Is OBAMA Ready To Make A Sacrifice For Peace? Release Jonathan Pollard!

Hat tip to Israel Matzav, who notes the following from IMRA:

IMRA understands that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu would have no problem getting his cabinet to approve a three month extension of the settlement construction freeze in exchange for the release of Jonathan Pollard. Just as important - if not more - none of the parties in the ruling coalition are expected to threaten to leave the government in the event that such a deal is implemented.

...President Obama can release Jonathan Pollard from prison (where he has already served several fold the sentence others have for similar offenses) with the stroke of a pen in a move that is not subject to either review or oversight.

The proposed Pollard-Freeze Extension exchange is probably the most straight forward test of an American administration's commitment to the peace process since the very start of Oslo.

A deal that requires no more than a thirty second phone call from Washington to set into motion.

Think of it. With all of the pressure that Obama and Hillary have publicly put on Israel in order to keep the allegedly successful Mideast peace talk going--now, instead of trying to get Abbas to concede something in return to make it easier for Netanyahu to sell the idea of an extended moratorium on the settlements, the power to make that extension happen is in Obama's hands.

Now we get to see if Obama is serious that the extension is necessary to make these talks work.

Another question, as IMRA notes, is whether J Street and the other American pro-peace groups will press Obama to make the sacrifice for peace to the same extent that they have been pressing Netanyahu till now--or is pressure just reserved for Israel.

See the comments on Israel Matzav

Technorati Tag: Mideast Peace Talks and Jonathan Pollard.