PM Ehud Olmert
Il leader palestinese potrebbe essere rilasciato per aiutare Al Fatah
Chiesta la liberazione di Pollard in galera, come spia, negli Usa
Israele pronto a liberare Barghouti
in cambio di detenuto negli UsaGERUSALEMME - Israele è pronto a una singolare triangolazione: liberare il leader palestinese Marwan Barghouti in cambio del rilascio dell'analista della marina statunitense Jonathan Pollard, condannato con l'accusa di aver spiato per conto dello Stato ebraico. Lo ha detto la radio dell'esercito israeliano.
Pollard, ebreo americano ed ex funzionario del Pentagono, è stato condannato all'ergastolo per aver passato a Israele tra il 1984 e il 1985 centinaia di documenti riservati sulle attività di spionaggio degli Stati Uniti nei Paesi arabi. Barghouti, leader di Fatah in Cisgiordania e considerato l'ispiratore della seconda Intifada, è stato condannato nel giugno scorso a cinque ergastoli da un tribunale israeliano.
Un portavoce del ministero degli Esteri israeliano non ha nè smentito nè confermato la proposta che ha definito "sorprendente". Secondo la radio israeliana, che ha citato fonti del governo israeliano, ci sono "buone possibilità che lo scambio abbia luogo, per via della crescente situazione di anarchia nell'Anp e nell'auspicio che Barghouti possa controbilanciare Hamas".
(16 aprile 2006)
JERUSALEM - A former US defence department official jailed for spying for Israel, is threatening to shop secrets about his handler should he become a government minister, a newspaper reported Friday.
In a letter written through his Israeli lawyer to Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Jonathan Pollard complained about his longtime handler Rafi Eitan refusing to hand over an important document requested by US officials.
As long as he keeps the document, Pollard charged that he would remain in jail in the US where he is serving a life sentence, according to a copy of the letter seen by the mass-selling Yediot Aharonot newspaper.
Eitan, a former agent of Israel's Mossad overseas intelligence agency, in the 1980s headed the anti-terrorist branch of the service that handled Pollard.
Pollard, an American Jew and former analyst for the navy, gave thousands of secret documents about US spy activities in the Arab world to Israel between May 1984 and his arrest in November 1985.
Just before his arrest, Pollard had tried to seek refuge at the Israeli embassy in Washington.
Today, the 79-year-old Eitan leads the Pensioners' Party which won seven seats in Israel's March 28 parliamentary election and is set to become a partner in Olmert's incoming coalition government.
Pollard has also threatened to appeal to Israel's Supreme Court to prevent Eitan from being nominated a minister under Olmert, calling such an appointment an "infamy and disgrace" for the Jewish state, according to the leaked letter.
Eitan still faces an outstanding Federal Bureau of Investigation arrest warrant for his role as Pollard's handler, making him potentially the first member of an Israeli government sought by US justice.
Last July, a US appeals court refused to reduce the life sentence against Pollard, whose conviction and imprisonment sparked a crisis in relations between Washington and its key Middle East ally.
Successive Israeli governments have asked for Pollard to be freed. He was granted Israeli nationality while in prison in 1998.
US security services say his release would be an intelligence threat.
JERUSALEM -- A former intelligence official who controlled Pentagon spy Jonathan Pollard has put his new party in a position to influence Israel's next government with its surprise showing in legislative elections.
Rafi Eitan, who also helped in the capture of Holocaust mastermind Adolf Eichmann in 1960, led his Pensioners Party to garnering seven seats in the 120-seat parliament. Most opinion polls had predicted a much poorer results.
Those seven seats now loom large because Prime Minister-designate Ehud Olmert's Kadima party captured 28 of the 120 seats, but needs 61 to form a government.
Olmert reportedly has already dispatched emissaries to Eitan to secure his seven votes for a future government.
Eitan, 79, who wears thick, oversized eyeglasses, said Wednesday that he would join any coalition that addresses pensioners' concerns.
Eitan emerged from the shadows in 1985 as the handler of Pollard in the espionage affair that embarrassed Israel and severely tarnished its relations with the United States.