Government Leaders Meet With Esther Pollard

March 8, 1998 - Arutz 7 Daily News Report

A lawyer for Jonathan Pollard told Arutz-7 today that there is a sense that the government has begun to take the issue of Pollard's release more seriously. Ministers Yuli Edelstein and Limor Livnat, together with Cabinet Secretary Danny Naveh, met with Pollard's wife Esther today. Naveh heads the government committee working to have Pollard freed from American prison, where he is serving a life sentence for spying for Israel. The Supreme Court ruled here last week that the government has an additional sixty days in which to report in writing on the steps taken by the new committee.

"It is time for the organized Jewish community in the United States to speak out on the basis of humanitarian concern and compassion for Mr. Pollard." So said B'nai Brith International President Tommy P. Baer, who met with Jonathan Pollard for the first time on Thursday in the North Carolina prison. Baer said that B'nai Brith "absolutely does not condone what Pollard did, but he has served longer than any individual convicted of the same crime. He has paid his debt to society."

Mr. Baer was quoted by Chaim Zissovitch on Kol Yisroel radio March 6, 1998 as saying "If the problem (of Pollard's release) is not resolved it may become the Dreyfus case of America. Baer added,"I do not believe that anyone is interested in having this comparison made."