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Newsletter : 9fax0120.txt
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>PD
>Israel Faxx
>JN Jan. 20, 1999, Vol. 7, No. 13
New Course for Immigrants
Israel Faxx Staff Report
A first-of-its-kind journalism course for new immigrants from the
Caucasus has begun in Beersheva. 30 immigrants will be invited to
take part in the course, and the costs will be borne by the
Education Ministry's Development Towns' Arm, the Ministry of
Absorption, the Joint Distribution Committee, and Ma'ariv. The
Central-Russian immigrant-participants will write and produce a
newspaper that will be distributed throughout Israel.
Israel Jets Escort King Hussein's Plane
By David Gollust (VOA-Jerusalem)
Israel accorded Jordan's King Hussein a rare military honor as he
returned home to Amman after six-months treatment for cancer in the
United States. Two Israeli air force F-16 fighter planes provided
an honorary escort for King Hussein as he piloted himself across
Israeli air space on the final leg of his flight home.
The Defense Ministry says the air force planes met the royal flight
over the Mediterranean and split off as the king's aircraft crossed
the Jordan River, which forms part of the two countries' border.
Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty in 1994 and King Hussein
has since played a key role in Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts,
including leaving his hospital bed in October to take part in the
Wye River conference.
In a message to the king, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said
all Israelis feel great gratitude for his return to health. He
said Israelis view King Hussein's continued contribution
indispensable for building a new era of peace, stability, and
growth in the region.
Israel Asks U.S. for Pollard Clemency
By David Gollust (VOA-Jerusalem)
Israel has renewed its appeals to the Clinton administration for
clemency for convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard. President
Clinton is conducting a review of the controversial case this week.
Israeli officials say they do not have high hopes that Clinton
will free Pollard outright. But they do say a strong case can be
made on both legal and humanitarian grounds for reducing his life
prison sentence to a finite term.
The former Navy intelligence analyst pleaded guilty in 1986 to
charges of passing thousands of secret documents to Israel, much of
it highly sensitive material on the military capabilities of Arab
countries and the Warsaw pact.
Pollard -- an American Jew -- initiated the spy relationship, which
the government here initially disavowed as a rogue operation by
mid-level Israeli officials.
But Israeli spokesman Moshe Fogel says Israel has since admitted
its culpability in the case and apologized to its main ally, and
that Pollard, jailed now for nearly 14 years, should be given the
hope of eventual release:
"We've taken responsibility as the government for his actions. In
other words his actions were not solely his responsibility. And
therefore we believe that mistakes were made, but that he should
not pay the price for the rest of his life. And that out of
humanitarian considerations, his period in jail should be settled
at a specific timetable and not life in prison."
But a reduction in sentence for Pollard is strongly opposed by the
US intelligence community and those who prosecuted the case. And 60
members of the Senate wrote Clinton last week to urge that he
remain behind bars.
US intelligence sources have been quoted as saying Pollard gave
Israel critical material, including encryption manuals that
eventually found their way to the former Soviet Union and may
have cost the lives of Russian informants for the United States.
However Pollard's lawyer in Israel, Larry Dub, told VOA his client
is the victim of a vicious attack by a US spy community which is
trying to transfer to Pollard blame for its failings in the 1980s:
"The facts are very, very clear. Mr. Pollard was charged with one
count, and I emphasize one count, of passing classified information
to an ally, Israel. He's being accused of being a traitor, treason,
harming the United States. All of that is nonsense, because if any
of the allegations had any scintilla of evidence, all of these
factors would have come out in Mr. Pollard's trial. The fact
remains that Mr. Pollard is the only person in the history of the
United States to have been given a life sentence for a crime that
normally carries a two to four-year term."
Clinton has turned down clemency for Pollard twice before. He
agreed to examine the case again in October after Israeli Prime
Minister Netanyahu -- in a controversial move -- tried to get
Pollard freed in last-minute bargaining over the Wye River peace
accord with the Palestinians.
The issue generated further controversy in Israel when it was
disclosed that labor party leader Ehud Barak -- Netanyahu's
main election rival -- had refused to sign a joint appeal to the
Clinton administration by Israeli political leaders that Pollard's
prison sentence be reduced to time already served.
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