As ambivalent as the Israeli government was from the beginning of Jonathan Jay Pollard's nightmare with American law, I don't think it's a secret that getting him released from prison and bringing him to Israel are far from the top of the Israeli Government's "wish list."
Pollard's lawyers are trying to arrange a release from jail by petitioning US President Obama.
Pollard's punishment has been totally unprecedented when taking into account that he gave information to an ally. He did not work for an enemy of the United States.
Over the twenty-five years he has been imprisoned, he and his second wife, Esther, have become the darlings of Israel's Right. Actually, it was former MK Geula Cohen of Techiya who was the very first Israeli official to champion his cause. Pollard's an intelligent man who worked with secret American security information before his arrest.
I have no doubt that Israel's Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu does not want an unmuzzled Jonathan Pollard in Israel. The classic children's story of The Emperor's New Clothes ends with the townspeople agreeing with the little boy who said that their ruler was stark naked. But in Israel, when someone on the Right points out the mistaken Leftist policies of the government, they are frequently jailed.
The proof's in the pudding, because after twenty-five years of difficult imprisonment, Pollard doesn't seem closer to release.
5 comments:
simplistic.
first, a country necessarily needs to abandon a caught spy [see: mission impossible].
second, pollard is far from a tzadik, as he spied for a number of other countries as well.
i only hope that the rz community will not be disappointed in him the way it was disappointed in gush katif.
third, the way you write make israel sound like soviet russia; i protest!
a, many of my neighbors raised in soviet russia see too many similarities.
Personally, I don't trust Pollard's nor his wife's judgement. But the US made a big mistake turning him into such a victim. For legal and humanitarian reasons he should have had been released a long time ago.
Batya, you came from America. Perhaps you can clue in Anonymous to the fact that "Mission Impossible" was just a television show. If we're going to derive our national policies on the basis of LaLaLand fantasies, oy lanu!
Israel didn't abandon Azzam Azzam. Why should she abandon Yehonatan?
"Mission Imposible?" I can never get out of my mind how the Israeli dimplomats turned Pollard away when he was trying to find shelter. Israel sent Pollard to American jail.
Anonymous said...
second, pollard is far from a tzadik, as he spied for a number of other countries as well.
---------------------------------
Lie alert.
Post a Comment