U.S.-Israeli Tension Persists Over Pollard Case

Israel and the United States are still involved in sometimes-tense negotiations on the conditions under which an American team will be permitted to question Israeli officials linked to the Jonathan J. Pollard spy case, informed sources said Thursday.

The sources said the American team is expected to arrive in Israel on Sunday or Monday and that it will be here for several days.

They said that although Israel acknowledges it was wrong to recruit an American to obtain classified U.S. information, Washington’s demands come close to being an affront to Israel’s national dignity.

They refused to specify what differences remain between the two sides, but reports from Washington suggest that Israel is resisting U.S. pressure to question the Israeli officials under oath.

Interview, Not Interrogation

“This is not an interrogation,” one Israeli source said. “This is an interview. And I don’t think you can put somebody under oath for an interview.”

Two of the three Israelis the Americans want to question had diplomatic status in the United States. They are Ilan Ravid, deputy science attache at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, and Yosef Yagur, a science attache with Israel’s mission in New York.

They reputedly served as contacts for Pollard, a U.S. Navy intelligence analyst, and were recalled the day after he was arrested outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington and charged with selling defense secrets to Israel.

Unprecedented Compromise

Israeli officials contend that in allowing American investigators to question the two, they have already agreed to an unprecedented compromise of the principle of diplomatic immunity.

Of the differences still separating the two governments, one source here said: “I would not describe them as arguments, but we are still in touch with the Administration to iron things out. As you know, it’s a complicated thing. There is no precedent for that kind of thing.”

The third Israeli official to be questioned is Rafael Eitan, who is said to be the head of the secret Israeli intelligence unit for which Pollard spied.

Israel has provided all three men with legal counsel, the sources said.

They said it is their understanding that the American team will be headed by State Department adviser Abraham D. Sofaer, who has been involved in negotiating the terms of the team’s visit.

On the other hand, an American official in Washington said Wednesday that Joseph DiGenova, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, is likely to head the delegation.

The Israeli sources said the American team will include “some people from the State Department, some from the FBI and some others; it’s quite a delegation.”

They said the meetings between the American team and the three Israeli officials will be on unspecified “neutral ground.” Israel is believed to have rejected an American suggestion that the questioning be carried out at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, and Washington apparently refused to have the meetings in the Foreign Ministry.

Also unresolved is the question of how to handle the press. Israel would like to keep press coverage of the American team’s visit to a minimum, and some officials are known to be urging that the meeting place be kept secret.

The Pollard affair appears to have added new strains to day-to-day contacts between the two countries. Davar, the newspaper of the Histadrut Trade Union Federation, reported from Washington on Thursday that the State Department’s intelligence and research section had canceled routine contacts with Israeli diplomats Wednesday in “a clear gesture of displeasure over the Pollard affair.”