Israel Uproar over a Spy

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For Israelis and Americans alike, the heated clash of interests and emotions in the aftermath of the Pollard spy case threatened last week to spin out of control. Despite mounting evidence of U.S. displeasure over the affair, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir stubbornly resisted backing a proposed Israeli investigation into the scandal as long as he could before finally yielding to the growing pressure for a full-scale probe. Shamir's position was that the Pollard case was over and Israel had apologized sufficiently to the U.S., and he seemed bent on dismissing the matter as a "rogue" operation that had been approved by neither Israel's leaders nor its principal intelligence organizations.

U.S. officials, for their part, simmered over what they considered to be Israeli high-handedness. They were especially annoyed that two Israeli principals in the spy operation, instead of being punished for their roles in the affair, had been given promotions that appeared to reward their efforts. What is at stake now is not the Administration's pending $3 billion Israeli aid package for next year, which Congress will undoubtedly approve, but a sense that misadventures like the Pollard case could have a long-term corrosive effect on American confidence and trust in Israel.

Perhaps most upset of all, American Jewish leaders displayed unusual impatience and irritation with the Jerusalem government. They were disturbed by its refusal to take responsibility for the actions of Jonathan Jay Pollard, who two weeks ago was sentenced by a U.S. district court in Washington to life imprisonment on charges of spying in Israel's behalf against the U.S. This week a delegation of some 65 American Jewish leaders will arrive in Jerusalem with a blunt message for Prime Minister Shamir and other Israeli leaders: that the Pollard affair threatens to do long-term damage to Israel's vital relationship with the U.S. Nathan Perlmutter, national director of the Anti- Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, provided a fair sample of what the Israelis can expect to hear. "What began in stupidity quickly sank into irresponsibility," he told the Washington Post last week. "If this was a rogue operation, it's a fair question for people to ask why Israel has proceeded to promote the rogues."

In Israel, signs of distress over the case were everywhere. Some Israelis felt sorry for Pollard and his wife Anne Henderson-Pollard, who had received a five-year prison sentence. Fearful that their country was deserting devoted friends, a newly formed group called Citizens for Pollard collected thousands of dollars to help defray the Pollards' legal costs. Said one of the group's organizers, Yehoshua Gilboa: "We were brought up never to leave either wounded or dead behind on the battlefield." But who was the enemy?