JERUSALEM — An Israeli Cabinet minister says convicted spy Jonathan Pollard opposes being freed from a U.S. jail in exchange for Palestinians prisoners.
Uri Ariel says people close to Pollard have told him that he opposes such a “shameful deal.”
Ariel, from the hard-line Jewish Home party, spoke to Army Radio on Tuesday. He says he, too, is against the release of “murderers” for Pollard.
Talk of the possibility of Pollard’s early release has arisen as an incentive in the troubled Mideast peace negotiations. The idea is that if he is freed, Israel would make concessions and release more Palestinian prisoners.
Pollard was a civilian intelligence analyst for the U.S. Navy when he gave classified documents to Israeli handlers. He was arrested in 1985 and later sentenced to life in prison.
Ariel spoke after the release of Pollard emerged as a possible bargaining chip in talks between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an effort to rescue stalled peace talks.
Early freedom for Pollard, the imprisoned American naval intelligence analyst convicted in 1987 of passing secrets to Israel, was among incentives Kerry offered in two hours of meetings Monday in Jerusalem with Netanyahu, Haaretz reported, citing an unidentified Israeli official. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki didn’t dispute the report.
JACQUELYN MARTIN / AFPUS Secretary of State John Kerry listens to a question from the media during a news conference in Paris, March 30, 2014. The United States is talking with Israel about the possibility of releasing convicted spy Jonathan Pollard early from his life sentence as an incentive in the troubled Mideast peace negotiations, a person familiar with the situation said March 31, 2014.
AP Photo / Karl DeBlakerThis May 15, 1998 file photo shows Jonathan Pollard speaking during an interview in a conference room at the Federal Correction Institution in Butner, N.C.
Kerry is trying to craft a formula for extending nine months of peace talks that are due to expire at the end of April. With the negotiations stumbling most recently over an overdue Israeli release of Palestinian prisoners, that deadline is looming.
The previous goal of reaching agreement on a “framework” as a first step toward a peace deal is fading as the focus shifts to extending the talks and moving toward resolving “final status” issues in an agreement by late this year, according to one U.S. official who wasn’t authorized to comment by name.
Kerry changed his travel plans Monday to squeeze in a last-minute visit to Israel and the West Bank, deciding “it would be productive to return to the region,” Psaki said. Kerry met early Tuesday with Saeb Erekat, chief negotiator for the Palestinian Authority. He then met with Netanyahu in Jerusalem, making no comment on the results before heading off to Brussels to attend a meeting of foreign ministers from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
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Palestinian Minister of Prisoner Affairs Issa Qaraqi said the Palestinian leadership would meet later Tuesday to discuss its next move. If Kerry fails to convince Netanyahu to go ahead with the fourth and final round of prisoner releases as agreed to last July at the start of negotiations, the Palestinians will renew their efforts to achieve statehood recognition at United Nations bodies, Qaraqi said in a phone interview.
To extend the talks beyond the current April 29 deadline would require releasing hundreds more prisoners beyond the 104 Netanyahu agreed to last year, Qaraqi said. Convincing Israel to do so might involve the U.S. agreeing to free Pollard as part of a broader deal.
Uriel Sinai / Getty ImagesIsraelis protest against US President Barack Obama as they call for the release of Jonathan Pollard, a Jewish American who was jailed for life in 1987 on charges of spying on the United States, during a demonstration outside the Israeli President's residence on March 19, 2013 in Jerusalem, Israel.
Pollard’s imprisonment has long been a source of tension in U.S.-Israeli relations. Netanyahu has been trying to get the U.S. to release Pollard since his first term as prime minister.
Pollard, 59, who was sentenced to life in prison and is eligible for parole, is scheduled to be released from a medium- security prison in Butner, North Carolina, on Nov. 21, 2015, pending a final review by the U.S. Parole Commission, said Chris Burke, a spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
While freeing Pollard about a year and a half early could spur Israel to make concessions that would keep the peace talks alive, it also may cause an uproar among current and former U.S. intelligence officials who consider him a traitor.
He hasn’t co-operated. He hasn’t apologized, so let his sentence run out
“We would express our real outrage that an unrepentant spy is being released for an abstract political point that really won’t make a difference,” said Oliver “Buck” Revell, who served as associate deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation when Pollard was convicted.
“He hasn’t cooperated,” Revell said in a telephone interview. “He hasn’t apologized, so let his sentence run out.”
In 1998, more than a decade after Pollard’s conviction, Israel acknowledged Pollard’s espionage activities in an attempt to facilitate his release. He was granted Israeli citizenship during his imprisonment.
Pollard was arrested in 1985, after delivering to Israel about 800 documents, some of which were classified top secret, according to the National Security Archive, a nonprofit research group at George Washington University in Washington. He also stole an estimated 1,500 U.S. intelligence summary messages.
The Central Intelligence Agency’s 1987 damage assessment of Pollard’s activities showed he provided Israel with information on topics including Iraqi and Syrian chemical warfare production capabilities, Soviet arms shipments to Syria and other Arab states, Pakistan’s nuclear program and the capabilities of Tunisian and Libyan air defense systems. He also provided a U.S. assessment of Israeli military capabilities, according to a summary from the National Security Archive.
With files from The Associated Press