Tuesday, March 30, 2021

A Comment on the Pollard Interview

The Friday, March 26, 2021 Hebrew edition of Israel Hayom carried a long interview with Jonathan Pollard.

There is a swipe at the Knesset Lobby in a short Q & A at its end




I translate:

The Knesset Lobby?
They did nothing. Zero. It was a joke.
A group came to visit me once, at Butner Penitentiary, after returning from Washington.
They excitedly related that they were at the Capitol.
I asked them, 'did you talk about me?' and they stammered 'no'.

While I cannot say that the incident happened or not, I can say that as regards the Pro-Pollard Lobby in the Knesset between 1987, when it was founded by MKs Geulah Cohen and Edna Solodar, and until 1994, when it was then headed by MK Rechavam Zeevi, and with me as coordinator, the Lobby was active, effective and supportive.

Jay's memory has either lapsed or anything pre-EZ is purposely erased. A great disrespect to Geulah and Edna, their interventions with the suport of dozens of MKs, the assistance by the-then Israel UN Amabssador and many others. Diplomatic, political, and other aid was done. The Pollard Family was brought to the Knesset on several occasions and lobbying was done, even as it was an uphill fight.

The archives of that period exist and so a future academic research study will probably be made.

^

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