Peres says he'll make appeal to Obama for Pollard release

By HILARY LEILA KRIEGER, JPOST CORRESPONDENT

06/11/2012 22:00

http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=273476

WASHINGTON -- President Shimon Peres will appeal to US President Barack
Obama on behalf of convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard on "humanitarian"
grounds, he said soon after his arrival in Washington Monday.

Peres said he will raise the issue of a pardon in a private meeting with
Obama that will part of the multiple days of events scheduled to celebrate
his being honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Peres was scheduled to begin his visit with a ceremony receiving him at the
Pentagon later on Monday.

Peres has already made an appeal on behalf of Pollard, a former US Navy
analyst who has served more than 25 years of his life sentence and is in ill
health. A bevy of prominent Israelis have lent their names to a
70,000-signature petition asking that he be pardoned.

Speaking to reporters briefly from Blair House, the official White House
guest residence at which he is staying, Peres said that as a president
himself who has the ability to grant pardons, he understands the many
concerns they raise. He would not speculate on how Obama was likely to
respond to the appeal.

Peres also harshly condemned the anti-Semitic graffiti found at Yad Vashem
on Monday, calling it "horrifying."

"There are limits to criticism," he said. "All people must stand as one,
unequivocally, against this phenomenon."

Peres will participate in a conversation with US Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton at the Saban Center of the Brookings Institution on Tuesday before
being feted at a White House dinner in his honor on Wednesday night. He
returns to Israel on Thursday evening