Obama team creating traffic jam in Israel

Obama team creating traffic jam in Israel

By Richard Wolf, USA TODAY

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is greeted in Jerusalem Monday by Israeli President Shimon Peres.

By Lior Mizrahi, Getty Images

During the last months of George W. Bush's administration, the State Department and the president himself tried valiantly to help make peace in the Middle East.
President Obama's team might not think they have only months left in office, but their attention toward Israel is definitely on an uptick.

Witness the traffic jam the administration is creating in Jerusalem: Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is there today, on the last leg of an exhausting trip that has taken her to France, Afghanistan, Japan, Mongolia, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Egypt.

She's not alone. National security adviser Tom Donilon was there over the weekend, meeting with many of the same Israeli officials on Clinton's itinerary. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is due there soon.

And not to be outdone, presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney is scheduled to be heading there later this month.

Whether all this activity adds up to progress on the peace agenda remains very much in doubt. There has been little of that during the Obama administration. In fact, Clinton's trip was her first to Israel in 22 months. Her predecessor, Condoleezza Rice, took nearly two dozen trips there in pursuit of peace.

Clinton's agenda is broader. In meetings today with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and others, she is discussing the civil war in Syria, the nuclear program in Iran and the recent political changes in Egypt, her last stop.

"It is a time of uncertainty but also of opportunity," Clinton said today. "It is a chance to advance our shared goal of security, stability, peace, and democracy, along with prosperity for the millions of people in this region who have yet to see a better future."

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2012/07/obama-team-creating-traffic-jam-in-israel/1

'Pretend Pollard is a Greek-American, and free him'

'Pretend Pollard is a Greek-American, and free him'

By JPOST.COM STAFF

07/05/2012

Former CIA director James Woolsey reverses Clinton-era stance, recommends clemency, in 'Wall Street Journal' letter.

Photo: REUTERS

Former CIA director James Woolsey called for the release of Jonathan Pollard in a letter to the editor, printed in the Wall Street Journal Thursday, hinting that his being Jewish may be a reason he is still behind bars. "For those hung up for some reason on the fact that he's an American Jew, pretend he's a Greek- or Korean- or Filipino-American and free him," Woolsey wrote.

 

As CIA director in the early 1990s, Woolsey recommended against clemency for the spy, but now says that the nearly-two decades that Pollard served since then are enough.

"Of the more than 50 recently convicted Soviet bloc and Chinese spies, only two—Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen—also received life sentences, and two-thirds of these some-50 enemy spies served or have been sentenced to less time than Pollard has already served," Woolsey explained.

Pollard, he added, expressed remorse for his actions, cooperated with the US government, and pledged not to use the crime for profit after his release.

Earlier this week, President Shimon Peres promised to continue to work for the release of Pollard in a meeting with his wife, Esther, in Jerusalem.

Peres met with Esther Pollard for the first time since his trip to Washington last month, where he asked US President Barack Obama to commute Pollard’s sentence to the over 26 years that he has served.

Gil Hoffman contributed to this report.


http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=276318