Re: Wye Agreement & Pollard
Nice to see you back, doug!
But I am not quite clear what you mean by the "Pollard quasi deal."
The Israeli attempt to link a Pollard deal with the latest Israeli-Palestinian agreement eventually failed. Quite properly, now that I think about it. Pollard is a problem in US-Israeli relations, not a problem in Israeli-Palestinian relations, and Netanyahu had no business trying to slip Pollard into the discussion of an Israeli-Palestinian agreement.
At the joint appearance of all the parties today, the President said only that he had "agreed to review" the case, but that had had "made no commitment."
Is this what you mean by a "quasi-deal"? If so, why do you find it that upsetting? Every Israeli Prime Minister has raised the Pollard issue; Netanyahu started doing so last January. Sure, Pollard was a spy. But he was spying for a "friendly country." It is not our practice to execute such spies. All Pollard supporters have been hammering away at the point that Pollard has already served 13 years, more time than any other spy ever convicted for spying for a "friendly country." Besides, he technically qualifies for parole.
So, there will be a high-level review. Probably the same thing will happen that reportedly happened during the last review: some parties will recommend releasing him, others will recommend against. So it may go nowhere, a political hot potato that Clinton will not feel in a position to handle, even if he wanted to. Or do you think he really has given a commitment in private?
In other words: ??????
jbe
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