Honor and Dishonor

The resignation of Col. Aviem Sella as the commandant of a major Israeli air force base represents the sacrifice of a brilliant military career but does nothing to settle an outstanding political problem. Sella is known to Israelis as an air ace and a computer genius who has performed heroic services for his country. He is known to Americans as an indicted foreign agent who received highly secret U.S. intelligence data from Jonathan Jay Pollard, a civilian analyst for the Navy who was sentenced to life imprisonment after he was caught spying on Israel’s behalf. Sella stepped down as an act of patriotism. Meanwhile, Israeli political leaders who bear the ultimate responsibility for the Pollard case continue to resist pressures to acknowledge honestly what they knew and did.

From the beginning, the highest officials in the Israeli government have stood together behind the claim that they knew nothing of Pollard’s recruitment and never thought to inquire into the source of the valuable information that he provided. With this claim these officials--who include Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin--seek to evade what in fact is unevadable ministerial responsibility. In ordinary circumstances an affair of this magnitude, the worst breach of trust ever in the U.S.-Israel relationship, would have almost automatically led to the collapse of the government. But because that government is a coalition on whose survival may well rest the political careers of its top three officials, ranks have been closed and stonewalling has become the order of the day.

Israel gave only perfunctory official cooperation to the U.S. investigation of Pollard. Its highest political leaders are now accused of much the same behavior in response to a Knesset intelligence committee investigation of the case. Harsh accusations--”lies” and “whitewash”--have already leaked out of those hearings. Col. Sella said in his letter of resignation that he acted out of concern for the deterioration in U.S.-Israel relations. He responded to the dictates of honor. That is a value that his political superiors, who appear to have done all in their power to obscure the truth, have yet to face up to.