Pollard camp: Clinton comments slap in Israel's face

The Committee to Bring Jonathan Pollard Home expressed outrage on Tuesday at US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's comments rejecting the possibility of the Israeli agent's life sentence being commuted.

?With respect to Mr. Pollard, he was convicted of spying in 1987," Clinton said. "He was sentenced to life in prison, he is serving that sentence, and I do not have any expectations that that is going to change.?

The committee said Clinton's remarks stunned her Israeli hosts and marred the warm reception she had received from the Israeli public. A committee spokesperson noted that Clinton did not offer any explanation as to why the US would want to keep the aging and ill Pollard in prison forever. "[Clinton said] Pollard was 'sentenced to life in prison' and is 'serving that sentence,' the spokesperson said. "In what can only be regarded as unmitigated gall, while deflecting Israel?s requests for the release of Pollard, Mrs. Clinton pressed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres to release of a number of convicted murderers and terrorists to the Palestinian Authority, who she also said were 'sentenced to life in prison' and are 'serving that sentence.'...

"Clinton's statements were the harshest, toughest, and most insensitive from any American official since Vice President Biden said Pollard would be released over his dead body," Tirosh said. "She could have given an amorphous answer, but instead she left no room for hope that Pollard's life can still be saved." Likud MK Danny Danon said Clinton did damage to Obama with American Jewish voters who were already upset that Obama did not visit Israel as president. "As America's top diplomat, she could have answered diplomatically," Danon said. "Now what she said about Pollard is the only thing that will be remembered from her visit. The Obama administration either does not understand Israelis or they simply don't care." Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon (Yisrael Beytenu) told Army Radio that he hoped Pollard would not die in prison. He said both Democratic and Republican administrations had taken a strict approach that he failed to understand and disappointed him...

Source: http://www.israelforum.com/board/showthread.php?threadid=21648

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