Hersh has a history of great credibility, showing himself unafraid to take on the establishment, in his My Lai reporting and his book The Sampson Option about Israel's atomic arsenal. In the book (and updated more recently in The New Yorker), he told the disturbing story of the spy Jonathon Pollard, an American Jew who worked for U.S. Navy intelligence, and had great access to classified information. He passed masses of American secrets to Israel before being arrested in 1985, and sentenced to life in prison.
Israel has pressed America many times to release Pollard to them - he was awarded Israeli citizenship in 1996. Not long ago the Israeli prime minister had apparently persuaded Clinton to hand Pollard over, but he backed down when the head of the CIA and other intelligence officials threatened to resign.
Hersh reported that Pollard had given Israel some of the most sensitive American intelligence on Russia, and that the Israelis passed it on to the Russians. This included our "order of battle" - our attack plans against Russia in the event of war, and also the identity of American spies in Russia, resulting in the rolling up of our spy networks, and the death of our agents.
This severely damaged our intelligence capabilities against Russia, at a time of high tension with them, the "Evil Empire" phase of Reagan's presidency.
The Israelis got an increased flow of Jewish refugees from Russia to Israel, and improved relations with Russia. Yitzhak Shamir, the Israeli Prime Minister who personally approved the transfer of information, had a strong dislike for America.
For the Israelis to continue pressing for Pollard's release seems a rather extreme example of chutzpah. It shows how totally focused they are on their own people and interests and survival, an attitude we should emulate a bit more.
Given the history of persecution of the Jewish people, both ancient and modern, it is understandable that they are so single-mindedly nationalistic. And Israel is a small state in a precarious position.
America should continue its long support of Israel, but we need to consider our own interests in the Middle East too. For too long the American media and government have been unwilling to take on Israel. The annual large aid to Israel should not be automatic, but conditioned on Israel refraining from behavior that damages our position, such as the endlessly expanding settlements.
Bush's support for a Palestinian state elicited an outburst from Sharon about our appeasement of the Arabs, saying Israel would fight terrorism alone. These perilous times have led an American President to show some independence, a good first step.
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