The White House on Monday rejected Israeli President Shimon Peres's
personal appeal to commute convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard's
life sentence.
"Our position hasn't changed," National Security Council spokesman
Tommy Vietor said in an email to Yahoo. Asked whether the White
House had received Peres's written plea to President Barack Obama for
clemency, Vietor said he was not sure "but the position is the same."
Obama had rejected a January 2011 request from Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu to free Pollard, a former U.S. Navy intelligence
analyst convicted in 1985 of passing classified information to Israel.
Netanyahu's appeal was the first such plea in public, and it drew
support from most of Israel's parliament, the Knesset.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported
that Peres had based his appeal on Pollard's deteriorating health, and
mentioned a recent conversation with Pollard's wife Esther Pollard.
"The president sent the missive after receiving a petition signed by 80
MKs, urging Obama to release the Jewish spy, as well as intense
pressure from the lobby working to secure Pollard's release ahead of
Peres' White House visit planned for June." That's when Peres is slated
to receive the highest U.S. civilian award, the Presidential Medal of
Freedom, though he has come under pressure from Pollard supporters to
reject it unless Pollard goes free.