Special to WorldTribune.com
Recent reports have said the United States is ready to release convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard in an attempt to allay Israel’s vociferous criticism of the Iran nuclear deal.
The move, however, is not likely to succeed, experts say.
“If this is the motive, it’s naïve,” said Amnon Rubinstein, a law professor at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel. “The two things are totally separate. One is a human consideration, and one is a strategic issue, which most Israelis, including myself, regard as existential.”
Pollard, 60, is serving time in a federal prison in Butner, North Carolina. His supporters say he should be released because of his poor health, with his attorney saying he suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure.
Analysts have even said that the Obama administration is boasting that the release of Pollard would be a grand gesture, even though Pollard was expected to be released in November of this year after serving the required 30 years of his life sentence.
“Pollard is apples and the Iran deal is oranges,” said Aaron David Miller, an expert on the Middle East at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. “The Pollard card is not just of limited value, but potentially damaging.”
Miller added the move may only serve to drive Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “fight harder” against the Iran deal “so he’s not thought to have colluded.”
A senior Israeli official said on July 25 that the government wasn’t “told anything at all” about Pollard’s release, which was reported by The Wall Street Journal, and that it had not been discussed as part of a compensation package the U.S. might provide to appease Israel on the Iran deal.
“Our longstanding position has been, we have made repeated requests over the years, that for humanitarian reasons he should be released,” the official said. “It comes up routinely. I’m not aware that the issues are in any way connected.”
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on July 24 warned that the international community might blame Israel if the U.S. Congress blocked the nuclear agreement and that Israel might “wind up being more isolated.”
“We reject the threats directed at Israel in recent days,” an Israeli official said in a statement provided on July 25 to The New York Times. “The U.S. Congress will make its decision based on American interests, which include consideration of U.S. allies. The regrettable attempt to intimidate Israel will not prevent us from voicing our concerns about this deal, which poses direct threats to Israel’s security.”
Playing ‘the Pollard card’ seen increasing Israel’s opposition to Iran nuke deal added by World Tribune on
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