JONATHAN POLLARD: IF HE'S YOUR MESSAIAH, YOU HAVE SCREWS LOOSE

This morning, shortly after my first cup of coffee, I made the mistake of reading (again), about Jonathan Pollard. Jonathan Pollard, for those who don't remember, started selling American defense secrets to Israel after failing to get several other countries to take his bait. He and his wife needed to dig themselves out of debt, and that form of prostitution seemed like a winner. Which, indeed, for a while it turned out to be.

Since being caught, he has tried to portray his actions as motivated by the highest virtues, a deep and abiding loyalty to the Jewish people, and a true love of liberty, justice, and the sheer rightness of Israel.

Which to some makes his disregard for what he was obliged and sworn to protect perfectly alright.
Surely his ahavas-yisroel trumps all other considerations?

[Up to his eyebrows in debt due to his life-style, attempting to sell secrets to other countries besides Israel, and disregarding the conditions of his plea-bargain? Pshaw! A mere bagatelle! The man is a chossid!]


Bibi Netanyahu has spent over a decade stridently calling him a saint, and the ultra-right in Israel have made him a hero.

Many Americans -- no doubt sincerely misguided as well as remarkably stupid -- have taken up that cause, and portray his long incarceration as a gross injustice, as well as proof that the American government is rabidly anti-Semitic.


A rational review of his case shows that he has been treated with remarkable leniency given his offense and offensiveness, and that rather than being a hero, he is a deeply flawed and ethically stunted creature.

His scheduled release in November of this year will be celebrated, and many right-thinking Americans and Israelis will wonder how it is that Netanyahu and others so staggeringly disrespect the United States.


Instead of jailing him, we should have hanged him.


Here's some food for thought:


Dual loyalties.



By his actions, he was of monumental benefit to various foreign intelligence services, an asset of immense value. As well as inestimably damaging to the interests of his own nation, an absolute disaster of staggering magnitude to American intelligence and our strategic position. In all ways the perfect storm, the damage from whose sabotage endures to this day.
He was, to put it bluntly, the absolute paradigm of betrayal.
A disaster that is painful to contemplate.
Despicably anti-American.

I find the hero-worship of that man appalling and repellent.
You may not see it that way, which is your right.
Perhaps you have "dual loyalties".
Or no loyalties.


He is America's very own Mordechai Vanunu.
Also a disgusting man, also scum.
But Pollard is worse.


Please feel free to disagree. I'll start doubting your sanity, morals, values, and reliability, but do please feel absolutely free to fervidly argue a differing point of view.


AFTERWORD

Look, I know that even allies spy on each other, and subvert intelligence assets. I am a realist, and I consider Israel, despite her many and huge flaws to be an ally, and probably the best one we have. And I will not quibble whether Israel may have had a right to a minuscule fragment of the data that that scumbag divulged. That cannot lessen his loathsomeness, and none of it justifies the perfectly despicable adoration he has received, or the irrational accusations of anti-Semitism hurled at the United States for imprisoning him, OR the insistent and petulant demands for his immediate release through the years.

That support and adoration, however, does justify serious questions about trustworthiness, or the ultimate reliability of our allies and their supporters.

Was that what you really wanted?

Please tell me why.




==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================