Israel: Shades of Ollie North

Throughout the tense period last year when two Americans were on trial for selling U.S. secrets to Israel, officials in Jerusalem never wavered from what the U.S. considered an incredible story. The spy ring that included Jonathan and Anne Pollard had been a “rogue operation,” the Israelis insisted, run without the knowledge of top government officials. The ring’s mastermind, Rafi Eitan, who later became head of Israel’s largest state-owned company, had never publicly contradicted the official line.

Last week he did. In statements that echoed the recent pronouncements of a certain Lieut. Colonel Oliver North, Eitan maintained that he had done nothing in the Pollard operation without the direction of his superiors. “In all my activities, I did not act without approval,” he said on a radio show. In a separate newspaper interview, Eitan asked, “Do the people responsible appreciate the fact that I agreed to assume the responsibility?” If so, they are not saying so. Israeli officials had no comment.