A Warm Welcome for Bush: New Pollard Ad Campaign

Justice4JP News - Media Release and Background - January 2, 2008

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Contents:
  • The Committee to Bring Jonathan Pollard Home Kicks off New Ad Campaign
  • The Goal: raising public awareness and pressure about the 4th Israeli captive
  • How the new ad campaign works to raise public awareness
  • With all due respect to the American President
  • Background: The Americans, not us, have defined Jonathan as a political captive
  • Double Captive Status: Intelligence Agencies in a permanent state of war
  • A 4th captive in America
  • Provoking thought and inviting discussion to save a life
  • The only possible conclusion: Free Jonathan Pollard!

The Committee to Bring Jonathan Pollard Home Kicks off New Ad Campaign


The Jerusalem-based Committee to Bring Jonathan Pollard Home begins

a new ad campaign

this week to appear on billboards, bus ads and balcony signs in time for the arrival of President George W. Bush in Jerusalem next week (January 9, 2008).

The Goal: raising public awareness and pressure about the 4th Israeli captive


For more than a year, ever since the Second Lebanon War, the Israeli public, its leaders and the media have focused their attention, their concern and their efforts exclusively on the fate of 3 Israeli captives. The Committee's new ad campaign is designed to capture your attention, to make you think, and to hopefully generate sufficient discussion to awaken public consciousness to the fact that there are not 3 Israeli soldiers in captivity in desperate need of emergency rescue; there are 4.

How the new ad campaign works to raise public awareness


In your mind's eye imagine a large billboard featuring the photo image of a smiling President George W. Bush flanked by photo images of two bloodthirsty terrorists, Nasrallah and Haniya. Does the image disturb you? Does it grab your attention? Make you uncomfortable? Does it make you wonder why the image of George Bush appears on the same page as such reprehensible characters?

Keep reading. The billboard ad features photographic images of the three leaders, Bush, Nasrallah and Haniya with the names of their respective captives directly below their images:

  • Under the photo of Hamas leader Haniya: Gilad Shalit.

  • Under the photo of Hezbollah leader Nasrallah: Ehud Goldwasser. Eldad Regev.

  • Under the photo of President Bush: Jonathan Pollard.

Four Israeli soldiers and the men who are holding them captive!

With all due respect to the American President


With all due respect to Mr. Bush, and in spite of the great friendship between our two countries, the fact remains that the United States of America, continues to hold Jonathan Pollard captive for political reasons only. That is why the message on the billboard states quite openly in Hebrew and in English:

Bush, Free YOUR Captive!

Background: The Americans, not us, have defined Jonathan as a political captive


The Americans themselves have both tacitly and explicitly designated Jonathan as a political captive. Who are we to argue when Dennis Ross, in his book "The Missing Peace", writes that even as far back as 1998 at Wye, Jonathan Pollard should have been freed unconditionally, but was not released because he is too valuable to the Americans as a "bargaining chip" against Israel? If this is not the definition of a political hostage, what is?

Senior American officials who have seen the secret files and the full record of the Pollard Case are all on record that there is nothing in the file to justify the Draconian sentence that Jonathan Pollard is serving, among them US Senator Charles Schumer and Congressman Anthony Weiner. Senator Dennis DeConcini, who was head of the Senate Intelligence Committee during the time that Jonathan was arrested, has been calling for Jonathan's release since 1996. James Woolsey, former head of the CIA, began stating years ago that 20 years is enough and Pollard should be set free.

In 1992, The International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists defined Pollard's sentence as 'grossly disproportionate not only when compared with those who have committed similar offenses, but also when compared with those who have committed far more serious offences.'

Even though Appeals Court Justice Stephen Williams concluded that the Pollard case was a "fundamental miscarriage of justice," all attempts to bring the Pollard case back to court have been stonewalled or simply shut down. Pollard's own security-cleared attorneys are barred from access to the most basic documents in this case: portions of Jonathan's own sentencing docket.

In support of the American administration's political agenda which "requires" the continued incarceration of Jonathan Pollard as a "bargaining chip", the American legal system has turned a blind eye and shut the Pollard case down in its tracks. It has used every technical excuse in the book to keep this "political hot potato" from ever receiving a fair hearing in court.

Double Captive Status: Intelligence Agencies in a permanent state of war


Jonathan Pollard is not only a political captive; he is also what intelligence agencies throughout the world regard as a captive of war. Even the Geneva Convention recognizes the case of a captive of war in a friendly country.

Every country in the world, without exception, collects intelligence information about its "friends" and its enemies. Intelligence agencies operate in a permanent state of war. In other words, even though a country may officially be at peace with another country, it still collects intelligence as if the two countries were at war. Therefore when an agent is arrested, (for breaking the law by spying in another country) it is a universally accepted principle that the country he served will relate to him as a soldier in captivity and will to do everything in its power to rescue him. The offended country fully expects the offending country to do no less. Israel is the only country in the world that has violated this universal principle by abandoning a soldier in the field for more than 2 decades.

A 4th captive in America


Jonathan Pollard has served more than 5 times the usual sentence for the offense he committed. The Americans openly acknowledge his value as a "bargaining chip" against Israel. So when you add it all up, what have you got? Jonathan Pollard is a captive being unjustly held in the hands of our "closest" ally. Is that any way for a friend to behave?

Provoking thought and inviting discussion to save a life


If the ad described above disturbs you, if it catches your attention, forces you to think, causes you to ask questions, generates constructive discussion and ultimately helps you to understand that Israel has 4 captives in immediate need of emergency rescue, then it has served its purpose. No other inferences are intended. No other conclusions should be drawn.

The only possible conclusion: Free Jonathan Pollard!


All the People of Israel await President Bush's response to our appeal for the release of his captive, Jonathan Pollard.

Mr. Bush, one gesture: one prisoner. Jonathan Pollard. Home. Now!

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