Kahane Assails Israel for Not Standing Behind Pollard

Rabbi Meir Kahane excoriated Israel Tuesday night for not standing behind convicted American spy Jonathan Pollard and for “forcing” the resignation of his Israeli contact, Col. Aviem Sella, from his new position as commander of Tel Nof air base.

“Israel owes Pollard loyalty,” Kahane told an enthusiastic audience of some 100 persons at the Silver Spring Jewish Center. “We have not only left behind Pollard, we have thrown him and Sella to the dogs.”

“The Israeli government has an obligation to have the American government expel the Pollards and let them live in Israel. Israel has an obligation to say we did it (we spied), and he’s not going to pay for it,” he added.

Kahane said his concern about the Pollard affair prompted the quick visit to the U.S. during the final week of the winter session of the Knesset where he represents the Kach Party.

Kahane said Pollard’s sentence of life imprisonment by a federal district court here was particularly harsh and evidence of “vicious anti-Semitism in United States.” Pollard, he added, never meant to hurt America and should have been expelled to Israel. Kahane said he also believed reports that the United States spied on Israel, first suggested by Sen. David Durenberger (R. Minn.). “Everybody spies against everyone else. The United States Embassy in Tel Aviv bristles with antennas. Twenty percent of all workers in embassies are spies,” he said adding that there is “nothing immoral or illegal about spying.”

Kahane, speaking the day before the State Department was scheduled to release a report on countries illegally selling arms with South Africa, criticized Israel for bowing to American pressure in this area.

“No decent Jew will ever defend apartheid, but what will take its place? Oliver Tambo (leader of the African National Congress) defends the Palestine Organization (PLO). The Jewish people have interests and their major interest is to survive and the Third World doesn’t want Jews to survive,” he said.