President Barack Obama got heckled in Israel over the ongoing case of Jonathan Pollard. He handled it well — but the issue lingers. Here’s how he handled it:
ABC News gives this recap of the Pollard case:
During the president’s address in Jerusalem Thursday he was interrupted by a heckler shouting about Jonathan Pollard, presumably calling for his release.
Pollard, 58, is serving a life term in a North Carolina prison after pleading guilty in 1987 to spying for Israel from June 1984 until he was arrested in November 1985.
Pollard provided Israel with thousands of pages of U.S. intelligence, gathered as a civilian intelligence officer for the U.S. Navy, on military and technical intelligence.
For decades, Israelis have asked U.S. presidents to pardon Pollard. Those calls have increased recently as President Barack Obama embarked on his first trip to Israel as president. The main argument of Pollard’s supporters is that his actions benefited a close ally of the United States, but did not harm the security of the nation. They also point out that he has already served 28 years in prison. He also issued a public apology in 1997 and his attorney says his health is failing.
Netanyahu viited Pollard in jail when he wasnn’t in office and vowed to raise the issue with Obama this time. But Obama made it clear to Israeli TV last week that its unlikely Pollard will get out since the crime he was convicted of is quite serious.
“He’s been serving his time,” Obama told Israel’s Channel 2. “I have no plans for releasing Jonathan Pollard immediately but what I am going to be doing is to make sure that he, like every other American who’s been sentenced, is accorded the same kinds of review and the same examination of the equities that any other individual would provide.”
He did acknowledge the movement to pardon Pollard is in Israel, where now it has widespread support.
“I recognize the emotions involved in this. One of the strengths of the Israeli people is you think about your people wherever they are and I recognize that and I’m sympathetic,” Obama said in the interview. “I think people have to understand that as the president my first obligation is to observe the law here in the United States and to make sure that it’s applied consistently and there are a lot of individuals in prisons in the United States who have committed crimes who would love to be released early as well and I’ve got to make sure that every individual is treated fairly and equally.”
The bottom line, though, is that Obama has not enjoyed the best image in Israel and his trip will most likely improve it — particularly amoment such as this which showed him smoothly and graciously handling a heckler.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.