Arab Terrorist Prisoner Hunger Strike, Who Won?

While Israeli Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan keeps claiming that the Arab terrorist prisoners didn't gain anything from their hunger strike, the Arabs claim otherwise.

PA officials are claiming victory, stating that the hunger strike was successful in meeting their demands, while the Prisons Service said there was no negotiation, and that none of the prisoners’ demands were met apart from the visitations.
Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan also disputed the Palestinian officials’ statements, telling Channel 2 “there is absolutely no pledge to grant” any of the other prisoner demands. (Jerusalem Post)

It is hard to admit, but considering the leaked details, the Arab version may be more accurate.  Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu loves to play games with words and terms, and Erdan is his protege. They'll both claim that the conclusion/agreement gives no appreciable improvement in conditions.

The terrorists got themselves their usual good publicity, because the international bodies and media support them. The State of Israel should have reduced their cushy conditions to what other countries give convicted terrorists. And their leader Barghouti should be held under conditions like those the United States put on Jonathan Pollard. And we should make it clear that we are just following the American precedent. It should also be stressed that nothing Pollard did is a fraction of the seriousness of Barghouti's crimes and continued vicious incitement against the State of Israel.

And what happened to the Israeli demands on Hamas for the bodies of our soldiers? Every single time the Arab terrorists make demands on us, we should make it clear that the convicted terrorist prisoners will get get fewer privileges until our IDF soldier bodies are returned.

Shiloh Cemetery

Antisemitism- Are we Paranoid or Pragmatic?

There are those of us who see and feel antisemitism as the underlying source of numerous/all acts against Israel and Jewish People all over the world.

And we also see many people who deny their antisemitism as antisemites. Their antipathy to Jews and Israel is so natural, ingrained and rationalized that they honestly don't realize the actual source.

• Can the illogical disproportionately huge amount of United Nations and Security Council resolutions and papers against Israel have any source other than antisemitism? 
• Can the unprecedentedly severe punishment and continued punishment of Jonathan Jay Pollard have any rationale besides antisemitism?
• Can the acceptance by the world of Nazi Holocaust/extermination of European Jewry have any cause other than antisemitism? Please remember that the war against the Nazis was to stop its political takeover of Europe and Great Britain, not to stop the systematic murders. 
• Can the Inquisition or the Crusaders invasion and pillaging of the Holy Land have any cause other than antisemitism?
• Can the pressure on Israel to rollback its miraculous victory in the war for survival, June, 1967 Six Days War, be anything other than antisemitism?

I can go on and on. What examples can you think of? Please comment, thanks.

Jonathan Jay Pollard -- A Greek Tragedy

I see the Jonathan Jay Pollard story as a classic Greek Tragedy not yet complete.

A drama or literary work in which the main character is brought to ruin or suffers extreme sorrow, especially as a consequence of a tragic flaw, moral weakness, or inability to cope with unfavorable circumstances. (The Free Dictionary)

"Lytras nikiforos antigone polynices" by Nikiphoros Lytras 

I studied "World Drama" as my English requirement in my senior year of high school. I really enjoyed it, especially some of the Greek Drama. My favorite was Antigone. I loved the idea that she was fighting for an important religious principle, the ritual burial of her brother. Considering that at the same time, I was struggling to find ways to be a Torah observant Jew, while living in a very non-observant world, Antigone's struggles and principles seemed very easy to identify with. I wonder if Jonathan Jay Pollard considered his attempts to help the State of Israel as Antigone-like, too.

There are five acts in Greek Tragedy.

StoryboardThat

The Jewish Journal's Jonathan Pollard timeline very eerily fits the bill:

1979 Pollard is hired as a naval intelligence analyst.
1984 Pollard meets an Israeli intelligence officer and soon begins to sell him information.
1985 After attempting to gain asylum through the Israeli embassy in
Washington, D.C., Pollard is arrested.
1987 Pollard pleads guilty to spying and is sentenced to life in prison. and
1998 Israel admits Pollard acted as an agent on its behalf.
2015 A federal panel grants Pollard parole.

I see the timeline, especially as Greek Tragedy a bit differently. What do you think?

• Act I Prologue: Jonathan Jay Pollard, idealistic Jewish American Zionist gets sensitive job as naval intelligence analyst for the United States Government.
• Act II Conflict: Pollard sees data he is convinced should be transferred to the Israeli Government. He contacts the Israeli Government and is paid for his services.
• Act III Rising Action-Climax: The Americans are aware of Pollard's actions; Pollard and his wife Anne flee to Israeli Embassy. Israel allows the Americans to arrest them. The Pollards are both convicted. 
• Act IV Falling Action: Jonathan Jay Pollard is given an unprecedentedly long and difficult jail term for such a crime. He divorces Anne, who after serving her sentence moves to Israel. A woman named Esther aka Elaine Zeitz makes contact with Pollard and convinces him that only she and not his family and original supporters can be relied on. According to her, they are married by Jewish Law. Since then, she has taken control of his case.
• Act V Denouement: After thirty years in prison, Pollard is paroled under severe restrictions. 

Pollard is basically in what can be called a glorified house arrest. Just like serial pedophiles, the prison authorities have set him up with tracking devices and he cannot go far from the home that was found for him. He is also forbidden to give interviews etc. Now, to be perfectly honest, I don't know who's more afraid of him, the Americans or the Israelis. Any sensitive security information he may remember from his work has no real value today. So I can't see what the Americans are so afraid of. And considering how the Israeli authorities rather immorally left him  to the dogs, I'd say that the Prime Minister at the time, Shimon Peres and his handler Rafi Eitan, are the ones who prefer him to be muzzled.

This is a sad and tragic story, which is not yet over.

Jonathan Jay Pollard- Glorified House Arrest

Convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard (C), who was released from a U.S. federal prison in North Carolina overnight, leaves U.S. District court with his wife, Elaine Zeitz, in the Manhattan borough of New York, November 20, 2015.

Reuters/Lucas Jackson

Read more at Reutershttp://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/20/us-israel-usa-pollard-idUSKCN0T910O20151120#sWxByPuTgVmcekpP.99

I consider it very difficult to sincerely celebrate the "release" of Jonathan Jay Pollard from American prison, since he is still a prisoner. The only differences are that his prison is larger, more open and he can have home-cooked food.

Pollard was not set completely free, so he still has to check in regularly with a parole officer and can be returned to prison for poor behavior. He is not permitted to leave the United States for five years, to give interviews. Pollard is required to wear an electronic bracelet at all times for GPS tracking of his whereabouts and to be subject to unfettered monitoring and inspection of his computers as well as those of any employer who chooses to hire him......The lawyers wrote that the conditions were illegal, because they violate a federal statute, federal regulations, and the constitution, which strictly constrain the imposition of conditions on parolees. They said monitoring and tracking conditions imposed on Pollard were most commonly imposed on pedophiles, stalkers and similarly dangerous felons who must be closely supervised at all times for the protection of their victims. (Jerusalem Post)

The unprecedented and continued punishment of Pollard can only be attributed to the fact that he's Jewish and gave security information to Israel, which is and has been since before the time of his crime American's official ally. Now, compare Pollard's treatment with the warm embrace United States President Barack Hussein Obama is offering the Arab Muslim refugees sic from Syria and other Arab countries...

Jews, come home to Israel!!

Kerry and Pollard, Bad Combination

Headlines here in the Israeli and Jewish press mention a lot about United States Secretary of State John Kerry and unprecedentedly long-time Jewish American prisoner Jonathan Jay Pollard. They aren't mixed in the individual headlines, but they're sharing the front pages.

Obama seems to have given Kerry the thankless job of threatening Israel. After the faux reassurances of Obama that his "deal" with Iran wouldn't harm Israel, Kerry has a different message:

Kerry Threatens Israel with Isolation if Iran Deal CollapsesIn an interview to NBC, quoted by Reuters, US Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday said a unilateral Israeli military attack on Iran would be "an enormous mistake," as tension between Jerusalem and Washington continues to rise over the nuclear deal achieved last week between Iran and six world powers. (Jerusalem Online)

photo credit:MARC ISRAEL SELLEM

And unlike the Esther Pollard camp that has been hinting that they expect Pollard to be released on parole after his thirty 30 years in prison are up, I agree with his ex-wife Anne Henderson Pollard that it does not look good for Pollard's chance of parole," though she sincerely hopes that he'll be released after all these years. Click for interview on Channel 2 with Anne Pollard.

The Pollards’ sentencing took place on March 4, 1987. The prosecutor, in accord with a plea agreement, recommended that Pollard receive “only a substantial number of years in prison,” Judge Aubrey Robinson, Jr., noting that Pollard had violated many conditions of the plea agreement, and citing a damage assessment memorandum from the Secretary of Defense, imposed a life sentence.
Anne Pollard was sentenced to five years, but was paroled after three and a half years over health problems. Jonathan filed for divorce after Anne’s release, saying that since he expected to be jailed for the remainder of his life, he did not want Anne to be bound to him. At the end of her parole period, Anne emigrated to Israel. (Jewish Press)

Especially considering that the Esther Pollard group has consistently mismanaged the case, the chance of Jonathan Pollard being released on parole is poor.

I see a connection between these two issues, Iran and Pollard. My favorite political cartoonist dry bones drew it perfectly in these two cartoons.

Israel would be treated much better aka respected by the United States of we would stop trying to appease them and just do what's best for us. And if/when they complain, just tell them to !!#$%!! it. That's what Cuba, Iran, Syria etc. have done very successfully. And if we had just supported Pollard and demanded his release, he would have been in Israel a long time ago. In all honesty, I don't expect him to come here on his two feet, and I'm not talking about needing a wheelchair.

Israeli Democracy Defeats Chutzpadik Obama-American Interference

This week's Israeli Elections is a prime example of the antidemocratic hypocrisy of America's President Barack Hussein Obama and his supporters.

A, or the main, plank in the Labor aka Zionist sic Movement allegedly led by Isaac Herzog and Tsipi Livni was that they would repair the shaky relations with the American Government.

Despite the unabashed and amazingly public interference by the White House in the Israeli Elections, the Israeli public made it clear that they aren't for sale.

The Israeli election of 2015 is a crushing defeat for Barack Obama and the appeasers of the left.Despite the dozens of Obama’s Democrat operatives who flooded Israel in the past few months, despite the unprecedented vilification Benjamin Netanyahu has suffered at the hands of the mainstream American and Israeli media (save for Sheldon Adelson’s daily Israel Hayom), despite the leftist alliance with the Joint (Arab) List whose declared goal is to dismantle the Jewish state, and despite the laundered money that Obama’s State Department funneled into the coffers of leftist Israeli political operatives, Netanyahu and Likud won a historic victory. (Seraphic Secret)

I was in the states, mostly New York, during the two weeks before Israeli Elections, yes, during the time of Prime Minister Netanyahu's much heralded speech in congress, and I only heard praise for what he said and what he stands for.

To be honest, I think that Obama's distaste for Bibi and interference actually helped Netanyahu's campaign.

I thank President Obama for helping to propel the Likud to a landslide victory over its main opponent, Labor, which adopted the name Zionist Union for this election. While the notoriously unreliable Israeli polls had Zionist Union and its head, Isaac Herzog, leading Likud by a tally of 24 to 21, in the end ZU remained stable while Likud soared to 30 mandates (Knesset seats), a difference of 43% from the forecasts!
The American president did his utmost to thwart Bibi’s election chances. Most Israelis believe that towards Bibi, Obama has been discourteous and undiplomatic numerous times since his landmark election victory in 2008. But the president outdid himself when he overreacted following Speaker of the House of Representatives John Boehner’s announcement in February... (Steve Kramer)

Many Israelis and Americans were disgusted.

Israeli Elections 2015

Just to remind you, that the myth of American friendship and support of Israel is no more than a myth.

• The United States actually opposed the establishment of the Jewish State.
• Truman had to be pushed by an old friend to override the State Department's opposition in the November 29, 1947, U.N. vote.
• There was no government aid to Israel until after the 1967 Six Days War.
• The remarkable, earth-shattering victory in 1967 was Israel's alone, no allies at all.
• The 1973 Yom Kippur War saw the U.S.A. trying to control both Israel and Egypt into a "draw" to make Israel dependent on America.
• The so-called American "aid" sic packages are just ways to prop up the American economy and to the detriment of Israel.
• Don't forget the disproportionate and unprecedented imprisonment of Jonathan Jay Pollard who has been punished more severely than enemy communist spies for giving unauthorized data to an ally, Israel.

Alan Gross Released by Cuba While Jonathan Pollard Still Jailed

The American practice of justice and fairness is pretty fokokt. I don't think there was anything wrong with Obama's government coming to some sort of agreement with Cuba about releasing Alan Gross after five long difficult years of imprisonment there and rebuilding diplomatic ties after a half a century.

What's out of balance, or disproportionate (a favorite word of the Americans when discussing their demands and expectations of Israel) is the continued and unprecedented imprisonment of Jonathan Pollard for a crime that didn't endanger the United States of America. Pollard illegally transferred data, intelligence (security) information to an ally, Israel. That was thirty years ago, and since then he has been held in the most secure and punishing conditions the American Prison System provides. He has also served longer than enemy communist spies arrested during the same time period. A generation earlier the Rosenbergs were executed for spying for the USSR. All they and Pollard have in common is religion, Judaism. But Pollard did not spy for an enemy country!

CREDIT: REUTERS/KEVIN LAMARQUE

As part of the Alan Gross package, the United States has released three Cuban spies.

Cuba also released an intelligence agent who spied for the United States and was held for nearly 20 years, and the United States in return freed three Cuban intelligence agents held in the United States......The three Cuban intelligence agents, jailed since 1998, are Gerardo Hernandez, 49, Antonio Guerrero, 56, and Ramon Labañino, 51. Two others had been released before on completing their sentences - Rene Gonzalez, 58, and Fernando Gonzalez, 51. 

Yes, those Cubans were spies for an enemy. Did Cuba apologize for their spies the way Israel apologized for Pollard? And please don't forget that Israel actually handed Pollard over to the Americans by locking him out of the Embassy!

Will the American Jewish community temper their celebrations of Gross's release by demanding that the United States release Jonathan Jay Pollard?

Will Jonathan Pollard Make it out of the USA Alive?

Pollard" Poster in Israel

And can Jews get a fair shake in the United States?

The entire Jonathan Pollard saga is an allegory of Jewish and Israel relations/status with the United States of America.

al·le·go·ry
 noun \ˈa-lə-ˌgȯr-ē\: a story in which the characters and events are symbols that stand for ideas about human life or for a political or historical situation

George Orwell. Photograph:
Courtesy of Vernon Richards Estate

I could see George Orwell, author of Animal Farm and 1984, Nineteen Eighty-Four, writing the Jonathan Pollard story as if it was fiction.

So many people, even thirty years after Pollard's arrest, still consider the USA as Israel's greatest friend and ally. If a more modern George Orwell-type had written the story as "fiction" thirty-five or forty years ago, people would have considered it unthinkable that:

• America would refuse to reveal security information to Israel, although they have a treaty guaranteeing Israel such intelligence information.
• Israel would have to rely on an American Jew for intelligence information.
• When that Jewish employed is arrested by the Americans he's treated worse than any communist spy.
• The Americans renege on pretrial agreement.
• That Jew is given a harsher sentence than any enemy spy.
• The convicted Jew is refused parole, even though he has served a longer sentence than those convicted of more serious security offenses. 
• The convicted Jew is refused parole, even though he is seriously ill.

The latest Jonathan Pollard news is that he's terribly ill. 

Pollard, who has been jailed on charges of passing classified information to Israel on regional threats to the country, has suffered multiple health problems over the years, for which he was finally hospitalized in March and underwent a surgery then...Late last month, as Pollard started his 30th year in a US jail, the Parole Board of the US Justice Department rejected Pollard's parole, with senior US officials involved in the case writing to US President Barack Obama to complain that the decision was "deeply flawed."They noted that the length of his sentence was unprecedented compared to others who were held on similar charges of spying for an ally nation, and that the legal justifications for the decision were based on clear mistakes.
Last Friday with Pollard's hospitalization the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations Chairman Robert G. Sugarman, and Executive Vice Chairman Malcolm Hoenlein, wrote of "the need for immediate action for his release."
"It is regrettable and inexplicable that the Parole Board denied his application after serving 30 years, much of it in solitary confinement, far beyond anyone accused of a comparable crime," wrote the two, backing the letter sent by senior officials to Obama.... (Arutz 7)

Too many aspects of the Jonathan Pollard case seem like unthinkable fiction, certainly for someone of my generation raised on the myth of American "equal justice for all." Yes, myth, because Pollard's punishment is certainly disproportionate to not only what he did but to all legal precedent. American Jews employed in US security/intelligence have gotten the message that they will be held to a standard that no other religious or ethnic group is demanded/required.

American Jewry, remember that you aren't equal under American Law.

Many Recent Terror Victims USA Citizens, But Obama Condemns Construction

Even though many, if not most, of the recent victims of Arab terror attacks have been American citizens, the United States Government hasn't hushed their condemnation of building homes for Jews in Jerusalem. I'd say that the American Government's reactions to Arab terrorism shows a disproportionate sympathy with Arabs over Jewish life, freedom, religious rights etc.

According to Reuters, State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke stressed Washington's "clear and consistent opposition to construction activity in East Jerusalem."
"During this sensitive time in Jerusalem, we would see such activity as inconsistent with the goal of lower tensions and seeking a path toward peace," he added. (Arutz 7)

What reactions to this have there been in the USA?

A photo I took in Har Chomah a couple of years ago

A photo I took in Har Chomah a couple of years ago

Any normal country would be more concerned about condemning the terrorists who murdered its citizens but not the United States Government. It's totally focused on blaming Israel in a classic case of "blaming the victim."

The United States isn't a "normal" country. Its President, Barack Hussein Obama has made it clear that his aim in life is to facilitate the establishment of a Palestinian State in the Land of Israel, in the land that Israel liberated in the 1967 Six Days War.

Phantom Nation: Inventing the 
"Palestinians" as the Obstacle to Peace

Obama is fixated on the lie that there had been a State of Palestine sic which Israel took over/attacked and now occupies. The fact this this has absolutely no historic basis doesn't bother him one iota. Read Sha'i Ben Tekoa's Phantom Nation: Inventing the "Palestinians" as the Obstacle to Peace.  No doubt that once he's the "former president" he'll join with the unabashedly anti-Israel Jimmy Carter to work with and support the Arab terrorists who are trying to destroy the State of Israel.

Even though I was born in the United States and do have American citizenship and passport, I've lived in Israel since 1970 and do not see myself as an American citizen in terms of having the right to protest directly to the USA government. So I ask those of you who do have active American citizenship, meaning that you live and work and vote in the US, to protest to your Senators and Congressmen and your president about their policy which excuses murder of Jews and condemns building.

And don't forget that Jonathan Pollard is still jailed, thirty years, as the only condemned spy for an ally, while enemy spies have been released.

No justice for Jews in America!

Antisemitism, Jonathan Pollard Still Waiting for Redemption, for his Freedom

Way back when, a gazillion years ago, possibly in the first grade when I went to a young kids Sunday School in Oakland Jewish Center, or if not just two years later in Hebrew School, I learned a rousing song I've sung at almost ever Passover Seder ever since.

Avodim HayinuAtoh binei chorinWe were slaves and now we're free!

Just days before Passover, Pollard was dangled before the State of Israel to bribe our government to endanger the country more and kowtow to terrorist demands.

Indyk tells sides that if deal reached to extend talks, US will consider releasing Israeli agent.

"This is part of the Israeli suggestion which is now being considered by the Palestinian side, while at the same time the US mediator sent a message to Israel - the release of Israeli agent Jonathan Pollard from a US prison is still a possibility the US administration will consider, if the sides reach a deal that includes Israel freeing terrorists," the sources said. (Jerusalem Post)

I have a sick feeling that within a short period of time, the Binyamin Netanyahu Government will agree to release the convicted Arab terrorists in exchange for more dangerous policies, just to "talk a deal" with the Americans and the Arabs. No, I didn't make a mistake here. I did mean to write that Israel would get nothing for this concession, just more dangers. What can I say other than the conditions for participating in these American sponsored  pressured "negotiations" are worse than the usual unilateral "deals" we've come up with, such as Disengagement when Israel gave the Gazan terrorists Gush Katif, which required the destruction of Jewish communities, homes, businesses and worse, resulting in making Israel's south a very easy target for Arab terror attacks.

What's behind these inexplicable policies?

On the Israeli side, it must be some insane, psychotic need to please enemies and try to get approval at all cost. And on the American side, the pressure on Israel to agree to policies no American government nor politician would ever allow the USA to be subject to is clearly rooted in antisemitism.

But other college campuses in recent years have been theaters of anti-Israel discussions that occasionally veer toward, or bleed into, condemnations of Jews. And while we don’t have the anti-Semitism in our politics that some European countries do, there’s still bigotry under the surface. There are still caricatures that won’t die. (Frank Bruni)

Antisemitism is getting much stronger in the United States, now cloaked in all sorts of pseudo-moralities and ideologies.

Back to the lyrics of that cute Passover song. The first line is an abridged version of the actual story behind the holiday.

עֲבָדִים הָיִינוּ לְפַרְעֹה בְּמִצְרָיִם

וַיּוֹצִיאֵנוּ ה' אֱלֹהֵינוּ מִשָּׁם בְּיָד חֲזָקָה וּבִזְרוֹעַ נְטוּיָה

Avodim hayinu l'paroh bimitzrayimViyotzi'ainu Hashem misham biyad chazakah uvizroa nituyaWe were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt

G-d took us out with a strong hand and outstretched arm.
The song makes it sound easy, like a piece of cake. We sing as if we did it all ourselves, taking full credit. But the actual story is very different. We exited Egypt because G-d used His Power to defeat our enemies. And that's the lesson we must remember.

Peace, when it comes, will come from G-d, not from man. When we remove the modern Pharaoh from our lives, we will have peace and only then will we know how to free Jonathan Pollard. There's a big question here.  Will Jay Jonathan Pollard live long enough to enjoy life as a free man in the Land of Israel?

Jonathan Pollard, the Dying Pawn

Unfortunately, Jay Jonathan Pollard has been forced to suffer almost three full decades of imprisonment already for a crime that the American justice system normally considers relatively minor. Officially, technically, he passed secret material to an ally, Israel. There isn't all that much of those sorts of crimes in American history. Generally, "spies" pass secrets to enemies.  And most get much, much, much lighter and shorter sentences than Pollard got.

Table I: American Allies

• Jonathan Pollard is the only person in the history of the United States to receive a life sentence for spying for an American ally.

• On November 21, 2013, Pollard entered the 29th year of his life sentence, with no end in sight.

• The maximum sentence today for such an offence is 10 years.

• The median sentence for this offence is 2 to 4 years.

So it is very obvious that there's some other element involved in his punishment. It's pretty clear that his being Jewish and his giving the information to Israel added badly to his punishment/sentence. Also, American Jews who work in similar positions are subject to much more rigorous security checks and promotion difficulties than any other religious or ethnic group. I've received reports that they are treated as possible enemies, and it's blamed on Pollard.

More and more prominent Americans are admitting that there's a miscarriage of justice here and that Pollard should be released and not held hostage by the Americans and not used as a bribe to force Israel to agree to dangerous concessions. The Pollard case shouldn't be connected to any other issue. He served more than his time and should be free.

Hat tip Arutz 7

Gen. Michael Hayden, former director of both the CIA and the NSA, is against a plan to release convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard in return for Israeli concessions with the Palestinians.
"On so many levels, this just doesn’t feel right. This is just weird. It looks like it smacks of desperation on the part of the United States and our secretary of state to do anything in order to keep this peace process alive. You know, that's a really unsettling fact," he told Newsmax TV's John Bachman and J.D. Hayworth on "America's Forum" Tuesday.
Read Latest Breaking News from Newsmax.com http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Hayden-Pollard-prisoner-desperation/2014/04/01/id/563058#ixzz2y4qCHINe 

Ht tip IMRA

Shay Charko, Makor Rishon - April 4, 2014

In the meantime, Pollard's health is deteriorating, and there is less and less of a chance he will leave American jail alive.

Is Jay Jonathan Pollard Willing to be a Pawn?

I've had my doubts about Jonathan Pollard's agreeing with conditions of silence for his release from American jail. Of course, he may have mellowed, or he may be so sickly he does't have the strength to speak out. But I just can't imagine that the Americans and the Israelis will want the world to know what Jay Jonathan Pollard thinks.

Remember that when he and his wife Anne had realized that they were in trouble, they went to the Israeli Embassy for shelter, refuge and they were refused. They were handed over to the Americans. Anne Henderson Pollard has been in Israel on and off over the years trying to make a new life for herself.

How angry is Jonathan Pollard?

The latest report is that he does not want to be exchanged for hundreds of Arab terrorists. He doesn't like that equivalency. And I don't blame him.

There are reports that he refused to attend the prerequisite required parole hearing.

Jonathan Pollard may have ditched the deal in the making by which the Obama administration would free him from his life sentence in a U.S. federal prison cell if Israel agrees to release terrorists “with blood on their hands” along with several other security prisoners
Patricia Smoot, a member of the U.S. Parole Commission, said on Tuesday that Pollard has waived a planned parole hearing for the same day, the Associated Press reported. (Jewish Press)

Will Pollard stay in jail?

If Pollard is released will he join the many voices condemning the deal the Americans are trying to push Israel to take?

3) Israel will release the fourth batch of 26 Palestinians convicted of terror acts before the 1993 Oslo Accords. Some Israeli-Arabs will be included in the release, although it is not yet certain how many.
4) Israel will release an additional 400 Palestinian prisoners during the continuing negotiation period. These prisoners will be picked by Israel, will include many minors and women, and will not include those with "blood on their hands."
5) Israel will "exercise restraint" in releasing government tenders for new homes in the West Bank, meaning that it will issue no new government tenders for housing in Judea and Samaria. This policy will not include Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem beyond the Green Line. This policy will also exclude public building projects such as roads. Israel has rejected a total settlement freeze. (Jerusalem Post)

Why doesn't Bibi have the guts to just tell the USA to "%%^&*^%^$%^&**#$!!?"

The Pollard "Distraction," Will Obama Free a "Loose Cannon?"

If Jay Jonathan Pollard has any of his guts and principles left, I don't think United States President Barack Hussein Obama wants him free to talk. Honestly, I don't know if President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu want him free in front of a microphone either.

I really feel sorry for poor Pollard. He made a very dumb mistake, illegal to boot, thirty years ago, and he has been paying through the nose ever since.

Every once in a while the Israeli media teases us with possible scenarios that Pollard will be released, and then nada, nothing. This week there were rumors that Obama and Kerry would use Pollard to pressure Israel into releasing convicted Arab terrorists-who were convicted of murdering Jews, a bitter pill the Americans thought would be more easily swallowed if they could distract us with a freed Pollard.

Now, the news says that Pollard's still in jail with no sign that he's any closer to being released.

Days ahead of Israel's expected release of a fourth batch of Palestinian prisoners, the United States said on Wednesday it was not at the moment planning to release Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard in exchange for Israeli and Palestinian moves to extend peace talks.
"There are currently no plans to release Jonathan Pollard," US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in response to an Army Radio report that claimed Washington had made the offer to free Pollard in order to salvage negotiations.

I have no inside information, but I can imagine that if he'd been interviewed as part of being prepared for release and asked if he would be silent, he'd say "no."

If the successive Israeli governments, ever since Pollard's arrest, had really wanted him in Israel, they would have made strong demands on America, and I think that he would have had been released years ago. It looks like both governments are intentionally waiting too long.

A lot of Pollard's supporters are on the Right of the Israeli political spectrum, and that's why Bibi is afraid to have him free in Israel or any place.

Antisemitism in Pollard's Sentence? Nu? No Surprise

It has always been clear to me that Jonathan Pollard's unprecedentedly harsh sentence had to be caused by antisemitism. And over the too many decades he has been held in such harsh conditions there have been hints by American officials.  So here we go again with a new admission that maybe...

Former United States’ CIA Director James Woolsey told an Israeli TV news program that anti-Semitism could be part of the reason the U.S. has refused to release spy-for-Israel Jonathan Pollard.
He pointed out in an interview Saturday night with Israel’s Channel 10 that Americans who spied for other countries were freed after much shorter sentences.
“I certainly don’t think that it is universally true, but in the case of some American individuals, I think there is anti-Semitism at work here,” said Woolsey, who served as head of the CIA during the Clinton administration.

Read more: http://forward.com/articles/192468/pollards-long-imprisonment-could-be-fueled-by-anti/#ixzz2stgCul1F

It's the pragmatist in me, a CPA's daughter, who has seen and felt it all along.  It's no real surprise that someone like Former United States’ CIA Director James Woolsey would never have admitted it while still in office, in power to do something to alleviate the unfair and possibly illegal sentence.  Only safely retired and no longer needing a job has Woolsey come out with his admission.

How many American officials while in power have been willing to admit that there has been an outrageously immoral miscarriage of justice in the Pollard case?

I see a pattern of antisemitism in American policies, from ignoring the antisemitic Nazi policies to today's pushing and pressing Israel to accept such a dangerous "deal" with the Arabs as Kerry and Obama have been doing.

Psaki said the proposed U.S. framework will be the basis for negotiations for a final agreement. Meaning, when in doubt, parrot something, nobody is listening anyway. Except the pesky reporter was listening, and he pointed out the final agreement won’t address the Golan Heights, because it has nothing to do with a Palestinian state. He insisted on referring again to Psaki’s boss, who “says the minute this agreement is signed, 22 Arab nations and 35 Muslim nations will recognize or hold out the hope” of regional recognition of Israel. Will they, or will they have new demands once Israel makes the big cut in its own flesh? Psaki retorted, “Well, Michael, that’s a figure of speech. It doesn’t mean the minute he steps off the stage of an announcement that anything will be implemented.”
Read more at: http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/state-dept-no-guarantee-arab-league-recognize-israel-even-after-deal/2014/02/08/0/

At best, in a decade or more when building memorials, G-d forbid, to the State of Israel, they'll admit that they may have made a mistake.  But they won't admit fault for the destruction of the State of Israel.

The "deal" being pushed is to weaken Israel and make it more vulnerable to further demands.  This is no secret, but Kerry prefers to concentrate on his misleading promises.  But even worse is that the Israeli Center-Left keeps touting its "guesswork" predictions.  Their visions of a post deal Middle East are completely disengaged from the reality of the Arab statements and demands.

We Israelis and Jews must stop taking advice and orders from those who aren't willing to face the truth.  We have one Land and we are the only ones who should be sovereign here.

Obama-Kerry Bully Tactics Against Israel

As United States President Obama's second term in office is becoming a nightmare for him, he's putting more and more pressure on Israel to ignore all common sense and military norms, to "make a deal."


American officials are using all the tricks they can think of to get Israel to agree to its convoluted "security assurances."  That would sure flush Israel's sovereignty down the drain.

On two visits earlier this month Kerry presented to PA President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu security “ideas” based on the work that a team of some 160 US officials, headed by retired US Marine Corps Gen. John Allen, drew up defining what it thought would be necessary for Israel’s security if a Palestinian state were created.

If it takes that many people in his "think tank," then it's not simple.  If it's not simple, it's not doable.  There is absolutely no way that Israel could survive the establishment of a "Palestinian State."  It's like telling someone that he can survive without his heart of lungs.  Survive doesn't mean a year or a decade.  Survive means a normal secure existence.

The 1949 Armistice Lines, aka the "green line," only lasted eighteen years.

They were the cause of the 1967 Six Days War.  They didn't offer security.  Israel suffered from frequent border attacks, and defending those borders were extremely difficult. We were weak and vulnerable. That's why Egypt, Syria and Jordan allied to attack us in June, 1967.

One "rabbit" Obama is trying to pull out of his hat is Jonathan Pollard. There's talk of using his release to bribe Israel into agreeing to dangerous border/security conditions. It could very well be one of the reasons Pollard has been  jailed so long.  He's being held hostage by the Americans to be used as a bribe to force Israel to do the dangerous thing and go against all common sense and security guidelines.

Unfortunately, I don't see Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu doing what he should do and get on the offensive.  What he should do is:

Tell the Americans to do the legal and moral thing and release Jonathan Pollard unconditionally as far as Israel is concerned.  And he (Bibi) should declare that he erred in agreeing to a Palestinian State.

Lessons from Parshat Shavua, Torah Portion Shmot, Exodus, and Jonathan Pollard

The Book of  שמות Shmot, Exodus or Names, which is the actual translation from the Hebrew, starts with a line which should remind us of a crucial mistake Joseph Yosef made.

ח  וַיָּקָם מֶלֶךְ-חָדָשׁ, עַל-מִצְרָיִם, אֲשֶׁר לֹא-יָדַע, אֶת-יוֹסֵף.

8 Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who knew not Joseph.

Genesis Chapter 40 בְּרֵאשִׁית

יד  כִּי אִם-זְכַרְתַּנִי אִתְּךָ, כַּאֲשֶׁר יִיטַב לָךְ, וְעָשִׂיתָ-נָּא עִמָּדִי, חָסֶד; וְהִזְכַּרְתַּנִי, אֶל-פַּרְעֹה, וְהוֹצֵאתַנִי, מִן-הַבַּיִת הַזֶּה.

14 But have me in thy remembrance when it shall be well with thee, and show kindness, I pray thee, unto me, and make mention of me unto Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house.

Our sages, Chazal tell us that Yosef should not have asked the winemaker to remember him to Pharaoh. For that mistake Yosef stayed longer in jail than G-d had originally planned.

Dry Bones

Jonathan Pollard,
 I.D. Photograph,
U.S. Naval intelligence

That's why I think that concentrating on American "justice" and the American Pharaoh aka President is a mistake.  Pollard's release is up to Israel and Israeli and Jewish leaders.

Pollard was turned into the American police by Israel, which refused him asylum.

After his partial confession, Pollard was put under surveillance but not taken into custody. On November 21, 1985, he and his wife attempted to gain asylum at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., only to be rebuffed by the Israeli guards and was arrested by FBI agents who swarmed the perimeter as soon as Pollard set foot off embassy property.^[38] Until this point, investigators could not confirm that Pollard had been spying for Israel; their only lead having been the speculation of Pollard's superiors.^{[citation needed]}

Photo credit: AP

It took many years for the State of Israel to recognize that Jonathan Pollard had not received a just sentence, according to all American legal precedence, and begin its half-hearted "campaign" to get him released.  The actual Israel officials involved have never done the halachically (according to Jewish Law) prescribed public Teshuva, repentance for such an act.

Shimon Peres was Prime Minister, and Rafi Eitan was Pollard's handler.  They are the ones who should be leading the campaign, moving mountains to force the Americans to release Jonathan Pollard.

Former cabinet minister Rafi Eitan, the ex-Mossad agent who operated Jonathan Pollard in the mid-1980s, told Army Radio on Monday that he handed over incriminating information about Pollard because the U.S. had promised Israel that Pollard would serve no more than 10 years in prison.

They must take full blame and visit Pollard in jail.  Then while in jail with him refuse to leave unless the Americans release Pollard to them.  That sort of responsibility and drama is the only way that the United States will let Jonathan Pollard out of jail.

Yes, of course, Pollard broke the law. But no other "spy for an ally" has ever gotten such a punishment. Even Soviet spies who caused the death of Americans and those who worked for the USA received lighter sentences.  This has gone on much too long.  The key is in Israel's hands, not in the American justice system.

Will 2014 Be Any Different From 2013?

Just to make things clear, I don't celebrate the "goyishe" new year.  It's just a recognizable international number change for me.  My real calendar is the Jewish one.

In just over a week, we'll have to get used to writing 2014 on checks and official forms.  Is that new year going to be any different from 2013?  Honestly, I don't think so.

The Jewish New Year, celebrated every First of Tishrei, which is in the late summer, is heralded by a month of reflections, repentance, known in Hebrew as תשובה Teshuva.  We're supposed to be constantly doing teshuva,  but during the Jewish Month of Ellul which precedes Rosh Hashannah, we're supposed to be intensifying it.   It helps, that it's at teh end of the summer and not in the middle of a season.

January 1st is towards the middle of the solar winter in the northern hemisphere and the summer in the southern one.  It's a time of extremes, extremely cold or extremely hot.

Another year

Reading and listening to the news, it seems like nothing at all will change.  Jonathan Pollard will continue rotting in jail,

The expressions of shock and indignation that accompanied Edward Snowden’s revelations that the United States uses signal intelligence assets to spy on its allies were more than a little disingenuous. Everybody knows that everybody spies on everybody. If Germany’s spy agencies can, they are most certainly listening to the cellphones of friendly leaders from Washington to Paris. Allies routinely use signals intelligence, and human intelligence and everything in between to uncover information that their allies seek to keep from them.
In the case of the US and Israel, US government agencies have been involved not merely in spying against Israel, but in bids to undermine American public support for Israel almost since the establishment of the Jewish state.
According to a new history of the CIA’s involvement in the Middle East, America’s Great Game, reviewed this week in The Wall Street Journal, in 1951 Kermit Roosevelt, the CIA’s operations chief in the Middle East set up a fake anti-Israel lobby in Washington called American Friends of the Middle East. Its job was to weaken popular support for the Jewish state. The CIA’s anti-Israel front group operated for 16 years, until the fact that it was a CIA front group was exposed in 1967 by the far-left Ramparts magazine.
And this brings us to Jonathan Pollard, the American Jewish naval intelligence analyst who is now serving the 29th year of his life sentence for transferring classified materials to Israel.
Snowden’s revelations and the story of the CIA’s anti-Israel front group in Washington make clear that US indignation over Israel’s fielding of an agent in Washington was equal parts self-righteousness and hypocrisy.
There was nothing extraordinary in Israel’s efforts to gain information that its American ally didn’t wish to share with it. Allies spy on each other. And they use sympathetic locals to achieve their ends. South Korean Americans have been caught spying for South Korea. Taiwanese Americans have been caught spying for Taiwan, and so on.

...while American hypocrisy will continue.

Europeans are demanding that any new trade accord include data-privacy protections that the United States is eager to avoid.
Almost never before has a spying scandal — in this case the revelation of the monitoring of the cellphone of Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany — resulted in such a concrete, commercial backlash. Now it is also driving a debate inside the American government about whether the United States, which has long spied on allies even while nurturing them as partners, may have to change its approach.
“What’s more important?” Gen. Keith B. Alexander, the director of the N.S.A., asked during an interview last month, before the Merkel revelations. “Partnering with countries may be more important than collecting on them,” he said, especially when it comes to protecting against cyberthreats to the computer networks of the world’s largest economies.

This whole American scandal is a lot bigger than just the United States versus Israel.

And unfortunately, the Arab terrorists haven't stopped attacking us.  A potentially deadly rocket was launched at Ashkelon.  G-d saved us by making it miss its target.

This morning the rocket was found, between two houses. The rocket didn’t explode, or explode completely, so no damage was incurred.
Read more at: http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/overnight-rocket-fell-between-2-houses/2013/12/23/

None of the Obama-Kerry pushed talks have encouraged the arabs to stop terrorist activities against us. Negotiations won't stop terrorism.  We won't have peace until the Arabs really want peace, and that no doubt will take decades if not longer.

Photo by Gideon Markowicz/FLASH90
Read more at: http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/hareidi-bus-bomb-driver-im-no-hero/2013/12/22/attachment/158452/

No surprise that the Arab terrorists have resumed bus bombs against Israeli civilians.  Thank G-d this one was discovered before it exploded.

Yes, we're in the middle of the winter, and we're in the middle of a battle for our very existence and survival. For there to be real change, we must all do Jewish style teshuva. We must reflect and correct.  Without this process, things will just continue going on the very same way.

• We must recognize that the United States is not a true friend of the State of Israel.  Some Americans are, but the government can't be relied upon.  Other foreign countries are beginning to recognize it, even among its allies.
• We must also recognize that the Arabs and many other countries want us, the State of Israel to cease to exist.  That is their aim and the aim of all the NGO's helping the Arabs.

We must take steps and change our policies and behaviors.

We have only one true ally, and that is G-d.

If we make the right changes, then 2014 will be different form 2013.  If not, then expect more diplomatic abuse and Arab terrorism. 

Enough is Enough, Bring Jonathan Pollard Home Alive

There's something terribly fukokt in American policy.  They find nothing wrong with spying on allies, consider Jewish homes more dangerous to world peace than if Iranians get the bomb, and they're still holding Jonathan Pollard in jail for almost thirty years.

stopping Israel from Stopping Iran

Officials in Jerusalem upset that Western powers fail to condemn inflammatory comments by Iran's supreme leader. (Jerusalem Post)

United States President Barack Hussein Obama and his Secretary of State John Kerry spend more time trying to tie Israel's hands than stopping Iran from completing their nuclear weapons development.  And they keep telling the world not to listen to Israel.  Now, in all honesty, if you were to check out the credentials of Obama versus Israel's Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in terms of knowledge of history, political science etc.  Who would win?  Netanyahu has been a history buff, an expert specializing in terrorism for decades, long before Obama could read a sentence in any language.  Whose judgement should be trusted more?

And the United States at the height of its hypocrisy still imprisons Jay Jonathan Pollard for the crime of giving information to an ally.

Photo: AP

Pollard enters 29th year in US prison
Jonathan Pollard was arrested 28 years ago on Nov. 21, 1985 • Pollard's wife appeals to U.S. President Barack Obama to free her husband out of humanitarian considerations • Natan Sharansky: It is our collective failure that Pollard is still in jail.  (Israel Hayom)

Pollard has long since paid for his crime.  Criminals who spied for American enemies have served much less and long been released. Nothing in Pollard's crime is worse than theirs.  There can be only one reason for his unprecedented sentence, and it's the same reason why Obama keeps telling the world not to listen to Israel and the United States keeps insisting that Judea and Samaria must be judenrein... antisemitism.

Our Israeli politicians, media and academics must stop this dangerous worship and respect of the United States.  They aren't our friends; they aren't true allies.  The proof is in the continued imprisonment of Jonathan Pollard. He's the symbol of what America really thinks and feels about Jews and Israel.

Read their lips!