The letter we would like to see:
To: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
From: U.S. President William Jefferson Clinton
Re: Jonathan Pollard
Dear Benjamin:
As promised, I have reviewed the case of Jonathan Pollard, the ex-Navy analyst who pleaded guilty in 1986 to spying for your nation and is now serving a life sentence. Having carefully considered the matter and consulted with my advisers, I can only conclude that you were not in your right mind when you demanded his release as a part of the Wye River peace accord last October. I stand by my two past refusals to grant him clemency.
I understand you have felt considerable pressure from the conservative right in the Israeli parliament to gain the release of Pollard. However, you must certainly have realized that such an action is out of the question.
In 1984 and 1985 Pollard handed over thousands of top-secret documents to your nation, including a highly secretive surveillance manual, intelligence reports from U.S. military attachÇs throughout the Middle East and daily reports that tracked the movements of Soviet nuclear submarines. Much of the information he passed to your operatives was only useful to the former Soviet Union and we fear it ended up in their hands, placing Americans around the world at risk.
Your audacity in requesting the release of an individual who you employed to spy on one of your closest allies amazes me. When I remember the more than $15 billion in aid the United States has given Israel over the past five years, I cannot understand how you still want more. Buying an Israeli commitment to peace is hardly worth the damage to the United States, particularly when you should seek peace without exacting a cost.
The U.S. Department of Justice, the Pentagon, the Senate Intelligence Committee, the FBI, the CIA and the Department of State all adamantly oppose my granting your demand. Indeed, CIA Director George Tenet has made it clear he would resign if I release your spy. The United States believes citizens who commit serious crimes against their country must be just as seriously punished. Were we to release Pollard, it would, in the words of Republican Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, “set a dangerous and unwise precedent that crimes against the United States are not serious. It would also undermine our country’s ability to act as an honest broker throughout the world.”
It was as an honest broker that we hosted negotiations between your government and the Palestinians. We hoped to aid a peace process that will end the violence that has plagued your people. Peace with the Palestinians should have been your only goal, and you should have negotiated with them, not with us.
Jonathan Pollard will remain incarcerated for the rest of his life, both as an example to others and as punishment for his crimes. The United States will not bow to Israeli demands. I pray you will realize peace with the Palestinians and Syrians is in Israel’s best interest and is a reward in itself. Peace is the end, not the means, to appeasing political pressures.
Sincerely,
William Jefferson Clinton