Washington – White House Closes Door On Pollard Aliya

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    FILE - Esther Pollard, wife of convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, walks past a poster of her husband prior to speaking to press outside her home in Jerusalem on July 29, 2015.  Flash90Washington – US president Barack Obama will not take action to enable Israeli agent Jonathan Pollard to move to Israel following his expected parole in less than two weeks, Obama’s deputy national security adviser for strategic communication Ben Rhodes told Israeli reporters in a briefing late Thursday night.

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    Pollard is set to be released from prison after serving 30 years of a life sentence for passing classified information to an American ally on November 20, the US Parole Commission announced July 28. The conditions of Pollard’s parole have not yet been released but they are expected to include a ban on him leaving the US for five years and he is to be forbidden from giving interviews.

    It was still unclear Saturday whether Pollard’s release will take place on Friday November 20 or on Saturday November 21, 30 years since his arrest. Pollard keeps Shabbat but it was unclear whether he will be released Friday to enable him to spend Shabbat outside of prison.

    When Pollard’s parole was announced, his lawyers, Eliot Lauer and Jacques Semmelman, wrote that Obama has the constitutional power of executive clemency, which grants him the authority to commute Pollard’s sentence to time served and allow him to leave the United States and move to Israel immediately. They urged the president to exercise that power.

    But Rhodes made clear when asked by reporters that Obama would not take such action on Pollard’s behalf, saying that the president does not interfere in American legal procedures.

    “President Obama has not intervened in the judicial process here in the United States, and that’s been his consistent approach,” Rhodes said. “With respect to the case of Jonathan Pollard, he’s made clear that he wants there to be fair treatment under the law, as there should be with any individual. But he as President has not intervened in that process. He respects how important this issue is to many Israelis. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Prime Minister raised this. That’s obviously his determination. But again, that’s been the approach that the President has taken.”

    Obama has commuted sentences of 89 people during his presidency, more than any American president since Lyndon B. Johnson. He has granted full pardons to another 64 people.

    Most of the convicts who received clemency from Obama were drug dealers and thieves. When he has announced commutations, he has said that the sentence of the convicts did not fit their crime. Obama is expected to announce more commutations later this month in honor of the Thanksgiving holiday.

    The official Pollard campaign and the caucus for Pollard in the Knesset declined to respond to Rhodes’ comments, saying that they were not new.

    “We have made a strategic decision not to intervene at this stage,” said the head of the caucus, MK Nachman Shai. “After he’s out of prison, we can struggle for him to be able to move here.”


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    33 Comments
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    torontonian
    torontonian
    8 years ago

    So what do you expect from Hussein Obama? Jews don’t get clemency, Pollard is not black so he doesn’t stand much of a chance.

    8 years ago

    While I strongly disagree with granting clemency for a convicted traitor who violated his oath to his country and has left a cloud of suspicion over all yidden with security clearances why should they give this guy any further special treatment??

    bsnow
    bsnow
    8 years ago

    Drug dealers have destroyed more lives then Pollard. Just saying.

    8 years ago

    Hello???? Isn’t there FREEDOM OF SPEECH in this country? Why can’t he give interviews after he leaves prison? All other prisoners can speak without restrictions during and after their incarcerations. Why should he not allowed to leave the country. Isn’t it a standard practice to send criminals after their incarceration to their home country….? Anyone recall the case of Theresa and Joe Guiddice, (Reality show actors who were convicted of tax fraud)? The husband is expected to be deported to Italy after he finishes his sentence after his wife emerges from her jail cell. You’d think the prosecution and parole board would say goodbye and good riddance…. do they need to pay more money to babysit and track him for another 5 years here in the US. He should be allowed to fly to Jerusalem to his wife and new life directly from the jail exit. Take the Motsei Shabbos EL AL flight!

    Curiosity
    Curiosity
    8 years ago

    So Obama is a racist Jew-hater. What else is new?

    Reb Yid
    Reb Yid
    8 years ago

    What’s to stop him from leaving? There’s nothing a fake passport, cooperative ElAl gate agent, or pleasure boat making a rendezvous in international waters can’t take care of.

    qazxc
    qazxc
    8 years ago

    You people are seriously deranged.

    8 years ago

    If a Republican is elected President, they will change the terms of the parole, and let Pollard leave for EY.

    PaulinSaudi
    PaulinSaudi
    8 years ago

    The Israelis want the president to pardon someone. They do this by asking for more aid, calling him an antisemite and insulting his secretary of state. Seems an odd policy.

    8 years ago

    There is still supposedly “freedom of the press”….. Perhaps he can publish his memoir that he likely already started to keep himself sane during his horrific incarceration.

    Insider
    Insider
    8 years ago

    As the Israeli government is doing, it’s best that we leaving everything alone until Jonathan is out of prison. When he is with his wife, comfortably outside the prison gates, that’s the time for all efforts to be unleashed to get him to Israel. No matter your feelings, Jonathan has served a disproportionate 30 years. Plainly, he served his time and does not owe anything more to the country that dismissed his complaints and violated treaties with Native American Indians, the State of Israel, and with the Pollard plea agreement.

    barbaabba
    barbaabba
    8 years ago

    The less talk the better

    8 years ago

    Pollard’s sentence should have been commuted after 13-15 years, maximum. He was double crossed by Bill Clinton in 1998, when Clinton originally promised Netanyahu that he would commute his sentence, and then reneged on the agreement. Essentially, he was a political pawn for the last fifteen years, during the Bush and Obama Administrations. He was dangled in front of the Israelis for more and more concessions.

    Rifka
    Rifka
    8 years ago

    Do you think Donald Trump will allow him to go to Israel?

    PaulinSaudi
    PaulinSaudi
    8 years ago

    It seems odd to me that nobody seems to want to help the Arabs who are arrested and executed for working for Israeli intelligence.

    hashomer
    hashomer
    8 years ago

    There is good news here- Mr. Pollard is getting out of jail. After an insane 30 year cruel and unusual punushment. Everyone needs to take a deep breath and thank HaShem he survived and is out.