Justice4JPnews – August 7, 2009
Rendered into English by Justice4JP
Esther Pollard was interviewed by Arutz-7 in Hebrew. The interview is
available on the Arutz-7 Hebrew Website at http://www.inn.co.il/Radio . The
following is an English rendition of the interview.
ARUTZ-7: Last week the State Comptroller published a special report which
deals with the failures of successive governments of Israel in their
handling of the case of Jonathan Pollard. We have heard many opinions people
about this report, we have heard opinion makers, politicians, PR experts,
journalists, and others, but one voice has yet to be heard and we hope to
hear it now, the voice of Esther Pollard. Shalom to you, Esther Pollard!
ESTHER: Shalom!
ARUTZ-7: Has Jonathan heard about this report?
ESTHER: Yes!
ARUTZ-7: And what does he have to say about it?
ESTHER: Jonathan says that it is a complete whitewash. It is an attempt by
one branch of the government to give a fraudulent stamp of approval to
another branch; to whitewash the betrayal and abandonment of an Israeli
agent in peril by successive governments of Israel.
ARUTZ-7: Explain to me the allusions you just used, about one branch and
another branch of the government…
ESTHER: The one branch is the office of the State Comptroller which 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! If, indeed, they all worked so intensively for so
many years for Jonathan, then why is he is still sitting in prison?
ARUTZ-7: I want to understand. You mean that when the State Comptroller
switched discourse to what the Americans failed to do – that they deprived
Jonathan of fair legal proceedings – in the process he cleansed successive
Israeli governments of any responsibility?
ESTHER: It is worse than that. Much worse. What this 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! In
essence, telling him, “Save yourself. Leave us alone! We have nothing to do
with this!” This is utter falsehood!
ARUTZ-7: In what way?
ESTHER: Look, 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. So for Lindenstrauss to even suggest that
filing for a retrial is the solution, is just cynicism and mockery – it is
La’ag LaRash!
ARUTZ7: Maybe he just meant that the Government of Israel should take the
legal process in hand; maybe he just wants to reveal the vacuum that
existed.
ESTHER: We need to stop for a minute. To back up and understand the whole
process of this report. Before we do that, I want to underscore, that the
Lindenstrauss report was not published as the result of an investigation.
There was no investigation. To say that there was an investigation is a bald
faced lie! I would like to explain to you what exactly occurred.
ARUTZ-7: Please do!
ESTHER: From the outset, the behavior of the Government of Israel towards
Jonathan was corrupt. Bound up in a pack of lies. The more that time goes
on, the more complicated it becomes to understand any part of the picture
because of lies upon lies upon lies. Sometimes the only way to understand is
by way of anecdote. To that end, if you will permit me, I would like to tell
you a little story. Ok?
ARUTZ -7: Go ahead!
ESTHER: As you may probably recall, some time ago – when Lindenstrauss and
Zevulun Orlev initiated their conspiracy to “investigate” the Pollard Case
there was suddenly a great deal of noise in the media. According to the
headlines, then-Prime Minister Olmert, vociferously attacked Lindenstrauss,
insisting that he was hurting Pollard, claiming that Lindenstrauss would
sabotage efforts to secure Pollard’s release by investigating the
governments efforts for Pollard.
Jonathan used the opportunity to write a letter to Lindenstrauss, which we
distributed to the media. 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: http://www.jonathanpollard.org/2008/032708.htm]
In his letter, Jonathan wrote (and I am paraphrasing now): the government of
Israel claims that it is supporting me financially. It claims that it is
giving money to me and my wife. This is a blatant lie! In the 23 years that
I have been in prison, neither I nor my wife has ever received a cent from
the government of Israel, nor any support whatsoever. Nevertheless, the
government still sees fit to lie about this. The government lies to the
Bagatz, lies to media, lies to the public and claims that it is giving us
money. All of my 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 23 years? Jonathan wrote that if Judge Lindentrauss will
follow the money trail he will find out why it is that there has been such
corruption and lies surrounding his case, and why the government does not
want him home.
Jonathan pointed out that there must be bookkeeping records. Such accounts
are black and white. A money trail won’t lie, follow it and it will lead you
to the truth about why the government has betrayed me for so many years.
ARUTZ -7: Someone else is getting the money?
ESTHER: We don’t know. We know that there is a reason that the Government
doesn’t want anyone to know that they are not giving us money- yet they keep
insisting that they are. All of our efforts to stop the lies failed. If the
government is so insistent in continuing the lie, then something really
rotten must be going on.
Now, I want to stress, I really must stress, that this is not about Jonathan
wanting money. We do not 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!
ARUTZ-7: You think that someone else is getting the money? What is your
sense of why this is occurring? And what are you doing to investigate?
ESTHER: We have no ability to investigate. We have no tools at our disposal
to investigate. That is why Jonathan turned to the State Comptroller and
requested that in his investigation he should look into this, and in the
process, perhaps discover the dirty reason that the government has done
nothing to secure his release all these years.
ARUTZ7: Did Lindenstrauss respond?
ESTHER: Yes, Jonathan did get a response from Lindenstrauss.
The response was – please, listen carefully to this (again I am
paraphrasing): I have no authority to investigate the money trail. I have
no authority to ask to see bookkeeping records, or to request accounts or
documents. I have no authority to summon people to testify about what
happened to the money. In fact, I have no authority at all to investigate
anything!
We then asked, Judge Lindenstrauss, you claim are doing an investigation and
yet you say have no authority to investigate?! What authority do you have?!
Lindenstrauss responded:
The only authority I was given by the Knesset is the authority to gather
information and to express my opinion. I am empowered to invite Israeli
government officials and people involved in the affair to come and speak
with me and my staff. I cannot force them to come, but if they do, I can ask
questions, and. I can listen to their answers. Based on what I hear, I can
formulate an opinion and submit it to the Knesset oversight committee.
The Authority to investigate, as it were, that was given to me by the
Knesset, is not really to investigate, but to review what has gone on and to
express my opinion. All that I am empowered to do, Lindenstrauss stressed,
is to express my opinion.
If you understood this little story, then you understand that the entire
Lindenstrauss report is not an investigation – it is not based on facts or
documents or documentation – it is based on whatever government officials
felt like telling Lindenstrauss, nothing more!
And, in fact, Lindenstrauss reveals this in his report. He reveals that not
only did he not see any documentation, he discovered no documentation
exists – that there is absolutely no record of any government efforts for
Jonathan’s release!
ARUTZ-7: So upon what did Lindenstrauss base his opinion?
ESTHER: A good question! Upon what did Lindenstrauss base his conclusions
that every government of Israel has done everything it could to secure
Jonathan’s release?!
If all these governments worked so hard to secure Jonathan’s release why is
there not a single scrap of paper as evidence?
If there was any evidence that there were indeed initiatives to free
Jonathan, then first of all, why is most of the report (27 out of 30 pages)
classified? What are they hiding? Why aren’t they proud of all they did for
him? If they did so much for Jonathan, you would think that they would want
the Israeli public to know about it, and not hide behind a veil of secrecy.
And secondly, if they did so much for Jonathan, why are there no signs of
any such activity, no traces what so ever? Would you like some examples?
ARUTZ-7: We don’t have a lot of time, but we certainly would like to hear
some examples, if you can be brief.
ESTHER: For example, I am holding in my hand a notarized copy of Jonathan’s
personal prison file. In this file, there is an entry marked: “Citizenship”.
This is the place where you would expect to see that Jonathan holds dual
citizenship – American and Israeli. But that is not what is written.
According to this document Jonathan holds American citizenship, only.
Why is it that the Americans, to this day, do not have any official document
from Israel that Jonathan is an Israeli Citizen – This would protect him!
But to this day, Israel has never officially informed the Americans that
Jonathan is an Israeli citizen!
Similarly, why is it that, to this day, the Americans have never received
any official document from Israel that Jonathan is an Israeli agent? This
would have given him rights and protections in prison! Instead, Israel has
left Jonathan to rot as if he were nothing but a common criminal, and as
such he is subject to the worst treatment possible, with none of the rights
and protections that automatically accrue to an agent in captivity.
How can Lindenstrauss say that every government of Israel has worked
constantly and continuously for Jonathan’s release, when they have not even
taken these, the most minimal steps, to secure his release?!
Why is it that whenever I have met with senior Congressmen and Senators,
about Jonathan, to this day, they all tell me that as long as the government
of Israel does not stand behind Jonathan there is nothing they can do. Why
do senior Senators, strong supporters of Israel, tell me that in all their
years in Washington, no Israeli official has ever mentioned Jonathan? This
is what we hear!
ARUTZ-7: Even the Netanyahu government?! This the government that took
responsibility for him, who recognized Jonathan officially? Are you saying
this even about the Netanyahu government?!
ESTHER: Wait a minute! The official recognition came about because of
Bagatzim (the lawsuits) that Jonathan filed in Supreme Court. Jonathan got
his citizenship because of a case in Supreme Court and the same with his
agent status – not out of the kindness of Bibi Netanyahu’s heart! That’s
first of all!
Next, let’s leave the past alone for a moment – there were other betrayals
in the past by Bibi, not known to the public, but that is not the issue for
the moment.
Let’s talk about today. Today, Bibi too has the stamp of approval from
Lindenstrauss! This is amazing if you consider the following:
Are you aware that Jonathan has absolutely no government contact
whatsoever?! No communication whatsoever with any government official!
Bibi Netanyahu has the time and the interest to meet with Madonna (who also
goes by the Hebrew name “Esther”) but he is not willing to meet Esther
Pollard! We have no communication with him at all. We are completely cut
off.
We have no government support, no assistance – we have no contact with the
government!
When he was elected, Bibi allied himself with all of those who betrayed
Jonathan in the past – among them Rafi Eitan, Ehud Barak and Shimon Peres.
Eitan was not even elected to the Knesset, so Bibi appointed him as a
special government advisor! Bibi has become bosom buddies with Shimon Peres
and he is all but soul mates with Ehud Barak – all the people who set the
original government policy with the Americans that Jonathan should die in
prison (G-d forbid). Nothing has changed since. If Bibi has such good
intentions towards Jonathan and is proud to declare as much publicly, how is
that he is not willing to even meet with us?
ARUTZ-7: You are asking some very hard questions. And it certainly seems to
me, important ones. It’s important that these questions should come to the
attention of the decision makers.
Just before we end, do you think you could guess, more or less, what is in
the classified section of the report?
ESTHER: I am convinced that it is not a description of any initiatives for
Jonathan’s release. Because, look, if there were any initiatives, there
would be signs. When there is any effort to free an agent from captivity
there are always traces, facts on the ground that are created. If I had to
guess, my guess would be that the section of the report that is classified
is to cover up the lack of iniatives, the lack of effort.the lack of
ARUTZ-7: the lack of implementation, the lack of serious undertaking!
ESTHER: Exactly!
And this cover-up is for the same reason that they wanted to destroy
Jonathan from the outset – why did they want him to die in prison (G-d
forbid)? Initially it was just certain officials who were determined to
protect their own personal interests, people like Shimon Peres and Rafi
Eitan and so on. They wanted to protect their own reputation, to to advance
their own careers and to safeguard, as it were, their own future. As time
went on, the hostility appears to be tied to this dirty money trail. What is
the real reason? We don’t know! But perhaps if, once and for all, someone
will finally follow the money trail, perhaps the truth will be revealed.
ARUTZ-7: Esther Pollard we shall accept that suggestion and we hope that
somehow it will come to the attention of those above. Esther Pollard, I
think you very much!
See Also:
Pollards’ Preliminary Response to the Lindenstrauss Report -
http://www.jonathanpollard.org/2009/090309a.htm – J4JPnews Update
Lawyer lambasts Pollard report: The Jerusalem Post
http://www.jonathanpollard.org/2009/090309b.htm
Manhigut: Since Israel Betrayed Pollard, Not One Israeli Captive has Come
Home Alive: http://www.jonathanpollard.org/2009/090309d.htm
Lindenstrauss Reveals Pollard Report Based on Conjecture, not Fact
http://www.jonathanpollard.org/2009/090409.htm- Justice4JPnews Commentary
Since Pollard Betrayed, Israeli Captives Return Dead: IsraelNN.com
http://www.jonathanpollard.org/2009/090609.htm
Mounting Objections to Pollard Report: Israelnationalnews.com
http://www.jonathanpollard.org/2009/090909.htm
Video: Arutz-7 (English) Interview with Atty. Nitsana Darshan-Leitner
Click here to view>>>
http://wejew.com/media/5968/Comptroller_Pollard_Report_%C3%A2/
