President Bush Pardons Man Who Assisted Israel in Wartime

As the media waits anxiously to find out about the list of pardons that will be granted by outgoing President George Bush, an unexpected name came out yesterday in a group of 19 pardons that were signed by the president. That pardon, awarded posthumously to a man considered a hero in Israel, was granted to Charles Winters, a Miami businessman who broke the law in the process of supplying airplanes to Jews fighting in the 1948 war of independence.

Jim Winters, Charles’ son, learned of his father’s missions and eventual imprisonment after the elder Winters’ death in 1984. Speaking of the pardon granted by the outgoing president, Jim noted, "I’m overwhelmed. It happened 16 years before I was born. He went to jail and he didn’t want his kids to know. He was old-school and proud." In an obituary that ran in the Miami Herald for the elder Winters, a blurb read "Charles Winters, 71, aided birth of Israel."

The pardon, urged by New York Representatives Carolyn Maloney, Gary Ackerman, Jose Serrano and Brian Higgins in a December 15 letter to the president, was hailed by the representatives, as was Winters himself. "He and other volunteers from around the world defied weapons embargoes to supply the newly established Israel with critical supplies to defend itself against mounting attacks from all side, noted the letter. The letter went on to read, "Without the actions of individuals like Mr. Winters, this fledgling democracy in the Middle East almost certainly would not have survived as the surrounding nations closed in on Israel’s borders."