MK: Netanyahu must 'unmask' US spying on Israel
By GIL HOFFMAN The Jerusalem Post 07/31/2012 11:28
http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=279506
If US President Barack Obama does not commute the life sentence of Israeli
agent Jonathan Pollard by the November 6 US election, Prime Minister
Binyamin Netanyahu should expose American efforts to spy on Israel, National
Union MK Arieh Eldad said Tuesday at a Knesset State Control Committee
meeting monitoring progress in efforts to bring about Pollard's release.
Eldad noted an Associated Press report over the weekend about a break-in at
a CIA-owned apartment in Tel Aviv. While the report sought to prove that
Israel was monitoring American intelligence operatives, Eldad said it should
have raised the question of why the US was operating in Israel.
"If Obama realizes that he needs American Jewish votes or money, there is
hope to bring about Pollard's release by November,” Eldad said. “But if not,
Israel must remove the [US's] mask. They say one of the problems of the
Pollard case is that countries do not spy on their friends. It's time to say
out out loud what the CIA was doing in that apartment and what is happening
on the roof of the US embassy in Tel Aviv. They are spying on a friendly
country.”
Eldad blasted President Shimon Peres for receiving the Presidential Medal of
Freedom from Obama at a June 13 ceremony in Washington, calling it shameful
for him to accept the prize while Obama was preventing Pollard's freedom.
Committee chairman Uri Ariel (National Union) complained that the Americans
reneged on agreements with Israel when they sought the life sentence Pollard
was given in 1987 and when then-US president Bill Clinton broke a promise to
Netanyahu to release him as part of the 1998 Wye River Accords.
Ariel expressed disappointment that the Prime Minister's Office did not send
a representative to the hearing despite repeated requests made to cabinet
secretary Zvi Hauser and Netanyahu's senior adviser Ron Dermer. Ariel said
Netanyahu's advisers told him they did not have anything to report to the
committee.
"It was a very bad mistake by the Prime Minister's Office not to send
anyone,” Ariel said. “We tried for a long time to coordinate the meeting
with them but they are clearly avoiding coming. I see this as very grave,
and I will consider issuing an injunction requiring the prime minister to
come.”
Forcing a prime minister to testify to a Knesset committee rarely happens.
An injunction requires a majority of the 13 MKs on the committee.
Effi Lahav, who heads the Committee to Bring Jonathan Pollard Home testified
to the MKs that there has been a rise in support for clemency from from
American Jews and top current and former American officials.
"We know from our meetings with Americans that they have never challenged us
with facts that disprove our case," Lahav said. "We want to believe there
has been a change for the better in how the issue is being handled by the
[Israeli] government. But what matters to us is results. As long as Pollard
is in jail, there must be oversight and that's why this meeting is so
important."
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Website: www.imra.org.il
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