Bush Shakes Hand With An Enemy Of America

JERUSALEM (AFP) — US President George W. Bush on Thursday shook the hand of an Israeli minister barred from entering the United States over his role in a high-profile spy case at an official dinner party.

Bush, together with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and top White House officials all met with Pensioners Affairs Minister Rafi Eitan at a dinner party hosted by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in his Jerusalem residence, according to TV footage.

All the top ministers in Olmert's coalition government were also present at the event.

Olmert introduced Eitan to the president, although they were not shown talking. Eitan was then seen shaking hands with Rice alongside Defence Minister Ehud Barak.

The president will on Thursday end a three-day visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories aimed at boosting the Middle East peace talks that were relaunched last November.

Eitan, a member of Israel's security cabinet, was the old Mossad handler for Jonathan Pollard, an American Jew sentenced to life in prison for spying on Israel.

Pollard had passed thousands of secret documents about US spy activities in the Arab world to Israel between May 1984 and his arrest in November 1985.

The issue of Pollard, a US-born Jew who has taken Israeli citizenship while in prison, has been a thorn in the side of relations between Israel and its main ally Washington for years.

At the time of the affair, Eitan was head of the Bureau of Scientific Relations, an Israeli secret service which was later broken up.

When he was found out, Pollard sought the protection of the Israeli embassy in Washington, but was refused access and later arrested by the FBI.

Israel's Trade and Industry Minister Eli Yishai said he intended to petition Bush during his visit for the release of Pollard, considered a national hero by most Israelis.

Israel has repeatedly tried in vain to secure Pollard's release.

Pollard's wife Esther told the Jerusalem Post that her husband was "shocked and disgusted" by the fact that Eitan was invited to the president's dinner while he sat in jail.