With Shimon Peres currently favored to win the Presidential race, Jonathan Pollard weighs in heavily against him, saying his election would be a "death sentence for me."



Serving a life sentence in the United States for his conviction on one count of passing classified information to US-ally Israel, Jonathan Pollard has released a statement bitterly attacking Shimon Peres and the possibility that he might be elected Israel's President.



The incarcerated Israeli agent maintains that Peres promised the Americans, back in 1985, that he would help them prosecute Pollard.  Peres even gave the U.S. the papers that Pollard had provided Israel, and then lied, Pollard claims, in saying that he had secured a promise from the US not to use the papers to incriminate Pollard.  Pollard says that even now, Peres continues to lie now to protect his own career, and that Peres told Israeli officials who wished to help the incarcerated agent, "It's either Pollard or me."



Pollard supporters fear that if Peres were to be elected President, he would not ask the U.S. President to pardon Pollard. Larry Dubb of Jerusalem, who has served as Pollard's attorney for 21 years, pro-bono, told Arutz-7, "I'm concerned that if Mr. Peres becomes the president, he will continue his campaign of the past 22 years and not lift a finger to help Pollard or ask for his pardon."



Excerpts from Pollard's statement:
Twenty-two years ago, then-PM Shimon Peres chose self-interest and personal power over his legal and moral obligation to rescue an Israel agent in peril. He deliberately, knowingly sold out an Israeli agent who had faithfully served the security needs of the State. That agent was me.



According to the 1987 Eban Commission Report (the Knesset Committee appointed to investigate the Pollard affair), the same day I was arrested, Peres spoke with US Secretary of State George Schulz, denying any knowledge of the operation and promising to do everything in his power to assist the Americans in prosecuting me. Instead of defending me – his agent – or negotiating for my release, Peres sold me out. He knowingly lied when he told Americans that I was a free-lancer who had acted independently for profit.



Worse, Peres personally initiated and authorized the return to the US of all of the documents which I had provided to Israel, with my fingerprints still upon them! Without these documents as evidence, the US had no case against me. My case is the first and only case in the history of modern espionage in which a prime minister actively assisted in the indictment and prosecution of his own country's agent. Thanks to Mr. Peres, Israel now has the disgraceful distinction of being the only country in the world ever to cooperate with the prosecution against its own agent.



According to the Eban Report, Peres testified that he had secured a commitment from the US not to use the documents to prosecute me. Yet as soon as the documents were returned, the US immediately used them against me, and there was no protest from Peres or from Israel. In fact, if such a commitment did exist, why is it that Peres did not inform me at the time so that I could protect myself legally? I did not learn of this commitment until the year 2000 when I finally obtained a copy of the Eban Report (13 years after its initial publication).



...Documents submitted to the Israeli Supreme Court as part of my recent filings show beyond a doubt that all of Israel's top officials including Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin, and Ehud Barak were fully aware of and directly involved in my operation. For example, when Peres, Rabin and Barak authorized the Israeli Air Force to bomb PLO headquarters in Tunis, they were able to risk the pilots' lives because they knew that information about the location and layout of the terrorist headquarters was reliable because I had provided it.



Peres' lies about me to the American investigators and his efforts to transfer all of the blame to me by returning the documents and having the Israeli team submit false affidavits against me, were nothing but frantic efforts to distance himself from the operation so that his career ambitions and personal fund-raising abilities in the US would be protected. Peres was not in the least concerned about the impact of the exposure of the operation on Israel or about the fate of an Israeli agent in captivity. Then as now, his only concern was to insulate himself from criticism to further his own ambitions.



Over the years, various Israeli officials have visited me then went back to Israel to seek Peres' support in lobbying for my release. These officials, one by one, reported back to me that Peres' response is consistent : 'It's him or me. Forget Pollard..."



His ability to act so ruthlessly, to destroy the life of one who has faithfully served the State and sabotage rescue efforts; and his capacity for maintaining this immoral stance without remorse for more than two decades, is terrifying in its implications if this man should become president of the State of Israel... MKs who vote for Peres know that they are being complicit in ... signing a death sentence for me – one that Shimon Peres issued against me 22 years ago which is still in effect to this very day."

Pollard also has biting words to say in this connection against the Knesset in general:

The fact that a man like Peres could even be considered for the office of presidency reflects the degree of rot which currently permeates Israel's political system. The successful candidate for the office of president is determined solely by a majority vote of Israel's 120 Knesset Members, who routinely demonstrate their willingness to sell their vote in return for political favors.



The top headline story in Yediot Acharonot this past weekend quotes leaders of an influential Knesset party which currently participates in the governing coalition: 'Prime Minister Olmert wants Peres to be president and he is willing to pay big time for it. We are not going to do anything to hurt Peres' chances.' It is staggering that Israeli politicians have become so corrupt that they now announce publicly and without shame that their vote for president has been auctioned off and sold to the highest bidder!"

Speech in Jerusalem

Pollard's wife Esther, speaking in Jerusalem several weeks ago, accused Israeli and American officials of collaborating on an "evil plan... to have Jonathan Pollard die in prison. He was either supposed to become so depressed in solitary confinement that he would choose to die by his own hand, or if that failed, arrangements would be made to have him killed by 'accident' by one of the guards... Why did they want Jonathan to die, you ask? Very simple. For Israel, it would solve the problem. When Jonathan was arrested, Israel's top officials, all of whom were involved in the operation up to their eyeballs and wanted to protect their own careers, lied and said they knew nothing about Jonathan's operation. They claimed that Pollard was a 'freelancer' who acted on his own. If he died in prison, Israel's top officials would never have to admit the truth..."

Attorney Dubb's fears, in light of Mrs. Pollard's prognosis, take on a greater intensity.