The Colman/Lieberman Correspondence

The Jewish Press (NY) - Editorial - April 14, 2000

In the March 17th issue of The Jewish Press we published an open letter that NYS Assemblyman Sam Colman (Colman also serves as Democratic Whip of the Assembly) wrote to US Senator Lieberman chiding him for thwarting the release of Jonathan Pollard. In that letter Assemblyman Colman noted that in a recent meeting he had with Hillary Clinton, she showed herself to be "knowledgeable about Jonathan Pollard's situation and understands that he was punished far more seriously than anyone else for the same or similar crime."

Assemblyman Colman then went on to say in the letter that Mrs. Clinton "stated that although she is open-minded on the subject of Jonathan Pollard, she is not taking a position, because it is not a one-sided issue and because Senator Lieberman, a Jew, is against his release." He then asked Senator Lieberman: "Don't you understand that he [Pollard] was arrested as an American but punished as a Jew?" (contd. below)

SEE: Senator Lieberman's Response to Assemblyman Colman
SEE: Colman Demolishes the Lieberman Response

Of course Assemblyman Colman was right on the mark in his rejoinder to Senator Lieberman. How indeed can the Senator reconcile the "Lieberman Letter" [to the President, signed by 60 Senators] with his profession of not getting involved in post-sentencing issues? But we also note that the Senator is offering a curious view of the responsibilities of high office.

Is he seriously suggesting that a United States Senator is in principle disabled from pursuing a reversal of miscarriage of justice? We rather thought that the clemency process presumed such involvement. In any event, Senator Lieberman is one of those few Jewish public personages who, in their own way, have contributed to Jonathan Pollard's plight. And as Assemblyman Colman said, he is someone arrested as an American but punished as a Jew who spied for the Jewish State. We hope Senator Lieberman will reconsider his position.