Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

Washington: Hizballah Has Got Hold of Chemical Weapons
Mar 6th, 2013
Daily Newsdebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;Warning

For the first time in many years, voices in the US administration were criticizing the Israeli defense forces for under-reacting and, in this case, also underestimating the chemical weapons threat emanating from Syria and neglecting to pursue counter-measures. This is what visiting Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak heard when he met US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel at the Pentagon Tuesday, March 5, as the new defense secretary’s first foreign visitor.
debkafile’s military and Washington sources disclose that Barak was berated for “inadequate and cursory” military preparations which failed to take into account that a chemical attack on Israel would make it necessary for the IDF to enter Syria – most likely for an offensive operation coordinated against the common threat with the Turkish and Jordanian armies.

Present at the meeting between Hagel and Barak were also Gen. Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the US Chiefs of Staff and Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren. Our sources add that the conversation ranged over the Syrian crisis with no reference to a nuclear Iran.
From the defense secretary, Barak heard intelligence estimates confirmed for the first time by an American official that Hizballah has been able to procure a quantity of chemical weapons from Syria – a development which Israel’s leaders have vowed to prevent.

The proliferation of chemical weapons to HIzballah and other armed bands on Israel’s borders was apparently in the mind of Russia’s UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin, UN Security Council president for March, when he cautioned Monday that trouble was building up between Israel and Syria.
Read debkafile’s earlier report:

At UN Center in New York, Israeli and Russian delegates separately warned Monday, March 4, of a dangerous situation developing in the area of separation on the Golan captured by Israel in the 1967 war. Syrian troops were forbidden to enter this area under a ceasefire formalized in 1974 between Syria and Israel.

Israeli UN Ambassador Ron Prosor complained to the Security Council about five shells fired from this very area which landed in Israel Saturday, March 2. "Israel cannot be expected to stand idle as the lives of its citizens are being put at risk by the Syrian government's reckless actions," Proser wrote in a Note to the council. "Israel has shown maximum restraint thus far."

Russia’s UN Ambasador Vitaly Churkin then spoke of “a very new and dangerous phenomenon” of armed groups operating in the Golan area of separation. “It’s something which potentially can undermine security between Syria and Israel,” said Churkin, who is acting Security Council president for March. He pointed out that the UN peacekeeping force is unarmed and unable to cope with this new situation. Israel and Syria are technically in a state of war.

debkafile’s military and intelligence sources note that the exchange of warnings between Israel and Russia touched two sensitive nerves:

1. It occurred the day before definitive talks open in Moscow between the Syrian government and opposition. The Russians fear Israel might embark on military action in response to the round of shells fired from the Syrian Golan Saturday, and force a delay in the talks. The last time this happened, in late January, Israel reacted with a cross-border attack on Syrian military installations.
2. Saturday, too, debkafile exposed the no-man’s lands unfolding along Syria’s borderlands with Israel and Jordan following the withdrawal of the bulk of Syrian forces from these areas. Moscow fears additionally that Israel’s armed forces will seize strategic points in the abandoned territory to clear out armed bands of the pro-al Qaeda Jabhat al Nusra, which are believed responsible for the latest round of shelling into the Israeli Golan.
Churkin’s warning referred to “armed groups” as the potential troublemakers, but he was also cautioning Israel to desist from fighting back so as not to upset Moscow’s diplomatic initiative for resolving the Syrian civil war

The Holocaust Just Got More Shocking
Mar 6th, 2013
Daily NewsNew YorkTimes - ERIC LICHTBLAU
Categories: Commentary;Antisemitism

THIRTEEN years ago, researchers at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum began the grim task of documenting all the ghettos, slave labor sites, concentration camps and killing factories that the Nazis set up throughout Europe.

What they have found so far has shocked even scholars steeped in the history of the Holocaust.

The researchers have cataloged some 42,500 Nazi ghettos and camps throughout Europe, spanning German-controlled areas from France to Russia and Germany itself, during Hitler’s reign of brutality from 1933 to 1945.

The figure is so staggering that even fellow Holocaust scholars had to make sure they had heard it correctly when the lead researchers previewed their findings at an academic forum in late January at the German Historical Institute in Washington.

“The numbers are so much higher than what we originally thought,” Hartmut Berghoff, director of the institute, said in an interview after learning of the new data.

“We knew before how horrible life in the camps and ghettos was,” he said, “but the numbers are unbelievable.”

The documented camps include not only “killing centers” but also thousands of forced labor camps, where prisoners manufactured war supplies; prisoner-of-war camps; sites euphemistically named “care” centers, where pregnant women were forced to have abortions or their babies were killed after birth; and brothels, where women were coerced into having sex with German military personnel.

Auschwitz and a handful of other concentration camps have come to symbolize the Nazi killing machine in the public consciousness. Likewise, the Nazi system for imprisoning Jewish families in hometown ghettos has become associated with a single site — the Warsaw Ghetto, famous for the 1943 uprising. But these sites, infamous though they are, represent only a minuscule fraction of the entire German network, the new research makes painfully clear.

The maps the researchers have created to identify the camps and ghettos turn wide sections of wartime Europe into black clusters of death, torture and slavery — centered in Germany and Poland, but reaching in all directions.

The lead editors on the project, Geoffrey Megargee and Martin Dean, estimate that 15 million to 20 million people died or were imprisoned in the sites that they have identified as part of a multivolume encyclopedia. (The Holocaust museum has published the first two, with five more planned by 2025.)

The existence of many individual camps and ghettos was previously known only on a fragmented, region-by-region basis. But the researchers, using data from some 400 contributors, have been documenting the entire scale for the first time, studying where they were located, how they were run, and what their purpose was.

The brutal experience of Henry Greenbaum, an 84-year-old Holocaust survivor who lives outside Washington, typifies the wide range of Nazi sites.

When Mr. Greenbaum, a volunteer at the Holocaust museum, tells visitors today about his wartime odyssey, listeners inevitably focus on his confinement of months at Auschwitz, the most notorious of all the camps.

But the images of the other camps where the Nazis imprisoned him are ingrained in his memory as deeply as the concentration camp number — A188991 — tattooed on his left forearm.

In an interview, he ticked off the locations in rapid fire, the details still vivid.

First came the Starachowice ghetto in his hometown in Poland, where the Germans herded his family and other local Jews in 1940, when he was just 12.

Next came a slave labor camp with six-foot-high fences outside the town, where he and a sister were moved while the rest of the family was sent to die at Treblinka. After his regular work shift at a factory, the Germans would force him and other prisoners to dig trenches that were used for dumping the bodies of victims. He was sent to Auschwitz, then removed to work at a chemical manufacturing plant in Poland known as Buna Monowitz, where he and some 50 other prisoners who had been held at the main camp at Auschwitz were taken to manufacture rubber and synthetic oil. And last was another slave labor camp at Flossenbürg, near the Czech border, where food was so scarce that the weight on his 5-foot-8-inch frame fell away to less than 100 pounds.

By the age of 17, Mr. Greenbaum had been enslaved in five camps in five years, and was on his way to a sixth, when American soldiers freed him in 1945. “Nobody even knows about these places,” Mr. Greenbaum said. “Everything should be documented. That’s very important. We try to tell the youngsters so that they know, and they’ll remember.”

Eric Lichtblau is a reporter for The New York Times in Washington and a visiting fellow at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Obama Admin Wants to Deport Christian Homeschoolers
Mar 6th, 2013
Daily NewsHuman Events - Tod Starnes
Categories: Today's Headlines;Warning

The Romeike family fled their German homeland in 2008 seeking political asylum in the United States – where they hoped to home school their children. Instead, the Obama administration wants the evangelical Christian family deported.

The fate of Uwe and Hannelore Romeikie – along with their six children – now rests with the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals – after the Dept. of Homeland Security said they don’t deserve asylum.

Neither the Justice Dept. nor the Dept. of Homeland Security returned calls seeking comment.

“The Obama administration is basically saying there is no right to home school anywhere,” said Michael Farris, founder of the Home School Legal Defense Association. “It’s an utter repudiation of parental liberty and religious liberty.”

The Justice Dept. is arguing that German law banning home schooling does not violate the family’s human rights.

“They are trying to send a family back to Germany where they would certainly lose custody of their children,” Farris told Fox News. “Our government is siding with Germany.”

Farris said the Germans ban home schools because “they don’t want to have religious and philosophical minorities in their country.”

“That means they don’t want to have significant numbers of people who think differently than what the government thinks,” he said. “It’s an incredibly dangerous assertion that people can’t think in a way that the government doesn’t approve of.”

He said the Justice Dept. is backing that kind of thinking and arguing ‘it is not a human rights violation.”

Farris said he finds great irony that the Obama administration is releasing thousands of illegal aliens – yet wants to send a family seeking political asylum back to Germany.

“Eleven million people are going to be allowed to stay freely – but this one family is going to be shipped back to Germany to be persecuted,” he said. “It just doesn’t make any sense.”

The fear of persecution is why an immigration judge granted the family political asylum in 2010.

German authorities demanded the family stop home schooling. They faced thousands of dollars in fines and they initially took away their children in a police van.

German state constitutions require children attend public schools. Parents who don’t comply face punishment ranging from fines to prison time. The nation’s highest appellate court ruled in 2007 that in some cases children could be removed from their parents’ care.

“Families that want to have an alternative education can’t get it in Germany,” Farris said. “Even the private schools have to teach public school curriculum.”

After authorities threatened to remove permanent custody from the Christian couple – they decided to move to the United States.

Uwe, a classically-trained pianist, relocated their brood to a small farm in the shadow of the Smokey Mountains in eastern Tennessee.
“We are very happy here to be able to freely follow our conscience and to home school our children,” he told Fox News. “Where we live in Tennessee is very much like where we lived in Germany.”

Uwe said he was extremely disappointed that their petition to seek asylum was appealed by the Obama administration.

“If we go back to Germany we know that we would be prosecuted and it is very likely the Social Services authorities would take our children from us,” he said.

Uwe said German schools were teaching children to disrespect authority figures and used graphic words to describe sexual relations. He said the state believed children must be “socialized.”

“The German schools teach against our Christian values,” he said. “Our children know that we home school following our convictions and that we are in God’s hands. They understand that we are doing this for their best – and they love the life we are living in America on our small farm.”

Farris said Americans should be outraged over the way the Obama administration has treated the Romeike family – and warned it could have repercussions for families that home school in this nation.

“The right of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their children has been at the pinnacle of human rights,” he said. “But not in this country.”

Todd Starnes is the host of Fox News & Commentary, heard daily on more than 250 radio stations.

No Locusts Allowed to Plague Israel
Mar 6th, 2013
Daily NewsINN - Hana Levi Julien
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

A swarm of one million locusts that was headed north from the southern border of Israel has been stopped dead in its tracks by the Ministry of Agriculture -- but first, some of Israel's residents have made sure to gather sackfuls of what they know can be a tasty kosher treat.

The swarm, a small group that broke off from a massive plague that struck neighboring Egypt, crossed the border into the country from Sinai, reaching the Ramat HaNegev region two days ago.

Israel’s Agriculture Ministry immediately began spraying pesticide both from the air and at the ground level, starting at dawn on Wednesday. The ministry hoped to prevent further losses to farmers by the locusts. Israel has already sustained hundreds of thousands of shekels damage to potato farms in its southern regions.

Prior to the spraying, however, some Yemenite Israelis made sure to gather sackfuls of the locusts, four varieties of which actually are listed in the Torah as kosher.

When toasted, said one of the people who rushed out to gather the rare treat, they taste like the "finest fast food snack." Some Yemenite Jews in Israel can date their ancestry back to the Second Temple era, when the locust as a food source was more widely known.

In Egypt, farms and fields were completely devastated in the Giza region by a swarm of some 30 million locusts over the weekend.

Israel’s wave of spraying, which began at 06:00 a.m. in the Negev, worked well, according to a ministry spokesperson.

“Following the spraying, which was done via aircraft, there seems to be no more ground elevation of locusts,” the spokesperson said. “They sprayed 7,500 acres east of Moshav Kamhin. During the day the pesticides will remove the locusts from the soil. The Ministry of Agriculture is continuing to monitor the results.”

Rabbi Eliezer Simcha Weiss, rabbi of Emek Hefer, meanwhile, has sent a letter to farmers calling on them to pray that no more locusts reach the country.

Muslim Women Block Jews from Temple Mount, Police Intervene
Mar 6th, 2013
Daily NewsINN - Chana Yaar
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Police were forced to intervene Wednesday morning when Muslim women blocked Jewish tourists from reaching the Temple Mount, and ultimately the situation led to closure of the site for several hours.

Several Jewish groups were touring the area, according to Israel Police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld, who told Arutz Sheva the Muslim women blocked the tourists and refused to allow them access to the site. Police were escorting each Jewish group, he added, to ensure their safety, and security officers immediately intervened to stop the confrontation.

However, a number of Arab men then arrived at the scene where the Al Aqsa mosque is also located, and joined the Muslim women's efforts to block the tourists.

As a precaution, police closed the site for a short period of time, Rosenfeld said, adding that the site was expected to reopen at midday, assuming there were no further problems.

“Police are assessing the situation after the two incidents that occurred this week,” Rosenfeld told Arutz Sheva.

The incident marked the second time this week that Muslim women have succeeded in preventing Jews from accessing the holiest site in the Jewish faith.

Muslim worshipers also succeeded in forcing police to close the Temple Mount plaza this past Sunday due to a similar incident.

Former Labor MK Daniel Ben-Simon told Arutz Sheva that he spent a long and unpleasant wait to reach the holy area, only to be told it was closed due to “tensions.”

There has been a long history of closing the Temple Mount plaza in the face of Arab anger against Jews on the site, which Muslim worshipers at the mosque often use as an excuse for violence and rioting, particularly after inflammatory Friday sermons.

A visit by then-Opposition leader MK Ariel Sharon in the year 2000 served as the excuse by PLO/Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat to launch the Second Intifada (public uprising), also referred to in Israel as the Oslo War.

Israel’s military is training at present for the possibility that the PA may soon launch a formal Third Intifada, a source said, although Israeli security officials have said they believe the Palestinian Authority is not interested in escalating the situation prior to the upcoming visit of U.S. President Barack Obama, slated to arrive in Israel on March 20.

IDF Spokesperson Brig.-Gen. Yoav Mordechai called on media to show “responsibility and caution” when referring to PA Arab violence as an “intifada on the way.”

In a statement last week, Mordechai said, “For the past few weeks, I have been hearing declarations about an intifada that has supposedly broken out in Judea and Samaria. The power of prophesy was given to fools, and I do not know what the new day will bring,” he wrote in a post on his Facebook page.

“But aren’t some responsibility and caution required when making premature declarations of an intifada?”

Editors note....This is a fulfillment of Ezekiel 36:2, "Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because the enemy hath said against you, Aha, even the ancient high places are ours in possession."

Let the Headlines Speak
Mar 6th, 2013
Daily NewsFrom the Internet
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Snow Storm Barrels Through Midwest to Mid-Atlantic
A late winter storm packing up to 10 inches of snow sent officials in weather-hardened Chicago into action Tuesday to prevent a repeat of scenes from two years ago, when hundreds of people in cars and buses were stranded on the city's marquee thoroughfare during a massive blizzard.

Politics Eric Holder: Drone strikes against Americans on U.S. soil are legal
“It is possible, I suppose, to imagine an extraordinary circumstance in which it would be necessary and appropriate under the Constitution and applicable laws of the United States for the President to authorize the military to use lethal force within the territory of the United States,” Holder replied in a letter yesterday to Paul’s question about whether Obama “has the power to authorize lethal force, such as a drone strike, against a U.S. citizen on U.S. soil, and without trial.”

The Home Depot promotes the homosexual agenda
Home Depot has given its financial and corporate support to open displays of homosexual activism on main streets in America's towns. Rather than remain neutral in the culture war, The Home Depot has chosen to sponsor and participate in numerous gay pride parades and festivals. Most grievous is The Home Depot's deliberately exposing small children to lascivious displays of sexual conduct by homosexuals and cross-dressers, which are a common occurrence at these events.

Court stuns educators with approval of vouchers
In a landmark victory for school choice, the Colorado Court of Appeals surprised educators in the state by affirming the constitutionality of a Douglas County voucher program that allocates money for students who attend “private school partners” rather than government-run schools.

Science of Sinkholes: 20 Percent of U.S. Lies in Susceptible Areas
A devastating sinkhole occurred in Florida on Feb. 28, 2013, raising questions and concerns about this incredible phenomenon. Around 20% of the U.S. lies in areas susceptible to sinkhole events, highlighting the need for research and to be informed about this hazard. A sinkhole is an area of ground that has no natural external surface drainage. Basically this means that when it rains, all of the water stays inside the sinkhole and typically drains into the subsurface.

Farmers spray locusts in daybreak bid to protect fields
Millions of insects in huge swarm expected to take wing, migrate northwards, and wreak further havoc on crops unless checked; Negev farmer: It’s like an insect cemetery down here

Earthquake detected from space
The earthquake that rocked Tohoku, Japan, in 2011 was so powerful that its rumble was 'heard' from space. Scientists in France and the Netherlands have found that sound waves from the quake reached as far as an orbiting satellite, 260 kilometres above ground.

Email tells feds to make sequester as painful as promised
In the internal email, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service official Charles Brown said he asked if he could try to spread out the sequester cuts in his region to minimize the impact, and he said he was told not to do anything that would lessen the dire impacts Congress had been warned of. ...the email made it sound like the administration was sacrificing flexibility in order to justify its earlier dire predictions.

Yale hosts workshop teaching sensitivity to bestiality
On Saturday afternoon, Yale hosted a “sensitivity training” in which students were asked to consider topics such as bestiality, incest, and accepting money for sex. During the workshop, entitled, "Sex: Am I Normal," students anonymously asked and answered questions about sex using their cell phones, and viewed the responses in real time in the form of bar charts.

Homeland Security Drones Designed to Identify Civilians Carrying Guns
Recently uncovered government documents reveal that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) unmanned Predator B drone fleet has been customize designed to identify civilians carrying guns and track cell phone signals. "I am very concerned that this technology will be used against law-abiding American firearms owners," said...executive vice president of the Second Amendment Foundation Alan Gottlieb.

Iran orders terrorists: Prepare for war
According to a source in the Revolutionary Guards intelligence unit, the regime believes Israel is on the verge of an attack, which could then draw America into the conflict. Hundreds of ballistic missiles are ready to be launched against Israel and U.S. military bases in the region, the source said, and all terror groups that have long been positioned in Europe and America are ready to act should war break out.

Google offers data on FBI's national-security-related requests for user identities
Google today became the first Internet company to shed light on a highly secret -- and controversial -- warrantless electronic data-gathering technique used by the FBI. The technique allows FBI officials to send a secret request to Web and telecommunications companies requesting "name, address, length of service," and other information about users as long as it's relevant to a national security investigation. No court approval is necessary, and disclosing the existence of the FBI's request is not permitted.

Venezuelans mourn President Hugo Chavez
Venezuela has announced seven days of mourning for Hugo Chavez, who has died aged 58, after 14 years as president. Hundreds of Mr Chavez's supporters took to the streets of Caracas to express their grief. Mr Chavez had been seriously ill with cancer for more than a year.

Dow Jones and FTSE climb to new highs  New York's Dow Jones share index set a new all-time high on Tuesday, while London's FTSE 100 closed at it highest level in five years. The rallies mean the stock markets are returning to levels not seen since before the global financial crisis. The Dow reached 14,285 during the day, exceeding the previous record intra-day high of 14,198, set in October 2007.

Latvia submits bid to join euro in 2014
The Latvian government on Tuesday (5 March) officially submitted a request for the EU commission to assess its readiness to join the euro on 1 January 2014, despite public opposition to the move. "Latvia's decision to request entry to euro area shows how much progress the country has made to get its economy back on track after the 2008-9 crisis," EU economics commissioner Olli Rehn told reporters...

Davos 2013: Kissinger says Iran nuclear crisis close
Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has warned that a crisis involving a nuclear Iran is in the "foreseeable future". The Nobel Peace laureate, 89, was speaking about prospects in the Middle East at the World Economic Forum. He said nuclear proliferation in the region triggered by an armed Iran would increase the chances of an atomic war - "a turning point in human history".

Green 'Space' Slime Baffles Nature Experts
A "weird" green slime said in folklore to appear at the same time as meteors hit Earth has been found in a birdlife park in Somerset. The RSPB has appealed for help in identifying the slime, which is said to be scattered on grass banks close to pools and lakes around Ham Wall Nature Reserve near Glastonbury. The jelly-like substance could be bacteria, fungus or toad innards, wildlife experts said.

Putin Sees Venezuela Oil Deals Moving Ahead After Chavez
Russia expects to continue benefitting from economic ties with Venezuela via billions of dollars in oil and weapons contracts after the death of Hugo Chavez, who led the South American country for 14 years. “A constructive, positive and mutually beneficial agenda will remain a constant for any government, as it will from the Russian side,” President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk today.

'Nightmare' bacteria spreading in U.S. hospitals, nursing homes: CDC
A "nightmare" bacteria that is resistant to powerful antibiotics and kills half of those it infects has surfaced in nearly 200 U.S. hospitals and nursing homes, federal health officials reported Tuesday. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 4 percent of U.S. hospitals and 18 percent of nursing homes had treated at least one patient with the bacteria, called Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), within the first six months of 2012.

North Korea Abandons Armistice…Again
Pyongyang threatened to nullify the 1953 armistice agreement ending the Korean War, raising already heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula. The declaration comes amidst large-scale military exercises by North Korea and by U.S. and South Korean forces as well as rumors of impending rocket and nuclear tests. The regime’s threats are consistent with previous North Korean behavior and are meant to intimidate the United Nations Security Council as it deliberates on additional sanctions against Pyongyang for its February nuclear test.

SA to allow small knives, bats, clubs on planes
Airline passengers will be able to carry small knives, souvenir baseball bats, golf clubs and other sports equipment onto planes beginning next month under a policy change announced Tuesday by the head of the Transportation Security Administration.

U.S. cardinals opposed to quick decision on papal election
United States cardinals want more time to discuss the Catholic Church’s challenges before embarking upon a conclave to elect a new pope, several Italian newspapers reported on Wednesday. Cardinals are currently holding General Congregrations, a preliminary forum for discussions. During the meeting, general church problems are discussed. Once cardinals feel they are ready, a date for the start of the conclave is fixed.

Iran ready to respond to IAEA concerns
Iran's Foreign Ministry says the country will be ready to respond to the concerns of the International Atomic Energy Agency after an agreement is reached. An Iranian spokesman said last week's nuclear talks with 6 world powers could be a positive start to solving the years-long deadlock.

Arab Campaign in Europe Calls for 'Palestinian Spring'
A Palestinian Authority Arab group calling itself “the European initiative to remove the fence and the settlements” has launched a new media campaign in Europe, entitled “Palestine without a fence and with no settlements.”

Dutch Youngsters on TV: "Too Bad not All Jews Were Killed"
Mar 6th, 2013
Daily NewsArytz Sheva - Satff
Categories: Today's Headlines;Antisemitism

Arutz Sheva was sent this shocking video of a broadcast on the Dutch Nederland 2 station that took place on the 17th of February. The interviewer is a volunteer youth worker Mehmet Sahin who tries to reeducate Turkish youngsters in Arnhem, a major city in the eastern part of the Netherlands.

For over a week there was hardly any reaction in the Netherlands. Nine days later, one well-known columnist, Elma Drayer, published an article in the Dutch daily Trouw in which she wrote how scandalous it was that there had been no reaction.

She wrote that if Dutch youngsters had said on television that it would have been a good thing had all Muslims been slaughtered, including little babies, there would have been massive reactions about how horrible this was.

Dutch pro-Muslim organizations would probably have organized a demonstration in which prominent leftists would also have marched.

She concluded that Jew hatred in the Netherlands is back where it had been before the Holocaust.

The video was given English subtitles by Ken Sikorski, owner of Tundra Tabloids in Finland, and sent to Arutz Sheva in order to make sure the event does not go unremarked.

'Pollard Didn't Deserve to Receive a Life Sentence'
Mar 6th, 2013
Daily NewsINN - Elad Benari
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Lawrence Korb, who served as Assistant Secretary of Defense during the Jonathan Pollard affair, told a news conference on Tuesday that Pollard did not deserve a life sentence.

Korb noted that the usual sentence for offenses similar to those made by Pollard is only seven years, adding that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu raised the issue during his first term in office with former U.S. President Bill Clinton, and almost managed to get Pollard freed.

Now, he said, is the time to release Pollard from prison.

“Jonathan did not plead guilty nor was he convicted of treason,” said Korb. “He pleaded guilty to providing information to a friendly country. Jonathan didn’t have a trial. He spared [the government] a trial, he pleaded guilty and was not supposed to get a life sentence.”

He added that what led the judge in Pollard’s case to break the plea agreement and sentence Pollard to life was the fact that he gave an interview to the media from prison.

“The judge was left with the impression that this was unauthorized, but as you well know, you don’t show up in a prison and just walk in with a photographer and your notepad without government permission,” said Korb, adding that the interview “was authorized by the government, but the judge was led to believe that wasn’t the case.”

“Jonathan did not provide anything to the Israelis that would compromise American security,” Korb stressed.

The former Assistant Secretary of Defense arrived in Israel on Saturday night in order to aid the efforts on Pollard's behalf.

Korb has said publicly and written a letter to the effect that Pollard has been punished more than enough, and has held meetings and talks over the past few months with various officials in the U.S. on the subject.

On Monday, Korb, along with Jonathan’s wife Esther Pollard, met with both Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres. Both leaders have indicated they plan to ask President Barack Obama to release Pollard when he visits Israel later this month.

However, reports last week indicated that U.S. President Barack Obama has no intention of releasing Pollard from prison, despite the fact that over 100,000 thousand people have already signed onto an online petition calling for Pollard’s release.

Close associates of Obama reportedly said last week that Obama “does not understand why he should pardon a traitor, when tens of thousands of African Americans are rotting in prison for life over less serious crimes.”

The officials also indicated that Obama does not intend to present any gestures involving Pollard during his visit to Israel next month.

The petition circulating online advocating for Jonathan's release has been signed by tens of thousands of Israelis, including a number of MKs such as Yair Lapid, Eitan Cabel (Labor), Elazar Stern (Hatnua) and Avishai Braverman (Labor). Former President Yitzchak Navon has signed the petition as well.