
Nobody plays desperation politics like the secretary of state. He wants to keep the "peace process," so-called, alive if never well, and like a desperate gambler, keeps making bad bets to cover his losses until there's no more room in the casino's safe for his growing stack of IOUs.
With the Palestinians up to their usual game, making further demands with each concession from Israel and the West, threatening to walk away from the oldest established permanent floating poker game anywhere, Mr. Kerry apparently persuaded President Obama to let him throw in the ace.
He's eager to keep the talks going when neither the Israelis nor the Palestinians think there's much point in processing more peace and cheese. He's even willing to set free an infamous prisoner serving life for betraying his country.
Jonathan Pollard is an American citizen who was a high-clearance analyst in U.S. Navy intelligence and who sold American security secrets to Israel and thought to have been passed on to unfriendly hands. He sold them not for his convictions, but for cash. He got $50,000 with promises for more, perhaps as much as $600,000 more. He has been in prison for 29 years and is eligible for parole next year.
Nevertheless, he has become a hero to some Israelis, enough of them that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli politicians support the well-organized free-Pollard movement. There's no accounting for taste, of course. Some people lionize Pollard as a national hero, patriots in other places celebrate the likes of Paul Revere and Patrick Henry.
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