The Canadian Jewish News, Thursday, December 16,1993-Page 9
not expected: reports
NEW YORK (JPFS/JTA) - American supporters of Jonathan Pollard, as well as those in Canada, are being urged to flood the White House with faxes, letters and calls in a last-ditch attempt to f)ersuade President Bill Clinton to commute Pollard's sentence.
The clarion call to Pollard's supporters followed a statement last week by U.S. administration officials that Clinton's advi.sers are recommending the president not grant clemency to Pollard.
Despite an intense lobbying campaign by much of North American Jewr\' in recent months, the officials said it apf>cars likely that Clinton will accede to the recommendations against clemency froin within his own adniinistration.
: Federal prosecutors in the U.S. Justice Department and Central Intelligence Agency analysts are reportedly the most vocal forces opposing a presidential pardon for Pollard, the former civilian naval analyst who has been .serving a life sentence for spying on behalf of Israel.
Last week's announcement of the likely presidential pt)sitionwas oddly worded, with administration, officials suggesting Clinton had not yet made his final decision, and could .still be in-fiuenced by protests.
Pollard supporters are interpreting that statement to mean Clinton would like to free Pollard before his earliest 1995 parole date, but needs a massive outpouring of public support to buttress such a decision against opposition from within his own administration.
One supporter understood the equivocal announcement as "a fairly obvious and helpful request for bursts of protest in support of Jonathan P(:)llard."
Theodore Bputrous, one of Pollard's lawyers, blasted the announcement: ■ "The pro.secutors agreed in 1987 not to seek a life sentence," he said. "They recognized then that the information he passed to Isriael did not warrant a life sentence. How can they possibly argue the opposite now?
Boutrous urged Pollard supporters to swamp the White House with protests.
He said a presidential pardon for Pollard coming at this criticaJ juncture in the Middle East peace process would be a welcome American gesture.
* 'It is the ideal time to heal this wound in the Israel-U.S. relationship," he said.
Whenever senior Clinton administration officials met with Jewish organizational leaders in recent months, a question was often put to the Jiews: What is the sentiment in the community concerning Pollard?
It was an important question for Clinton, who received 88 per cent of the Jewish vote in the 1992 elections, and who was trying to decide whether to grant a request for clemency for Pollard.
As the Justice Department conducted the official review of the Pollard case, the
president has had to weigh the inevitable opposition from intelligence agencies against the arguments and political clout of the Jewish community which supported him overwhefmingly.
Within the Jewish community, freedom for PoUard has often appeared to be as self-evident a cause as freedom for Soviet Jewry, judging by coverage of the is!>ue in Jewish newspapers, sermons in syria-
gogues and appeals from Israeli and local leaders. .
But for the White House — and indeed, for the organized JewLsh commiinity — the view has not been that clear.
A 1991 poll by the American Jewish Committee showed'that not much more than half of American Jews had heard of Pollard, and no more than 22 percent thought Jewish organization.s should campaign to reduce his sentence. • And those with whom the White House is most accustomed to dealing on the issue have taken the lowest profile.
The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, an umbrella group that includes groups strong-Iv advocating for Pollard as wellas tho.se who have maintained it is not an issue for the Jewish community; has taken no stand.
Its rationale is that the mandate of the conference is to deal with international issues. ■ ' - :
The umbrella group dealing with domestic American concerns, the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council (NJCRAC). voted last February to take no stance regarding Pollard;
Those groups that represent specific constituencies have increasingly come oh board. ;
(In the U.S., those who have come out in support of Pollard include the rabbinic organizations of the Reform, Conservative and Oirthodox branches of Judaism, and about half of local Jewish community relations councils.)
Littie surprise, then, that unnamed White House officials told the New York 7T/M^5 last week tiiat Clinton warited to hear from American Jews on the issue.
The 77m« reported that Clintoii" had yet to make up his mind and that protests following reports of his opposition to clemency could alter the dynamics of his decision making."
The article indicated that Clinton is inclined to decide against commutation of Pollard's sentence. .
For supporters of Pollard, these remarks on the eve of the Justice Department's conclusion of the review, set off a flurry of lobbying.
Seymour Reich, president of the American Zionist Movement, and Rabbi Avi Weiss, president of the Coalition for Jewish Concerns-Amcha, said they were mobilizing their constituencies to inunda:te die White House witii calls, letters and faxes.
TORONTO — Jonathan PoUard has taken issue with a Dec. 2 column in the Toroiito Siin that described him as an "ugly traitor," an anti-Semite's.dream and someone who got what he deserved.
Pollard's Canadian lawyer, Bert. Raphael of Toronto, spent 20 minutes on the phone with his client last Friday. Raphael told the CJN Pollard was "so angered" at the Sun column, written by Eric Margolis.
The column, mailed to Pollard at his prison in Butner,N.C., said the daniage he inflicted on U.S. strategic interests was "enormousand still gravely hurts the UTS. today."-Pollard's "well-deserved" fate ...brought shame and danger on Jews everywhere.'' — At least three letters of protest have been mailed to 5un editor
John Downing, Raphaers among ■ them.',
Pollard's Toronto-based spokeswoman and fiancee, Elaine Zeitz, sent the C/N a note refuting almcKt every fact on which Margolis based his column.
According to Raphael^ Pollard also said he feels "let down" by the Israeli leadership, as well as by much of American Jewish communal leadership^
Pollard apparently feels "abandoned" by the major American organizations, either for not dealing with his plight at all or for usurping the role of rabbis and synagogues. ^
"He feels these [organizations] arc non-democratic because their leaders are not elected," Raphael said. "They speak about morality when rabbis should be doing that."
SEEKING SUPPORT
Tami Arad^ the wife of Israeli navigator Ron Arad, was was allegedly captured six years ago in Lebanon IS seen with Cardinal John O'Conner and her daughter Yuvaj before their meeting in New York. Arad IS seeking mternational help regarding the plight of her husband who is believed to be still alive. fRNS/Re-uters photo]
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