Trust-Busting Snoopery

Israel’s government has progressed from “shock and consternation” at exposure of its alleged espionage activities in the United States to a cabinet apology for such misbehavior “to the extent that it took place.” In between these official statements there came a stream of unattributed comments seeking either to obscure some of the messier political issues raised by the arrest of Jonathan J. Pollard or to provide high-horse justification for Israel’s alleged employment of him. This included the suggestion that Israel was using Pollard only to lay hands on information that Washington should have been giving it anyway.

The U.S. government, which promptly welcomed the cabinet’s statement of apology after first collaborating on it, seems no less eager than Israel to see this whole business quickly disposed of for the sake of the mutual long-term interests of both countries. The short term, however, is something else. The arrest of Pollard, a civilian employee of the Naval Investigative Service, on charges that he sold a bundle of classified material to Israel is a serious matter, not so much for the intrinsic harm that might have been done--recent cases involving Americans spying for the Soviet Union and China are almost certainly far more grievous--but because a friendly and allied country was involved. While alliances are often based on expediency, friendships depend on trust. The Pollard case inevitably diminishes that trust.

A lot of appalled Israelis, in and out of government, have waxed eloquent on the self-wounding stupidity of Israel’s conduct. We see to reason to challenge that assessment. The two countries have a longstanding agreement not to spy on each other. No doubt the boundaries of that agreement have been blurred on both sides when it comes to such things as electronic intelligence-gathering or encouraging loose-lipped political or strategic gossip. The rules of the no-spying agreement may be mushy at the margins, but there is nothing marginal about what Pollard is accused of doing.

The FBI says that Pollard started supplying Israel with classified information in May, 1984, and continued until his arrest. The alleged espionage thus spans two Israeli administrations, leading to the not-unreasonable conclusion that leaders in both the previous Likud government and the current coalition headed by Labor bear direct or indirect responsibility for what went on. If Israel had a rational political system that would spare such bitter enemies as Likud and Labor from having to share power, then responsibility for this blunder would probably have been established by now and political penalties exacted. As it is, the incentive of top Labor and Likud leaders is to protect each other, and in so doing protect themselves and their unnatural coalition.

Israel has promised again to cooperate with the United States in the Pollard investigation. It will be remarkable indeed if that cooperation includes revealing just who in the top echelons knew what, and when.