Jonathan Pollard prior to his arrest
Jonathan Pollard prior to his arrestReuters

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, writing in the Atlantic, claims it was he who convinced President Bill Clinton not to release Jonathon Pollard during the infamous Wye Summit in 1998, when Israel was pressured into releasing "terrorists with blood on their hands" and relinquishing their demand for reciprocity in dealings with the Palestinian Authority.

Emanuel made the admission in an article about US Rep Ilhan Omar's dual loyalty remarks about US Jews, that he said “call our devotion to America into question” over support for Israel.

"On my very first day after leaving Bill Clinton’s administration as his senior adviser in October 1998, I received a call at 5 a.m. from the president," Emanuel wrote. "He was at the Wye Plantation in Maryland, where he was hosting a summit meeting between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The president was frantic that the summit would collapse if he didn’t release Jonathan Pollard, a U.S. intelligence analyst who had delivered sensitive state secrets to Israel, as Benjamin Netanyahu was demanding."

Emaunel speech on violence upsurge in Chicago
Emaunel speech on violence upsurge in ChicagoReuters

"Clinton was getting conflicting advice from his political and national-security teams. Some members of the political team thought Pollard’s release was a small price to pay for a successful agreement. But members of his national-security team were strongly opposed because of the serious level of the security breach that Pollard had orchestrated.

"I told Clinton not to give in on Pollard’s release, believing that Netanyahu needed the agreement more than he did. The president followed that advice, and Netanyahu ultimately signed the Wye River Memorandum," Emanuel wrote.

Clinton, Arafat, and Netanyahu; Wye Summit
Clinton, Arafat, and Netanyahu; Wye SummitReuters
Netanyahu shakes Arafat's hand at Wye Summit
Netanyahu shakes Arafat's hand at Wye SummitReuters