American Jewish leaders who came here a week ago to warn the leaders of Israel that their handling of the Jonathan Pollard spy case was not being well received in the U.S., left for home Monday saying they had gained a deeper understanding of Israel’s actions and motives.
The 40-member delegation of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations also gained insight into Israel’s relationship with South Africa and its efforts to have the U.S. government abolish refugee status for Jews leaving the Soviet Union, according to Conference chairman Morris Abram.
“I think Americans will never be able to fully understand Israeli actions when they (Israelis) perceive their security interests at stake,” Abram told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
He referred specifically to a matter which soured U.S. attitudes toward Israel and aroused serious concern among American Jews–the advancement of the careers of Air Force Col. Aviem Sella and former Mossad operative Rafael Eitan, the Israeli officials who, according to Pollard’s trial testimony, recruited him and ran his spy operation in the U.S.
EXPRESSES SYMPATHY FOR SELLA
“People who live in constant fear of utter destruction and death look on Col. Sella as a national asset and a hero of which there are not enough in a dangerous world, so there is sympathy for Sella and I have that sympathy too. I know what Sella is and what he represents,” Abram said.
He maintained that Sella was in fact “punished” by not being promoted to the rank of Brig. Gen., even though he was given command of Israel’s second largest air base.
The American Jewish leaders had long, frank discussions with Premier Yitzhak Shamir, Vice Premier and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin and other top political and military figures.
They were told repeatedly that the Pollard spy case was a “rogue operation” conducted without the knowledge or authorization of the highest levels of government. Abram said he believed this and was confident the other members of the delegation left Israel also believing it.
SOME DOUBTS CONTINUE
But at least one member still has doubts. Barrett Zumhoff, president of the Workmen’s Circle, said “Shamir, Peres, Rabin and all said it was a rogue operation. It sounded convincing but I don’t believe it.”
“Part of espionage is that the head of state has to have deniability,” Zumhoff observed. “Regardless of this, the Pollard affair was only compounded by a number of errors made by the Israeli government in the wake of the crisis, the worst of which were the promotions of Sella and Eitan.” Those actions were “exceptionally stupid,” he added. Eitan, who ran LEKEM, Pollard’s spy unit, was given the chairmanship of Israel Chemicals, the largest government-owned corporation.
Zumhoff was also critical of the public stand taken by the Presidents Conference delegation. “I didn’t agree that we should have made so much noise about it. I felt we had overdone it,” he said. “Criticism of the Israel government would have been more beneficial if conveyed privately, not in the media.”
Israel Friedman, executive vice president of the Religious Zionists of America/Hapoel Hamizrachi, echoed those sentiments. “The whole thing was blown out of proportion,” he said.
‘A HISTORIC MEETING’
But Abram called the meetings of Jewish leaders with Israel’s top leadership this past week a “watershed.”
“This has been a historic meeting because I have never in my life seen in such stark forms, issues boil to the surface–not just abstract issues like ‘Who is a Jew?’, but in terms of how the relationship of Jews in the diaspora to Israel affects the State of Israel,” Abram said.
NEVER INTENDED TO DICTATE TO ISRAELI LEADERS
Speaking of the Pollard affair in general, Abram said the Presidents Conference never intended to dictate to the Israeli government how to conduct its internal affairs. But, Abram said, “We had every responsibility, and discharged it, to tell the State leaders of Israel how their actions were being perceived in the U.S.”
The deeper understanding of Israeli positions also extended to the controversy over Israel’s military ties with South Africa, according to Abram. “We understood some who said Israel had to be very cautious about the use of the boycott . . . the word embargo doesn’t strike responsive chords in a country which is almost embargoed out of the United Nations,” Abram said.
Days after the Presidents Conference delegation arrived, the Israeli government decided to impose limited sanctions on South Africa. Abram explained that Israel has done more to hurt itself in this action than any other state.
“Israel needs an arms industry because it has so few arms suppliers and an arms industry needs exports. No state similarly beset and beleaguered, so insecure, at war with all its neighbors has taken an action so contrary to its military interest on behalf of its moral principles,” Abram said.
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