It's really hard to comprehend that for twenty-five years Jonathan J. Pollard has been in an American jail, punished in an unprecedented way for a crime that is so hard to comprehend...
...giving information illegally to an ally.
Enemy spies don't get worse punishments, oops! except the Rosenbergs who were executed. Pollard and the Rosenbergs do have something in common. Yes, being Jewish.
When Pollard was arrested, my husband was working with/for then MK Geula Cohen. Geula was the first prominent Israeli to adopt Pollard and try to free him. My husband even visited him in jail. We were also in touch with Pollard's first wife Ann.
My kids grew up knowing that a chair at our Passover Seder was reserved for Pollard. But Pollard has never joined us. He's still in jail.
None of this makes any sense to me.
11 comments:
Twenty-five years for a non-violent "crime" makes no sense whatsoever.
Johnathan Pollard was a spy who got caught. Spies go to prison or get executed. It's called treason.
Stories like Pollard's only make it more difficult for American Jews to counter the accusations of dual loyalty that are enjoying a resurgence in popularity these days.
I think it's relevant to point out that this punishment is not exclusive to just Pollard.
Aldrich Ames? Life in prison.
John Anthony Walker? Life in prison.
Brian Patrick Regan? Life in prison.
America and Israel are allies, but they do not have any kind of mutual defense treaties (as America does with Germany or South Korea). Hence, they are not obliged to share top secret information that is not directly relevant to Israel with Israel, and passing along that information is a crime.
im more or less with bryan.
also, there are things which pollard can do/could have done to make his life easier. so my sympathy for him is limited.
spying on an ally is worse than spying on an enemy. it is like cheating on your wife, like treachery.
all this does not mean that israel, and jews worldwide, should ignore him. to the contrary, we should do what we can to get him out of jail.
why dont you have a chair for ron arad or gilad shalit? surely they are at least as deserving of a passover chair?
And I'm in the minority once again lol.
Oh, my, it never occorued to me that so many of my readers think that Pollard deserves to be jailed under the conditions he has been given.
a, we've had many others "seated" at our seder who were released by the USSR. Shalit was captured when my boys were already out of the IDF. They've been waiting for Pollard all their lives.
Bryan, your examples did things much worse than Pollard. What about the lesser sentences of the cuban spies? "Cubans Get Reduced Sentences for Spying in US" http://sweetness-light.com/archive/obama-doj-cuts-cuban-spies-sentences
Pollard violated the terms of nondisclosure agreements and plea deals. He could have cooperated fully and made his life easier, but he did not. He chose to open his big mouth (not very spy-like) and talk to the media.
He made his bed, now he must sleep in it. I have little sympathy for those whose suffering is self-inflicted.
As for the Cubans, I don't know enough about the case to comment, but if it's Obama catering to some loony leftist cause again, I'm not sure why it's an object of shock to anyone.
Bryan, early on in the case it was the US Government which didn't honor agreements. And then after Pollard's giving his second wife authority to negotiate things got more complicated. Also Israel fouled it up from day one.
Ignorance is no excuse.
If the point at which you left off learning anything about the Pollard Case ended with your contact with his first wife, whom he divorced more than 2 decades ago, it is no wonder that you do not understand. Your column is insipid at best. Time to update yourself. And your readers. Their comments are for the most part unbelievably ignorant and mean-spirited
Start here!
This is the latet post at www.jonathanpollard.org
25th Anniversary Review Series - Article #20:
Caspar's Ghost - Weinberger Memo Omits Key Involvement - by Edwin Black
Justice4JPnews - May 6, 2010
To mark Jonathan Pollard's 25th year in American captivity - which is also his 25th year of abandonment and betrayal by the government of Israel - J4JP will be reviewing some of the best-written, most informative, and most interesting articles, essays and information written about the case over the last two and a half decades.
This is article number 20 of the series, written by Edwin Black, an award-winning author and journalist, best known for his book "IBM and The Holocaust". This article, originally published in The Jewish Week [NY] in June of 2002, reports on Black's interview with former US Secretary of Defense, Caspar Weinberger (now deceased) following the publication of Weinberger's memoirs.
During the interview, Black presses Weinberger to explain why his memoirs do not mention Jonathan Pollard. After all, when Pollard was sentenced, Weinberger ranted and raved that Pollard was "the worst spy" in the history of the US!
Weinberger unabashedly responds that the Pollard case had really been a "minor matter" which had been exaggerated, blown out of all proportion to serve another agenda.
In the 8 years since this nugget of truth was made public by Weinberger, not a single American official or Jewish leader has had the moral integrity to act on this stunning revelation! Jonathan Pollard is still in prison after 25 long years, not because of what he did, but because his case was blown out of all proportion to serve another agenda!
A little additional history sheds a lot of light.
Earlier in the same year that Black interviewed Weinberger, Jonathan Pollard was very much on the journalist's mind. At that time, Black had been commissioned by the American Jewish Federations to write an apparent whitewash of the Pollard case for their newspapers. It would appear that such a whitewash was needed to relieve the pressure Jewish leaders were feeling from their constituents as a result of their callous indifference to Pollard's plight. Relying on his reputation as an award-winning investigative journalist, the Federation newspapers published Black's piece as if it were some stunning new analysis of the case. It was nothing of the sort.
Black's "analysis" minimized the injustice to Pollard, blamed the victim, and assured Jewish readers from coast to coast in America, that if Pollard will just sit still for another year or two, his lawyers will be able to clear up this whole "misunderstanding" and Pollard will be free in no time at all. American Jewish community leaders breathed a sigh of relief and shelved Pollard once again.
In the 8 years that have passed since then, Jewish leaders (with very few exceptions) have virtually ignored the Pollard case and written Pollard off as if he were already dead (G-d forbid). American congressmen and senators take their cue from the leaders. Their collective indifference is even more outrageous in light of Weinberger's admission - nearly a decade ago - that Pollard's sentence and the accusations leveled at him were out of all proportion to the actual offense he committed!
Twenty five years into a life sentence, Jonathan Pollard continues to rot in prison with no relief in sight.
* * *
READ THE REST of this article at http://www.jonathanpollard.org/2010/050610.htm
Jonathan Pollard runs his own case.
Batya, what a false and mean thing to say, that things got fouled up when Pollard gave his wife, Esther authority to negotiate for him.
What a lie! Jonathan Pollard runs his own affairs.
Jonathan's wife of more than 20 years is his voice on the outside,and his ability to work on the outside - without which he would have died long ago.
To run his own case Pollard communicates regularly with his lawyers, Jacques and Eliot Lauer, with his Rabbi and Mentor Pesach Lerner, with his Israeli attorneys, Larry Dub and Nitsana Darshan-Leitner and with a host of other people with whom he is very close. (I know! I am one of them.) He is in constant contact with HaRav Eliyahu's office to keep his beloved Rav (Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, shlita) updated. Pollard signs his legal filings and is responsible for all initiatives and undertakings. Your comments are false and misleading and they undermine Jonathan Pollard's fight for freedom. How long have you and your husband been doing that? Time to wise up or shut up.
David, Terry, I agree that Pollard should have had been released decades ago. Work on that angle.
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