Just a week before US President George W. Bush arrives in Israel, the Knesset Audit Committee has voted unanimously to have the State Comptroller prepare a report on Israel's handling of the Jonathan Pollard affair.  Pollard has been imprisoned, without parole, in the United States since 1985 on charges of passing classified information to Israel.

The Audit Committee, chaired by National Religious Party leader MK Zevulun Orlev, is authorized to assign topics to be investigated and reviewed by the State Comptroller.  Lindenstrauss is to investigate the various Israeli governments' handling of the Jonathan Pollard affair, their failure to obtain his release, and what can be done now to bring Pollard home.

"After 22 years in which an Israeli agent and citizen has been rotting in American prison, it is time to check where we failed, and what the government must do to bring about his release," Orlev summed up.

Pollard on Bush's Plane?

On the occasion of U.S. President George Bush's visit to Israel next week, hopes have been raised that Bush might use the occasion to bring Pollard with him on his airplane.  MK Nissan Slomiansky (NRP) wrote a letter to Bush earlier this month, asking him to do just that.



Countless other letters have been written to the President on the issue, one of the most recent of which was penned by Beit El resident Guy Sagiv.  In a heart-felt but firm correspondence dated Dec. 31, 2007, Sagiv wrote, inter alia,
"...In your great country, a Jew is imprisoned - my brother and the brother of all Jews - is Jonathan Pollard. He has been imprisoned in the US for the past 22 years - long enough considering that his punishment is disproportionate to other spies who worked even for enemy nations. Jonathan simply wanted to protect America's greatest ally, Israel... You, Mr. President, have the opportunity to be remembered as one of the great political leaders of this era - and this one act of releasing an imprisoned Jew would earn you that title. The whole Jewish nation will laud you and remember you eternally as the leader who truly led.

"You will be arriving soon in the State of Israel, in the Holy Land. As the door opens on Air Force One, Jonathan Pollard can emerge along with you. History will remember this glorious moment as one of your crowning achievements. You can do it, you can bring him home, NOW. You have a choice either to be a messenger of G-d, or not to be... Please, Mr. President, do the right thing."

Central Square to be Renamed

Also in honor of Bush's arrival, the famous Paris Square in Jerusalem - near Heichal Shlomo, the Kings and Sheraton Plaza hotels, and Terra Sancta, and down the block from both the US Consulate and the Prime Minister's residence - will be renamed "Freedom for Jonathan Pollard Square."  The Jerusalem City Council resolved that the name change will occur on Monday, January 8, in an official ceremony, and will remain in effect until Pollard is released and returns to Israel.



Just last month, Israel marked 22 years of Pollard's incarceration in the U.S. on one charge of passing classified information to an ally - Israel. His life sentence without parole, in violation of a previous plea bargain agreement, is wholly disproportionate to the average sentence - 2-4 years in prison - for this crime.

To Be Investigated

Among the issues for Comptroller Lindenstrauss to investigate will be:



• The talk between then-Prime Minister Shimon Peres and then-US Secretary of State George Schulz, on the day of Pollard's arrest, in which Peres denied knowledge of the affair and promised to help the Americans

• The decision by Peres to return all the documents to the United States without ensuring that they would not be used as evidence against Pollard

• Israel's failure to aid Pollard legally

• Israel's failure to recognize him as an Israeli agent until 13 years after he was arrested

• The Supreme Court's rejection of Pollard's request to be recognized as a Prisoner of Zion

• Ex-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's failure to take a letter to U.S. President Bush signed by 110 MKs asking for Pollard's release



• Israel's failure to have ever filed a formal request with the United States for his release.