Pollard Spy Figure Quits Israeli Post : Col. Sella Cites U.S. Controversy Over Promotion

The Israeli air force officer who was indicted in the United States this month as a conspirator in the Jonathan Jay Pollard spy scandal resigned his prestigious command of Israel’s second largest air base Sunday.

The surprise action came just 30 days after Col. Aviem Sella, a much-decorated pilot, was put in charge of the Tel Nof base. The promotion had angered the Reagan Administration and raised doubts in the United States over Israel’s sincerity in apologizing for the Pollard affair.

The colonel reputedly had a role in recruiting Pollard, a former U.S. Navy intelligence analyst convicted March 4 of spying on behalf of Israel.

‘Personal’ Decision

Sella said his decision to resign was “personal and independently made” and that it was based on “the deterioration in Israel-U.S. relations and my concern for the future of ties between the two countries and for relations with American Jewry.”

While his resignation deals with one of the principal irritants afflicting U.S.-Israeli relations as a result of the Pollard affair, it is not expected to influence two continuing Israeli investigations into the case.

“I don’t think it will be accepted in the States as an answer to the issue,” commented one government official. “His resignation only enhances the need to come up with conclusions and not the opposite. Answers should be found.”

Israel still maintains officially that Pollard was part of an unauthorized, “rogue” espionage operation that violated government policy against spying in the United States.

‘Lies, Whitewashing’

However, a parliamentary subcommittee investigating the affair has reportedly uncovered evidence of “lies, contradictions, and whitewashing” that casts doubt on the official explanation.

A second investigating committee, named by the Cabinet, is also looking into the case.

After Sella’s resignation was made public, Israeli radio quoted an unnamed, high-ranking air force officer as saying that the colonel had “set a norm for his commanders and for other people who were involved in the Pollard affair.”

Education Minister Yitzhak Navon, who also serves as deputy prime minister, said that “Sella did a noble thing and opened the way for improvement of relations with the United States.”

Pollard was sentenced to life imprisonment March 4 for passing hundreds of top-secret American military documents to Israel. He reportedly sought out the Israelis in the spring of 1984 and spied on behalf of a shadowy intelligence unit, known by its Hebrew acronym as Lekem, until his arrest outside the Israeli Embassy in November, 1985.

Sella, who was on a study leave in the United States at the time, was reputedly Pollard’s first “handler” and the man who put the Navy analyst in touch with Lekem operatives.

According to U.S. investigators, Israel reneged on its pledge of full cooperation after Pollard’s arrest by concealing Sella’s role. His identity emerged only later through Pollard’s own testimony.

Questioning Stymied

The American investigators still want to question Sella but have been unable to reach an agreement with him and with the Israeli government on ground rules for such an encounter.

According to Israeli officials, Sella has said he would testify if he was granted the same immunity from prosecution that was extended to three other Israelis already questioned in the case. However, this offer has been rejected by Washington.

Sella’s promotion to the Tel Nof command came just four days before he was indicted by a federal grand jury in Washington. The day after that, Pollard, who had previously pleaded guilty to spying, was sentenced to life, and his wife was sentenced to five years in jail on a lesser charge of possessing stolen documents.

The combination of Sella’s promotion and statements by top American officials suggesting that the damage the spying did to U.S. national security was much worse than originally indicated resulted in a serious crisis of American-Israeli relations.

Orders to Boycott Base

News of Sella’s promotion prompted Washington to order its officials in Israel to have nothing to do with the colonel, socially or otherwise, in his role as air base commander and to boycott the base as a landing site for U.S. aircraft.

Leaders of several American Jewish organizations who visited Israel this month sharply criticized Israel’s handling of the affair and urged that both Sella and former Lekem chief Rafi Eitan be removed from their positions. Eitan was named head of the giant, state-owned Israel Chemicals Co. last year.

Sella had been depicted in the Israeli media as resisting suggestions that he resign. But in a letter to air force Cmdr. Amos Lapidot, requesting release from his Tel Nof duties, Sella said he had offered his resignation weeks ago.

According to a text released Sunday night by the government press office, Sella told Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin at the time he ratified the officer’s appointment as Tel Nof commander that “should my appointment constitute an obstacle of any kind, I would put the country’s interests above my own and resign my post.”

‘Flooded With Appeals’

According to his letter, Sella was “flooded with appeals from subordinates, from superiors, from colleagues both inside and outside the air force, from the public at large and even from American citizens expressing support and identification with me and beseeching me to continue in my present post. To my regret I shall not be able to comply with these requests.”

The letter made only an indirect reference to details of Sella’s involvement in the Pollard affair. He said that the circumstances of the case were well known and that it was unnecessary to repeat them, adding: “Had the facts been the only consideration I would not have drawn the conclusion which I reached.”

Sella called his decision a source of “profound sorrow.” He said he had long desired the Tel Nof job, which he called “a post which is the dream of any commander in the air force.”

The government announced that both Chief of Staff Moshe Levy and Rabin have approved Sella’s resignation request. Levy simultaneously expressed his “high regard” for the officer, who will continue to serve in some other unspecified job in the air force.

Lekem, the intelligence unit through which Pollard operated, falls organizationally within the Defense Ministry. According to press reports here, Rabin has been under particularly intensive questioning by the subcommittee on intelligence of the Knesset (Parliament) Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

It has also been reported here that both Lapidot and Levy knew of Sella’s work for Lekem chief Eitan.