Pollard for Jabali?

October 20, 1998 - Media Release

High ranking American sources have indicated that if Prime Minister Netanyahu had said "POLLARD FOR JABALI", President Clinton could not have refused.

Instead, Netanyahu said "AZZAM AZZAM FOR JABALI", and took Clinton and himself off the hook. (See excerpted item below. Click here for full text.)

The same US sources confirm that Netanyahu's ducking the Pollard issue at the Wye Summit is consistent with this government's record on Pollard when communicating with the U.S.:

THEY NEVER MISS AN OPPORTUNITY TO MISS AN OPPORTUNITY.

"TIME FOR CLINTON TO MAKE A "SACRIFICE FOR PEACE"

Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director IMRA
October 19, 1998

Last night Prime Minister Netanyahu offered a creative compromise when Yasser Arafat declared that he would never extradite Brig. Gen. Ghazi Jabali, the head of Gaza Civil Police, wanted by Israel for ordering terrorist attacks. "Call your boss, Mubarak, and have him let Azzam Azzam [the Israeli citizen imprisoned in Cairo for espionage] come home, and we will forego the extradition of Jabali."

That's right, an Egyptian "sacrifice for peace." Netanyahu wasn't grandstanding. He was dead serious.

So let's take this another step: Israel has every right to insist on the extradition of all the terrorists on their list but Clinton insists that the best Arafat can do is keep them in Palestinian prison. If Mubarak could make a "sacrifice for peace" how about Clinton?

And Jonathan Pollard is an easy sacrifice to make. He has served a longer sentence than anyone who committed a similar crime and his continued incarceration represents a thorn in American-Israeli relations...."

BUT NETANYAHU DIDN'T EVEN ASK FOR POLLARD...

Post Script Clarification 1999:

Subsequent events have revealed that indeed this was part of the deal that President Clinton did in fact make with Prime Minister Netanyahu. Prior to the Wye Summit, President Clinton committed to releasing Jonathan Pollard as a means to lure Netanyahu to a summit in advance of the 1998 November 3 elections. As soon as Netanyahu agreed and the Wye summit took place, Clinton conveniently "forgot" his promise.

Clinton then resold Pollard to Netanyahu at the Wye Summit in order to resolve an impasse in negotiations. Pollard was promised to Netanyahu (as above) in exchange for immunity for terrorist police chief Ghazi Jabali, and as well for the release of another 400 Palestinian terrorists from Israeli jails - many of them with Jewish blood on their hands. (This brought to 750, the number of terrorists to be freed.)

As soon as the deal was struck and the signing ceremony was set to go in Washington Clinton reneged. When Netanyahu protested loudly, Clinton publicly turned the tables and accused Netanyahu of injecting Pollard into the Wye summit at the last moment in an attempt to derail the deal. A complete fabrication!

With the passage of time the truth has emerged, and it is now clear and indisputable that Pollard was the deal-maker at Wye. President Clinton promised to free him as part of the deal and once again broke his promise.