to rice herself? If not, I stronglu urge you to take a writing course at any high school of your choosing
gezint i also sugest you do the same read what you write
now you have made condi a rabbi
or rabis as you stated
this ilogical machlokes is not getting you anywhere
please pray for the release of jonathan
“become rabis “
BOGOTANERYID: what are you talking about????? a typo? I suggest you and joseph go to the same writing course I suggested previously!!
why do the YW editors allow this type of nonsensical comments?
gezintumenucho – I suggest you go back to the 3 R’s. Or at least to Reading and wRiting.
Joseph clearly wrote:
it seems once someone becomes Secretary of State, they quickly become infected by the rabid anti-semites that permeates the State Department.
Joseph did not say Rice became an anti-semite. Please read before you falsely shoot off your keyboard.
good… he deserves to be in prison, he committed a crime, why dont we let out abramoff too?
to rebmotchka
he was never charged with treason, never charged with betraying his country, etc. he was just charged with passing classified info to a friendly country.
thats the legal end of the story, etc.
ginsberg is wrong; rice, bush 41, etc are not anti semites (bush’s grandfather, senator (ct) prescott bush was a rabid anti semite, whose boston bank he owned in partnership with jo kennedy and john d rockefeller was actually taken over by the us govt during ww2 as “enemy property” because of all the german industry they owned, even during ww2.) but that applies to bush’s grandfather, not him.
rice is not an anti semite, she is just a …
but this is irrelevant to the pollard issue.
by the way, pollard would probably opppose this plan, as he did in the past. unfortunately, the jewish “establishment” deems it in their own interest to play down the pollard issue and not help him.
and the israeli govt is afraid that he would become prime minister immediately, cause they know that none of them are the right “chomer” for rosh HaMemshalah; they want to keep it for themselves, so they dont want him out!