Director of Rich foundation defends pardon

Azulay

From CNN Cairo Bureau Chief Ben Wedeman

TEL AVIV, Israel (CNN) -- Avner Azulay has friends in high places -- friends in the United States and Israel who lent their support for the effort to win a presidential pardon for fugitive financier Marc Rich.

A former Mossad agent and the managing director of Rich's charitable foundation, Azulay collected letters and testimonials from prominent Israeli, European and Americans praising Rich, and sent them to then-U.S. President Bill Clinton.

"We asked for help through normal channels," Azulay told CNN in his first interview since the Rich pardon. "They considered the case, they saw the man had a lot of merits, it had a lot of merits to the case, and if they helped, and they did, there is no problem with that, I don't see any problem with that."

Azulay explained that Rich "has been helping the Jewish people and Israel for many, many years in humanitarian causes, and helping with all he can do, not only his money, also with his connections when they were necessary. And what he was asking for was the help to support his plea for pardon so he could visit his daughter's grave, he could visit his father's grave, he could visit his family in New York."

But for many Israeli and Jewish American leaders, there is a problem.

They say Jonathan Pollard, behind bars for passing highly sensitive U.S. military secrets to Israel, was far more deserving of a presidential pardon.

Others, including Jewish-American leaders visiting Jerusalem, accuse former President Clinton of shifting the blame for the pardon to Israel in his recent op-ed article in the New York Times.

"We feel that he shouldn't have used Israel. This is a legal question, and Marc Rich was someone on America's 10 most wanted" list, said Ron Lauder, chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American-Jewish Organizations. Lauder spoke during a recent visit to Jerusalem.

Until the controversy flared over the Rich pardon, Clinton enjoyed excellent ties with Jewish-American leaders.

Azulay is puzzled by the angry reaction in the United States to the Rich pardon. "I think the hate for Mr. Clinton, which I think is one of the best presidents the United States has ever had in the last years, and the good that he has done to Israel and the Jewish people, I can't understand the uproar, I simply can't put it in logical terms."

While still a fugitive, Rich was no longer on the most wanted list at the time of his pardon.

To Israelis he was a generous donor to a variety of social and cultural institutions. In January, Prime Minister Ehud Barak publicly thanked Rich for his support of Birthright Israel, a program designed to bring young American Jews to Israel to familiarize them with the country.

Rich helped finance a new wing of the Tel Aviv art museum, named after his daughter, who died of leukemia. The museum didn't ask too many questions about the money.

"It's not a person's history or anything about them," said Janet Inbar, the museum's fund-raising official. "But it's their interests as they dovetail with what the museum is looking for."

Using contacts developed in the course of his extensive business dealings, Rich also played a part in helping Jews leave Ethiopia, Iran, the former Soviet Union and Yemen. With this in mind, say supporters, Rich deserved the pardon.

"Israel owes him," said Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert. "Those people who are familiar with the facts, we felt that we owe him and that's why we signed this request." Olmert wrote directly to Clinton appealing for Rich's pardon.

Despite the uproar over the pardon in the United States, few people in Israel expect it to have any impact on U.S.-Israel ties.

"It's a stain, it's a blot, it's unpleasant," said Israeli analyst Joseph Alpher. "I don't think it's going to have any long-term impact on the ongoing Israeli-American relationship."

And beyond that relationship, most Israelis are focused on more pressing problems closer to home. Israelis are focused on the attempts by Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon to form a national unity government, on the Palestinian intifada, on a peace process in peril. For most Israelis, the controversy over the Rich pardon is a tempest in a very distant teapot.

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