Rafi Eitan Admits Failure, Regrets on Pollard

(IsraelNN.com) Former minister Rafi Eitan, who recruited Jonathan Pollard as a spy for Israel in the US, expressed regret over the espionage debacle in an interview on Channel 2.

In an interview to Maariv in 2008, Eitan said that the US intelligence services made a joint decision not to permit Pollard ever to be released until the end of his life. “The reason isn't Pollard. It's Israel... It's connected to the relationship system between the American intelligence services and the state of Israel.” Eitan went on to confirm that the US intelligence services were “taking revenge” on Israeli intelligence through Pollard.

Your question is the problem.

Think about it for a while.

Asking a question like that in a derogatory manner is belittling to all of the people who have aided Israel over the years. It implies the “what’s in it for me” and combines it with the “What have you done in the last five minutes for me?”

You can take it to the bank that Israel’s diplomacy corps and officials in government aren’t as cavalier about the issue as you seem to be.

Then, if your story about the USS Liberty is true, why did both of our countries play such an insulting song and dance. The Israeli fighter jets shot out lifeboats and wanted to sink the Liberty - but failed.

Israel has indeed spied on us. Have we spied on them? I’m not sure. I don’t see why since we rarely rely on their technology.

Did the Israelis think the USS Liberty was a spy ship? If so, why not have one of the thousands of American Jewish diplomats and agents contact the White House directly?

Who shoots to kill their friends?

Then, if your story about the USS Liberty is true, why did both of our countries play such an insulting song and dance

IF it is true, and it is one of the stories that seem to make more sense than others to me, one can only guess who gave the orders to do it. The song and dance is obvious to me, because of the fallout to both sides if it were true.

Israel has indeed spied on us. Have we spied on them? I’m not sure. I don’t see why since we rarely rely on their technology.

The suggestion wasn't about stealing technology, it was applying military pressure. Perhaps there were those who wanted Israel's defense to stall in war to extract concessions. It would be a simple matter to relay troop movements from one spy ship. If Israel got wise, throw up the US colors, say that it's international waters and keep broadcasting to Egypt and Syria.

Did the Israelis think the USS Liberty was a spy ship? If so, why not have one of the thousands of American Jewish diplomats and agents contact the White House directly?

It is all speculation, isn't it? If your small country had one benefactor and even that benefactor had elements that wanted you dead, would you poke them in the eye? I think not. The Jews of Israel are terrified that they would be at the mercy of their enemies. The diplomats and agents would never publicly talk about something that would give power to those elements. It would be viewed as suicide.

Perhaps they weren't shooting to kill their friends, but to destroy the operations center in the middle of the ship along with the antennae on the top deck. Cripple its ability to betray their locations to the enemy and then claim it was a "mistake".

Those secrets Pollard gave away eventually wound up in the hands of the ChiComs. He should have been shot.

My understanding is that the secrets were traded by Israel to the Soviet Union in exchange for a loosening of restrictions on Russian Jews to emigrate to Israel. It was in Israel's interest to boost immigration as much as possible to counter Palestinian birthrates, and Russia was the greatest source of likely Jewish immigrants.

Countries don't have friends, they have interests. So our "friends" handed over the massive load of secrets that Pollard had stolen, including some of the very top secret NSA info.

Of course once Israel had all these secrets, they had the leverage to use them in other ways too. They are a small country in a difficult position in the world and they play hardball.

I think it's unlikely that Pollard knew about the eventual destination of the documents. But he should at least stay in jail permanently just for stealing the secrets.

Without any regards to the stance of Israel, Jonathan Pollard is a traior to America.

Let him sit and stew in prison. He can lick his wounds all day long and think of himself as a martyr.

Jonathan Pollard is an American traitor. If Israeli agents used him, too bad for Jonathan Pollard.

Israel seems determined to free Pollard. Since much of the classified information he learned must be out of date by now, the reason must be that Israel wants to send a signal to any other potential spies. The message is that Israel will not abandon them.

Likewise we need to send a message by keeping Pollard in prison that traitors will find no leniency.

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