The Nation - News from March 2, 1987

The United States has told Israel it views with gravity the promotion of an Israeli air force colonel who recruited an American to spy, Israeli defense sources said. They said that as a result of pressure from Washington, Col. Aviem Sella, a decorated fighter pilot, had not been given the rank of brigadier general when he was promoted to commander of the country’s second largest air base recently. A U.S. Embassy official, asked to comment, said the United States “regards Sella as a serious problem in relations.� Sella was found by a Washington court to have recruited U.S. Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Jay Pollard to pass top secret documents to Israel. Pollard, who has confessed to spying for Israel, is due to be sentenced this week.