Israeli Espionage Against America?

Ben-Ami Kadish, an 83 year old American citizen, was arrested on Tuesday for suspected espionage after he confessed to sharing sensitive classified information with Israeli agents in the 1980s.

"These kinds of activities whether they occurred long in the past or present time are not the kind of actions we would expect from a friend and ally and we would expect that Israel would not be engaged in such activities," State Department spokesman Tom Casey said hours after the story broke.

"We will be discussing, if we haven't already, this issue with the Israelis," said Casey, adding that the arrest does not have any new implications for US national security.

"There is pretty much a zero-tolerance policy for anyone that would engage in sharing that information in an unauthorized way, including countries that are good friends and allies like Israel," he said.

Friends of Ben-Ami Kadish maintain that Kadish is a true American patriot that belongs to a charity group that recently coordinated the donation of over $50,000 worth of equipment to disabled veterans.

The timing of the arrest is curious.

Rumors have been reported that President George W. Bush is considering pardoning Jonathan Pollard, another American citizen who plead guilty to one count of passing classified information to an ally (Israel), without intent to harm the United States in the 1980s. Pollard is currently serving a life sentence without parole.

According to reports, the extent of Pollard's crime involves the passing along of information that Israel was legally entitled to under the 1983, Memorandum of Understanding agreement between the two countries.

It has been reported that Pollard was a civilian American Naval intelligence analyst in the mid 1980s and discovered that information vital to Israel's security was being deliberately withheld by certain elements within the U.S. national security establishment.

The information being withheld from Israel included Syrian, Iraqi, Libyan and Iranian nuclear, chemical, and biological warfare capabilities - being developed for use against Israel. It also included information on ballistic missile development by these countries and information on planned terrorist attacks against Israeli civilian targets.

When Pollard discovered this suppression of information and asked his superiors about it, he was told to "mind his own business", and that "Jews get nervous talking about poison gas; they don't need to know." He also learned that the objective of cutting off the flow of information to Israel was to severely curtail Israel's ability to act independently in defense of her own interests.

Pollard reportedly did everything he possibly could to stop this covert policy and to have the legal flow of information to Israel restored. When his efforts met no success, he began to give the information to Israel directly.

Could it be that the charges against Kadish is simply a smokescreen to prevent the possible release of Pollard?

President Abraham Lincoln once said that "a house divided against itself cannot stand."

If American and Israeli relations are unjustifiably strained, our mutual enemies are the only winners. America must also seriously consider the possibility that enemies may lie within our own camp and I'm not referring to an alleged Israeli spy.
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ref:http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3534845,00.html
http://www.jonathanpollard.org/facts.htm