Pollard and the US Government: A Polity of Amorality
Pollard and the US Government: A Polity of Amorality

After the recently reported decision, in which Jonathan Pollard's request to be paroled was rejected, he was returned to confinement in a North Carolina penitentiary, as his imprisonment goes in to its thirtieth year. If, as been said, the parole board is by law totally subordinate to the wishes of the Justice Department's demands in parole reviews, then last  summer's parole hearing, is just an expression of how the Obama administration views the matter.

One of the signs of a protestor in the disturbances following the Ferguson verdict was,"Black lives matter". Perhaps this sign was directed at Obama. Certainly Jewish lives are of little concern to him.
The presentation by the administration representatives at the hearing leaves little room for interpretation. As media reported last week, the presentation was haughty, mean spirited and cruel. "The government's representatives spoke menacingly, treated Pollard with contempt….Those present described the hearing as a 'kangaroo court', even a 'lynching'."

It is stunning to anyone who has a little bit of Jewish empathy or human decency, to read how the Obama legal representatives dealt with a man to whom many people feel they owe their lives, as result of his courage and deeds. Clearly,the fact that the residents of Israeli cities, during the First Gulf War, or before it, may have escaped being consumed by an Iraqi gas attacks, because of Pollard, was not a mitigating consideration in the Administration's arguments for continued punishment, at the parole board.

Even more telling, as to the value system of this administration, is this blocking out or denial of this consideration, which should have been of paramount importance in a parole judgment of this type. This total lack of consideration can also be seen when President Obama was interviewed on the outset of his trip to Israel.  In regard in action on behalf of Jonathan Pollard, he responded quite nonchalantly, "He has committed a very serious crime,", and "He's serving his time."

How ironic..One of the signs of a protestor in the disturbances following the Ferguson verdict was,"Black lives matter".Perhaps this sign was directed at Obama. Certainly Jewish lives are of little concern to him.. Certainly not the life of Jonathan Pollard.  How could it be otherwise.? Empathy, decency and morality do not coincide with politics of amorality

Such behavior by the Obama administration should really surprise no one, including those Jews who continue to continue to place their undivided loyalty in this talented mouthpiece of liberalism. But actually, the polity of this administration,is a polity of more than liberalism. It is a polity of amorality.

The words of Morton Klein, President of the Zionist Organization of America, describing the Obama  Administration's comments on a UN resolution during last summer's Gaza War, highlight the principles which guide this administration. "We are appalled that President Obama has chosen to join this initiative in a Security Council resolution which would give a tremendous victory to Hamas , a moral one by having the military activity of both Hamas and Israel condemned as if they were of equal moral equality. The Obama administration has appeared to have climbed on board of this shabby, fraudulent, and dishonesty document, which represents amoral politics at its lowest common denominator." 

When presented with the question to as to the wisdom of negotiating with Iran or concluding agreements with it in regard to  its nuclear program, concern with lack of trust in Iran, in the present and the future, is dismissed . In a presentation before the the Senate Committee for Foreign Affairs, Chief Negotiator, Wendy Sherman said,.."…these negotiations do not rely on trust. Any long term deal we agree to, must be based on verifiable actions and constraints that convince us …that Iran is not building a nuclear bomb."

Ostensibly, this is just hard-headed realism.  However, in other instances when it is asked as to what is the role of trust,  in relations with Iran, we see the safety of the world is to depend on such things as mutual interests and "intrusive" monitoring devices. The demand that Iran comply by any kind of acceptable moral code, obviously so lacking, or a  defense from threat based on the moral imperative on the part of the U.S., to identify condemn and resist evil is nonexistent. "We did not enter into these negotiations on a basis of trust.", she said.  Similarly the conclusion of negotiations, to end in an agreement with a near nascent nuclear power and the prevention in of a terrorist regime from acquiring and using nuclear weapons, is to be a solely technical professional matter.

Pollard was asked by a Jewish questioner how he could embroil the American Jewish community in the affair and damage the position of the American Jew in society. He replied quite simply, "What was I supposed to do?"

Confronted with the reality of the mortal threat posed to the lives of Israeli population, which the intelligence  formation he saw revealed,  led him to realize that action on his part was imperative. When he saw that he was blocked from having the information forwarded to prevent a possible tragedy of mass proportions, due to the intelligence embargo on transfer of information to Israel, specifically on such matters, he took the matter into his own hands. 

"I would rather spend the rest of my life in jail than mourn for thousands of Israelis who died as a result of my cowardice." This is what he said, Jonathan Pollard, a devout man motivated by a higher cause. His words invoke the memory of another man from a religious, moral, background, Nathan Hale, who was executed for gathering intelligence to protect the American colonists against the tyranny of the British Empire. Unfortunately, as each day passes Hale's words "I only regret that I have but one life to give for by country" and Pollard's are acquiring an ominous similarity, G-d forbid.

The words of MK Moshe Feiglin on March 6, 2013, underscore the heroism of Jonathan Pollard. "We have to look at Jonathan Pollard through Jewish, Israeli, and, Zionist eyes. Jonathan Pollard is an Israeli agent who preformed a service for us… Jonathan Pollard is a hero. He is a hero of Israel. He is a hero who risked his life for us. Who knows how many of us he literally saved."  In an interview given on Febuary28, 2006, commenting on Pollard's imprisonment, Feiglin stated that he was"…subject to physical and mental torture that would drive a normal person mad."

Another Israeli Parliament member, Eliezer Cohen, had this to say. "I am a good friend of Aviam Sella, who received the information from him. (Pollard) I don't know all the material he received but I know part of it. For, example, when Israel attacked of the PLO headquarters inTunis (1985) it was with information supplied by Jonathan Pollard. We in the state of Israel are obligated to support him and obtain his release from prison. There are many threats which could harm the security of Israel, for example ground to ground missiles,  missiles with chemical warheads. If he had access to such information people should understand that he helped in these areas."

The rather halting, limited information release, seen in the video of Cohen, indicate that there are many powerful people in Israel who were not pleased with this release of information to the public. Those same people were some of those in the Israeli government who were responsible for the shameful expelling of Jonathan Pollard from the Israeli embassy in Washington, where he sought refuge from Federal authorities, and the initial denial by Israel of having any connection with him.

Those in the Israeli government who know exactly what information Israel received from Pollard and operate in such an unscrupulous way, would not hesitate to deny the status which statements such as those of Knesset member Feiglin and Cohen award to Jonathan Pollard. The reason they don't dare to do so is because they cannot. The truth of statements like these are undisputed in Israel. Jonathan Pollard's status in Israel as a hero is an acknowledged and growing reality. It is about time that this is the case, wherever men  of integrity dwell.

As for the opponents and enemies of Pollard, who accuse him of all kinds of wrong doings, most notably of criminally damaging US. security, the opposite is true. If Pollard had indeed damaged American security, someone amongst his numerous detractors over the last 30 years should have been able to prove this.. But proof of this has ever been given. Nor will it ever, because it cannot be given.

Excuses for not publicizing or allowing public access to such "proofs", i.e. fabrications, has been based on the excuse of the need for secrecy in security matters. In the past this excuse was lame and now has become absurd.  Therefore, the inescapable conclusion is that statements about Pollard's alleged criminality , including the one mentioned here by Obama, are baseless and false. 

In the amoral political environment fostered by the Obama administration, the differentiation between truth and falsehood has little value. Even Pollard's supporters in the U.S.,callng for an an immediate release on the grounds of  injustice, of an overly harsh sentence, compassion and time served, balance their pleas with lesser accusations of  infringement on security, which also have no basis in reality.

Whether overwhelmed by this polity and its absence of integrity, or perhaps fear that a total refusal to take any part in this anti-Semitic lynching, would result in their own victimization, real voices of truth in the Pollard affair are few. The American counterpart of Emile Zola, in the Dreyfus Affair, who  shouted his famous words, "J'accuse", did much to save the honor of France and defend the French values of liberty, fraternity, and equality during the anti-Semitic hysteria there more than 100 years ago, has yet to appear.

If he does appear, not only will Jonathan Pollard be released and his courage and morality recognized, but the sliding into the abyss of the politics and polity of amorality in the United States, which the present leadership is abetting, will, with G-d's help, be halted.