Undated photo of Ben-Ami Kadish. Photo courtesy NJJN.
April 22, 2008
The arrest this week of a retired Monroe man on charges of transmitting classified information to Israel two decades ago shows how the Jonathan Pollard spy case continues to haunt the U.S.-Israel relationship.
Ben-Ami Kadish, a former U.S. Army engineer, was scheduled to appear Tuesday in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan. He is facing four counts of conspiracy to share classified information with Israel.
From 1979 to 1985, Kadish allegedly “borrowed” documents from the library of the Picatinny Arsenal Army facility in Dover, NJ, where he was employed and shared them with the science affairs consul at the Israeli consulate in New York.
The Justice Department says the documents included information on nuclear weaponry and plans for upgrading the F-15 combat aircraft. Kadish allegedly told FBI agents that he shared the documents to help Israel and was not paid by Israel for his services.
The science affairs consul is not named in the Justice Department’s complaint sheet, but an archival search reveals him to be Yosef Yagur. The complaint sheet notes that “co-conspirator-1” — Yagur, who is not charged — also received information from Pollard.
Israel recalled Yagur and his Washington counterpart, Ilan Ravid, in November 1985 to avoid their involvement in the Pollard investigation.
The Pollard case for a short time devastated U.S.-Israel relations. In its aftermath, Israel swore never to run a spy again, and Americans broadened their information sharing with Israel to keep the Israelis from temptation.
This week’s arrest of Kadish raises the question of why U.S. federal authorities are still pursuing Pollard-related leads more than 20 years after the fact.
Pollard, a civilian U.S. Navy analyst, was sentenced to life in prison in 1987 after pleading guilty to the spy charges.
Yagur on Tuesday refused to answer reporters’ questions. Israeli officials said they knew nothing of the case. Officials at Israel’s consulate in New York declined to comment.
Pollard’s wife, Esther, told NJJN that there was no connection between Kadish and her husband. She said she was concerned that the new case could result in a further delay in Jonathan’s release from prison.
“When Chinese spies are caught, there is no connection between one spy and another,” Esther Pollard said. “This kind of propaganda plays right into the hands to the people in Israel who are not interested in Jonathan being released.”
She called on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert “not be distracted by this case from what he should be doing — bringing Jonathan home.” She said she was concerned that Olmert could decide that it was now “too delicate a time” to make a serious effort to bring Jonathan home in honor of Israel’s 60th birthday celebrations.
Officials in the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Defense Ministry, and Prime Minister’s Office said Tuesday that they had no connection to Kadish and no response to the story.
Seniors Affairs Minister Rafi Eitan, who operated Pollard, told NJJN he “did not know Ben-Ami Kaddish, did not recognize his name, and had no connection whatsoever to the story.”
30 to 100 documents
It is not clear from the complaint sheet filed Monday that Kadish was the original target of this investigation. The sheet notes that a grand jury subpoena was issued on March 21, a day after Kadish’s first interview with agents, but does not say whether the subpoena sought his testimony as a witness or as a target. In any case, detectives did not immediately serve the subpoena.
Instead, the complaint sheet says that at the March 20 interview, federal agents presented Kadish with evidence that he shared 30 to 100 documents with Yagur between 1979 and 1985. Kadish allegedly first met Yagur in the 1970s when Yagur was employed by Israel Aircraft Industries. They were introduced by Kadish’s brother, also employed by IAI, the complaint sheet says.
At that meeting, Kadish acknowledged sharing some of the documents with Yagur, the complaint sheet says, and acknowledged that he did not have the authority to share such documents.
That evening, Yagur allegedly phoned Kadish and implored him not to cooperate. The complaint sheet says that in a conversation in Hebrew, Yagur said, “Don’t say anything. Let them say whatever they want.” He also said, “What happened 25 years ago? You didn’t remember anything.”
The next day, Kadish allegedly downplayed his ties to Yagur in a second interview with FBI agents. He said that over the years the two had maintained nothing more than a social relationship, with phone calls, e-mails, and occasional visits; Kadish and Yagur had met in Israel in 2004.
More crucial, Kadish allegedly denied having been in touch with Yagur the previous evening. That alleged lie could prove critical to Kadish’s prosecution: It allows prosecutors to expand the conspiracy from 1985 to March 20 of this year, when Yagur allegedly urged Kadish to lie. There is a 10-year statute of limitations on the crimes outlined in the complaint sheet. Without the alleged lie, the government’s case would be flimsy.
A Sukka bash
Kadish has remained active in the Jewish community since his retirement, particularly at the Jewish Federation of Greater Middlesex County.
Federation executive director Gerrie Bamira released a statement about Kadish. “Information is still being gathered in regard to this case and we look forward to the due process of the law,” she said. “Information is still being gathered with regard to this case and we look forward to due process of the law. We maintain our belief that individuals are innocent until proven guilty. Ben-Ami Kadish and his wife have, in recent years, been supportive of the Jewish Federation and our work in the community.”
Jeffrey Lampl, executive director of the Jewish Family & Vocational Service of Middlesex County, said the organization’s records also indicate that the Ben-Amis volunteered for its annual Passover food drive. However, he has been unable to find anyone at JFVS who knew them.
“Unlike some others, we’re not trying to avoid talking to anyone,” said Lampl. “We really don’t know anything about them.”
The couple belonged to the Jewish Congregation of Concordia, whose members live in the many heavily Jewish adult communities of Monroe. Synagogue officials declined to comment.
All three institutions reported they had been inundated April 22 with calls from news media from the U.S. and Israel — as was NJJN — as a result of a 2006 story about a fundraiser for Jewish causes Kadish and his wife hosted at their balcony sukka that year.
According to that article, Ben-Ami grew up in what was then Palestine and fought with the Hagana, the underground military organization that operated from 1920 to 1948. He also served in both the British and American military during World War II and is an ex-commander of the Jewish War Veterans Post 609 in Monroe.
“We do a lot of things Jewishly,” said Doris Kadish. Their Sukkot gatherings, she said, are “really quite exhausting, but it’s so rewarding... I know I’ve done something for the community.”
Story written by JTA staff writer Ron Kampeas with reporting by Ben Harris in New York, NJJN staff writer Debra Rubin in Middlesex County, and NJJN Israel Correspondent Gil Hoffman in Jerusalem.
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