"Netanyahu prefers to meet Madonna, but not us"

Exclusive, first interview with Esther Pollard

Arutz-7 News - Hebrew Division - August 7, 2009
Translated to English by J4JP

Pollard's wife refers to the Comptroller's report as a "whitewash" and recounts that the Comptroller himself told them that he did have the authority to investigate anything. "Bibi prefers to meet with Madonna, but not with us," she says.

Click here to listen to the interview (Hebrew).

Jonathan Pollard's wife interviewed for the first time since the publication of the State Comptroller's report which was filed last week. She calls it a "whitewash" and an attempt by one branch of the government, the Comptroller's office, to whitewash another branch of the government, that is, successive governments of Israel.

"The office of the State Comptroller is giving a fraudulent stamp of approval to prime ministers of Israel; to the entire 'establishment' - to the Department of Defense, to the Foreign Ministry and so on - another branch of the government. They are being commended for all of the alleged initiatives and "extraordinary" efforts, that they supposedly carried out to secure Jonathan's release. This, despite the fact that there is no proof of any such efforts, no documentation, no record, and no results!" she says.

"In his report, the Comptroller shifts all responsibility for Jonathan's plight away from the government and onto Jonathan himself. What he does is to impose the responsibility - all of the responsibility- on Jonathan, as a private person - as if he were not an Israeli agent, and the onus is entirely on him to seek a retrial in the US; as if there were even any such possibility! This is utter falsehood! Lindenstrauss knows that Jonathan has exhausted all his legal remedies in the United States. Jonathan has absolutely no possibility of filing in court again in the US."

She recalls the strong opposition of the previous Prime Minister to the very existence of the Comptroller's investigation, which the PM publicly stated would hurt Pollard. "Jonathan, she says, used the opportunity to write a letter to Lindenstrauss. In his letter, Jonathan wrote that there is no reason to fear that an investigation will torpedo efforts to secure his release because there are no efforts! At the same time, Jonathan suggested to Lindenstrauss that the way to find out the truth about why there are no efforts to secure his release, and why successive governments of Israel have betrayed and abandoned him, is to follow the money trail." [See: article.]

"The government claims that it is giving us money. All of our efforts to stop the government from telling these lies have failed. If the government has records that show it is giving us money, but we never received any, then who is getting the money? Where has the money gone for the last 24 years?"

"Jonathan and I don't want money. All we want is Jonathan home. Following the money trail and seeing where it leads is a means to that end - to discover the truth!"

Pollard further stresses that the State Comptroller responded, clarifying that he has no authority to examine witnesses, nor any authority to requisition accounts or documents, and no authority to take testimony. Thus it is clear, that whatever is written in his report was not the result of an actual investigation, just the expression of his own opinion.

"If there were any proof of initiatives to free Jonathan, why is the report classified? Why aren't they proud of what they did?" Pollard asks. She believes that this secrecy is to hide all that the government did not do for her husband.

In this context, she reports that Jonathan's prison records show that to this day Jonathan is not recognized as an Israeli citizen - only as an American. In other words, even though he was declared an Israeli Citizen, no formal notification was ever relayed to the American authorities, thus depriving Jonathan of yet another avenue of assistance.

Regarding the efforts of the current government for her husband, Pollard states that it's bad enough that Netanyahu is not doing anything for her husband, but he also maintains no contact with them, "he prefers to meet with 'Esther' Madonna, but not Esther Pollard," as she puts it. He has also allied himself with all of the people whom she describes as those who have betrayed Jonathan - such as Rafi Eitan, Shimon Peres and Ehud Barak.