Trump should move Pollard to Jerusalem

[Published 5 June 2017]


President Trump’s delay in moving the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem presents the President with a wonderful opportunity to commute Jonathan Pollard’s sentence - freeing Pollard to move from New York to Jerusalem.

Trump made his unequivocal Embassy pledge on 22 March 2016:

“We will move the American embassy to the eternal capital of the Jewish people, Jerusalem.”

A White House statement on 1 June put this brave face on Trump ‘s decision delaying the Embassy move:

“While President Donald J. Trump signed the waiver under the Jerusalem Embassy Act and delayed moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, no one should consider this step to be in any way a retreat from the President’s strong support for Israel and for the United States-Israel alliance. President Trump made this decision to maximize the chances of successfully negotiating a deal between Israel and the Palestinians, fulfilling his solemn obligation to defend America’s national security interests. But, as he has repeatedly stated his intention to move the embassy, the question is not if that move happens, but only when.”

Negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs have so far extended over a period of 23 years without any real success - so one can only wonder when the Embassy move is likely to occur.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s response was quite philosophical:

“Though Israel is disappointed that the embassy will not move at this time, we appreciate today’s expression of President Trump’s friendship to Israel and his commitment to moving the embassy in the future,”

Trump’s friendship would be confirmed were he to commute Pollard’s life sentence and harsh parole conditions to enable Pollard’s move to Jerusalem,

Pollard - an intelligence analyst with the US Government - received his life sentence for passing classified information to an American ally - Israel. No other American has received such a crushing sentence.

Pollard - released in 2015 after serving 30 years penal servitude - was placed on harsh parole conditions requiring him to wear an electronic tracking device, obey a curfew and allow his computers to be monitored. He must remain in the United States until November 2020.

Pollard’s appeal to relax his parole conditions was recently rejected.

Pollard’s treatment can be contrasted to that meted out to Bradley (now known as Chelsea) Manning - who leaked more than 700,000 documents to WikiLeaks in 2010 whilst serving as an intelligence analyst in Iraq.

Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison.

President Obama commuted Manning’s sentence in January - three days before vacating the White House - from 35 years to just over 7 years, the majority of which Manning had already served. Trump said Manning should never have been released from prison.

Manning was freed from federal custody on May 17th.

Israeli Prime Ministers from Yitzchak Rabin to Netanyahu had unsuccessfully lobbied successive Republican and Democratic Presidents for Pollard’s release and permission to resettle in Israel.

Pollard is recently reported to have remarked:

“As much as Trump needs to be held to his promise to move the embassy, it is just as important that the prime minister keep his promise to bring an agent home”

President Obama’s precedent in freeing Manning whilst resisting similar overtures for Pollard’s release was reprehensible.

Commuting Pollard’s sentence at this particular moment in Trump’s presidency will help cement the blossoming post-Obama relationship between the United States and one of its staunchest allies - Israel.

Pollard’s move to Jerusalem as it celebrates the 50th anniversary of its liberation from 19 years of illegal occupation by Jordan would alleviate the disappointment of the Embassy not moving there.

That is what Trump-style dealmaking is all about.

President Bush Ambushed By Arab Perfidy

[Published October 2007]

President Bush, supposedly the world’s most powerful man, is being humiliated and hung out to dry by the Palestinian Authority and the Arab League as they use their collective muscle to try and change the focus and possibly cause the cancellation of next month’s international meeting called by the President.

Mahmoud Abbas - President of the Palestinian Authority and Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organisation - had no compunction in telling President Bush to his face what the agenda should be for that meeting when they met at the Waldorf Astoria in New York on 24 September :

“Mr. President, these days we feel hopeful and we feel and we sense the hope, especially after the call to convene an international meeting during the month of November. We believe that this meeting should deal with the substance and issues of substance that would lead to full negotiations on the permanent status that would lead to a permanent peace and a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.”

Threats of boycotting the meeting by Abbas and various Arab states if the agenda does not meet these demands has sent Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice into a spin as she embarks on yet another of her trips to the Middle East .

She will be desperately trying to find a face saving formula to bring the Arab States - especially Saudi Arabia - to the November meeting.

President Bush needs to show he can deliver the Arab States to meet with Israel. It is a critical element in building Israel’s confidence to continue negotiations to create an Arab State - the 23rd - between Israel and Jordan.

The Arabs apparently are not so ready to oblige. Their attempt to subvert the meeting by changing the President’s planned agenda is in distinct contrast to their frequent statements applauding President Bush for his efforts to bring peace to the Middle East.

President Bush certainly had no intention of creating a putative peace conference of the kind demanded by Abbas when he announced the proposed meeting on 16 July stating:

“The world can do more to build the conditions for peace. So I will call together an international meeting this fall of representatives from nations that support a two-state solution, reject violence, recognize Israel's right to exist, and commit to all previous agreements between the parties. The key participants in this meeting will be the Israelis, the Palestinians, and their neighbors in the region. Secretary Rice will chair the meeting. She and her counterparts will review the progress that has been made toward building Palestinian institutions. They will look for innovative and effective ways to support further reform. And they will provide diplomatic support for the parties in their bilateral discussions and negotiations, so that we can move forward on a successful path to a Palestinian state“.

This was the way President Bush saw his vision of the two state solution now being best advanced - a solution which has been in deep trouble ever since the President first proposed it four years ago.

Much had changed in the immediate region in just twelve months to bring the President to call this meeting - the ascendancy of Hamas to political control of Gaza, the flight of Abbas and his Fatah faction from Gaza, the sacking of the Palestinian Government, the war in Lebanon and Hezbollah‘s resurgence.

The international meeting was intended and designed as a new and important confidence building block on the way to successfully progressing bilateral discussions and negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority - after the last fourteen years of negotiations had got the parties nowhere.

Those negotiations had failed because of the uncompromising stance adopted by Abbas and his predecessor Arafat on two issues of substance demanding that Israel :
(i) withdraw to the pre-June 1967 armistice lines and
(ii) permit millions of Arabs to go and live in Israel.

Abbas now claims that these issues can be resolved within six months of President Bush’s meeting if Abbas’ agenda is adopted - which indicates a total flight from reality. His stance on these issues mirrors the policy of the Arab leadership for the last 40 years. To believe these issues can now be successfully negotiated in six months is the height of absurdity.

The Palestinian Arabs have become victims of their own rhetoric.

It now needs an exceptionally strong leader to take them down a different path and to disavow these fanciful notions - especially when the current Palestinian Arab leadership is so divided and President Bush has made it clear that Israel could not be reasonably expected to meet these demands.

President Bush correctly assessed that Abbas is pathetically weak at the present time and cannot make any concessions on these issues - let alone carry them through -in the face of strident Hamas opposition.

President Bush saw this international meeting as a launching pad to firmly install Abbas in the driving seat. Abbas would steadily assert his credibility and influence with his constituency by firstly rebuilding a totally dysfunctional society with the aid of international financial backing and secondly by receiving diplomatic support to encourage him to change his current intransigent stance on these core issues.

However President Bush’s attempt to chart this path of hope for the future is rapidly descending into high farce. The Arabs don’t want to play ball - Arab intransigence on these core issues still rules the roost.

The Arabs will only have themselves to blame if President Bush washes his hands of the conflict and lets the cards fall where they will.

Will the Arabs blow an opportunity yet again to replace misery and suffering with hope for a better life and brighter future for everyone in the Middle East?

Their current behaviour can only alienate and offend the United States and push it closer towards Israel - its only truly reliable ally in the Middle East.

The two state vision so earnestly supported by a United States President will probably not present itself again.

It’s a crucial make or break time for the two State solution.

Egg on the face is not appreciated by anyone - especially the President of the United States.