B"H
A number of years ago, the American
ambassador to Israel, during the second Bush Administration, expressed his
opinion, and as the U.S. envoy, to a great degree, expressed his government's opinion, of the deeds of Jonathan Pollard. He said that Pollard's acts,
were of such a serious nature, that Jews should be grateful that he was not
executed. All the more telling, was that this comment was made before a Jewish
and Israeli audience in the sovereign State of Israel! These comments came, not
from some extreme right-wing member of a veteran's organization, of some rural area,
isolated from developments, but one from a liberally educated, mainstream background.
A former Soviet, Jewish dissident, appealing to the ambassador in a well worded
appeal for Pollard, on the need to honor values of justice and human rights,
had no idea how, just how ineffective she was in influencing the ambassador.
She was not alone. She and most Jews do not understand what makes this matter
so intractable and why efforts to help Pollard have been and continue to be
largely ineffective.
A glimpse at a very similar sad, episode in
Jewish history is helpful in bringing about a proper understanding.
When Alfred Dreyfus was given a pardon, he
responded by stating, "The government of the Republic gives me back my
freedom. It means nothing to me without my honor. From today on I shall
continue to seek reparation for the atrocious judicial error from which I am a
victim. I want the whole of France to know by force of a final judgment that I
am innocent. (The Collapse Of The Third Republic, William Shirer, page 66)
Dreyfus
formally accepted the pardon, procured by the French Premier and granted by the
President of the Republic. But from his words, we know that he threw that
pardon, back into the faces of his accusers and tormentors. A pardon, by its
nature, unequivocally implies acceptance of wrongdoing and guilt. This, he emphatically
denied.
Dreyfus
understood the French anti-Semitism, which demanded his degradation. There was
no way to appease them. He knew that, in as such that those who attacked him,
felt that they could not regain their lost honor, if his was not totally
destroyed, his continued struggle for dignity and truth added nothing to the
fires of hatred against him, amongst those, whose hate was enflamed to the
maximum. So too is the case, in the anti-Semitism of the Pollard Affair.
Dreyfus had allies in the anti-monarchists,
and those who opposed the influence of the military, and the church. Pollard
has no such allies. The American anti-Semites will only release their grip upon
him when their efforts to degrade Pollard become counter productive. This could
and would happen if there is enough of a morally obliged response, particularly
now that there is a continuing media interest in Pollard .This would require a
Jewish indignation and protest against the injustice Pollard has borne and
continues to suffer, as well as a public Jewish recognition of Pollard's
righteousness and heroism, in perhaps, even saving Israel from destruction, G-d
forbid, from Iraqi gas carrying missiles. Many in Israel today feel that,
perhaps indeed, they owe their lives to him. But this deliverance can only
happen if Jews, particularly American Jews, understand the anti-Semitism of the
Pollard Affair, in the same way that Alfred Dreyfus understood the Dreyfus
Affair.
American Jews, have exceedingly slowly,
during the years of Jonathan Pollard's ordeal, come increasingly to realize the
role of anti-Semitism in the affair. In the meantime Pollard, languished away
under thirty years of imprisonment. But they did not recognize, nor do they
recognize now, that not only was anti-Semitism, a factor in the affair, in
essence, the Pollard Affair, like the Dreyfus Affair, is about nothing other
than, anti-Semitism. With this continuing inability to ascertain and come to
grips with this real underlying reality, American Jews will continue, as
they have been in the past, in their efforts to help Jonathan Pollard, and
right a historical travesty of justice, to be dismally inconsequential and
ineffective.
The general public, excluding large
segments of it that are motivated by the same anti-Semitism which motivated the
conservative elements in France, that persecuted Dreyfus, plus many of the new
liberal "progressive" anti-Semitism, are basically indifferent to
Pollard. Thus, the only ones in the United States who can help Pollard are, the
Jews. Unfortunately, limited by varying degrees of indifference, for fear of
anti-Semitic back lashing, or some combination of the two, they have not
endeavored to learn, or have remained unexposed to, what is most pertinent in
the Pollard Affair. If they desire to cease their marginality in the matter,
they must gather up the courage to pursue and acquire an accurate assessment of
what motivated, and continues to motivate, those favoring the continuing
repression of Jonathan Pollard.
They
should be aware, that after Jonathan Pollard's activities were revealed, the
American government conducted a policy, against him, of swift and merciless
ant-Semitic retribution. Tempered by only recent expedient political
considerations, this policy remains, unchanged. Pollard was vilified in the
juryless court, in spite of the reality, that at the time of the legal
proceedings against him, it was so undeniable that Pollard had no desire to
harm the United States, that the official indictment, submitted to the court,
says specifically just that! Pollard's enemies were and are, impervious to the
fact, that publicly verified indications, that Pollard hurt American security,
were non existent, as they are today. Comments, by former Senate Intelligence
Committee member, Angelo Codevilla, which dealt with the Pollard Affair,
reflect this dearth of incriminating evidence. When asked if there are
undisclosed acts which Pollard committed, which caused harm to American
security, he replied, "No, that is something I can
be absolutely certain about. Because I know what the classification system…
allowed Jonathan Pollard, to see, to have and to give…. He was after
all merely an analyst, and analysts do not have access to methods and sources
of intelligence." "These are wild allegations which make sense
only to people who are totally uniformed. Unfortunately, that is the majority
of the people." (Voice of Israel, "Should Israel Threaten U.S, to
Force Pollard Release?", Gil Hoffman, November 23, 2014) Furthermore, the inability to publically present, provable accusations of
acts, harmful, to the security of the United States, after thirty years of
revolutionary technical changes, under the guise of security considerations,
speaks for itself.
The plight
of Jonathan Pollard continues. He himself, described his parole requirements as
"embarrassing and humiliating". He is electronically handcuffed. Any
time he moves a certain distance from a receiver, the transmitter by which he
is legally and physically bounded, is activated. In his recent parole review,
he was even given new restrictions! He is now to being prevented from being in
the vicinity, of not only the Israeli diplomatic facilities, but in addition,
he is not allowed to come close to the Russian, Chinese or South African
embassies. This directive, after thirty years of judicial error, specifically,
a sentencing based on unsubstantiated accusation of grievous acts of
disloyalty, clearly insinuates, without basis, even now, today, that Pollard
was guilty of some kind of aid to the Russians, Chinese South Africans and
Israelis, that would lead them to cooperate with him, in reward for his past or
potential future acts of disloyalty. Clearly, there are those in the American
government, who desire that Jonathan Pollard, continue to suffer, be degraded
and humiliated, decades after it has never come to light in any provable,
verifiable way, what allegations of damage which was done to the security of
United States, which justify the punishment received, or the current restrictions
with which he is now shackled.
Thus now, one
should know that this desire exists, in essence, solely because Jonathan
Pollard is a Jew who acted without authorization, to successfully help
Israel! Undoubtedly, aside from the Holocaust, this is the most
significant and malicious episode, of anti-Semitism, governmental or otherwise,
in the West since...,the Dreyfus Affair, in a France, more than 100 years ago,
beset by the anachronistic, monarchical, clerical and militarist elements and
thinking, of the period. It is also important to note, that the Pollard Affair,
has been part and parcel, and continues to be so, of the most liberal
government the United States has ever had, the Obama Administration. President
Obama's strident, judicially and morally unjustified comment, about Pollard, in
March of 2013, that Pollard "He has committed a serious crime", does
not fall too short in meaning and significant, from the remarks of the American
ambassador in Tel Aviv, mentioned above, in the service of a much more
conservative administration. Furthermore, it is rather remarkable, that at the
time those words were spoken, for the efficacy of Jews of the Israeli
television audience, as well as other Jewish viewers, the honorable President
did not sense, that those capable of a more deeper sense of Jewish or general
thinking, than those invited to White House Chanuka parties, would some day
find those words more than just a little disingenuous.
One can even hear the words of Alfred Dreyfus, annunciated deep within the
heart and soul of Jonathan Pollard." If the Republic of the United States
of America gives me back my freedom, it means nothing to me without my honor.
From today onward, I shall continue to seek recognition of the atrocious
judicial error of which I am the victim. I want the world to understand that I
did nothing harm the security of the United States". This article is
only an encouragement to enable Jews, in regard to Jonathan Pollard, to do the
right thing. For those who do not independently possess that motivation, this
article will have little meaning. They, in perhaps an effort motivated to
escape from how the affair impinges, personally on them, will remain
ineffectual and peripheral in alleviating, the continuing sad saga of the
Pollard affair. For those who have a genuine Jewish, human heart, they will
pursue the truth and demand justice for Jonathan Pollard who is still very much
alone in his struggle. This is in spite of the reality that he has been
struggling for, and is continuing to struggle, for the whole Jewish People
.Perhaps the words of Micah, the Prophet, say it best. "He has spoken to
you, humanity, as to what is good and what He demands from you, 'Do justice,
love mercy and walk humbly with your G-d'."(Micah, chapter 6, verse 8)
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