THE SPY WHO LOVED ISRAEL -- AND BETRAYED THE U.S.

Here's a surprise: Bill Clinton is looking for some wiggle room. When, you might ask, isn't he? But this is not about impeachment or Monica or campaign finance or even about trying to get into last year's jeans. This is about one Jonathan Pollard, a convicted spy doing life in a federal pen.

Pollard is probably not as famous a practitioner of the black art of espionage as, say, Aldrich Ames, who could very well have been the dumbest dishonorable schoolboy that America ever produced. But Pollard is not without superlatives. During the 18 months that this Navy intelligence analyst was spying, it is estimated that he stole more documents -- pound for pound -- than probably any traitor in U.S. history.

From all accounts, it wasn't just verbiage, either. Pollard brought his handlers thousands of pages of ultra-sensitive documents -- including many dealing with Soviet weapons systems. He pleaded guilty in 1987 and was sentenced to life in prison.

For most spies, that would be that, the government having essentially said: You were put in one of the highest positions of trust by your country. You betrayed your country. Now you will not live free in your country. But if only the case of Jonathan Pollard were that simple.

Pollard was a spy for Israel. Our ally, our friend, often our soulmate, and always the recipient of more American largesse than any other foreign nation. Bad enough that Israel was actually employing an American traitor to gather information. Bad enough that it has refused to give a full accounting of the documents that were stolen -- let alone agreed to return them. But now Israel has turned Pollard into a bargaining chip in the Mideast peace process.

Apparently, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been angling for Pollard's release for some time. Netanyahu really turned up the heat at the Wye River Conference in October. He argued so forcefully on Pollard's behalf that the issue was for all purposes on the table, according to a U.S. official. In fact, Pollard might be about to celebrate Hanukkah in Jerusalem if it were not for CIA Director George J. Tenet, who reportedly threatened to resign if Clinton agreed to let Israel bring its spy in from the deep freeze.

Now, in advance of his trip to Israel and Gaza later this month, President Clinton has asked Attorney General Janet Reno, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Defense Secretary William S. Cohen, and Tenet for their views on the Pollard case. He has also requested that the FBI, the National Security Agency, and the Defense Intelligence Agency take part in the review. Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle.

A majority could conclude that Pollard was spying for a friendly power and should be freed as a gesture that might help advance the cause of peace in the Mideast. That would get Tenet off the hook with the intelligence community, which is said to fiercely oppose clemency for Pollard.

And what would be the harm, you might ask? Jonathan didn't mean to hurt anyone. He just wanted to be sure Israel had the best information possible. O.K., so he got some cash and junkets and jewels. A spy's gotta eat, and it's not like he was handing files over to Osama bin Laden or Slobodan Milosevic.

Maybe not. But there's one fact that Bill Clinton will have a hard time weaseling past on his way to unlocking Pollard's cell door. If you betray the United States by spying for a foreign power, the name of the country that benefits from the information is largely irrelevant. The operative word is betrayal. Match it with the word America, and you should be looking at a long stretch of hard time, brother. Not any longer than the next spy. But not any shorter, either.

Scotti, a Business Week senior editor for government and sports business, offers his views every Tuesday for BW Online

EDITED BY DOUGLAS HARBRECHT