There?s something about encountering a specific injustice that points an accusing finger at whoever happens to be listening, even if that person is not directly responsible. Since recently hearing and reading about details of Jonathan Pollard?s incarceration, I feel that finger incessantly pointing at me and I?m beginning to consider working seriously to get him justice after he has already served 18 years of an unwarranted life sentence.
Pollard is in prison for transmitting information to Israel while working for U.S. Navy Intelligence. It was erroneously thought that U.S. operatives (spies) in the former Soviet Union were killed as the result of information he passed on falling into the hands of Russian spies in Israel. It turned out that two other American agents who were spying for Russia were the culprits and that Pollard never had the security clearance to give him access to names of American spies in Russia. Pollard?s crime was naively trying to inform Israel about matters related to its security interests, because the U.S. was failing to do so. For this crime he probably would have gotten no more than five years. (Moment Magazine, June 2003)
Is this my thing - spies, politics, Jewish advocacy? I?ve been living in the Golan Heights since I moved to Israel 22 years ago. I write idealistic songs about my life here. My son is in an elite unit in the Israeli army. I feel the pain of Jewish victims of Arab terror and have known some of them personally. But what is Jonathan Pollard?s case to me? If he cared so much about Israel he could have come here to live. Didn?t he know that the U.S. government is strongly self-righteous and doesn?t like to admit its mistakes, and doesn?t take lightly strong-minded independence on the part of its intelligence employees, who pledge to loyally obey its codes of conduct. But the accusing finger won?t stop pointing at me!
Does Pollard?s case have anything to do with anti-Semitism? Jews high up in the U.S. government also helped to seal his fate. Does Pollard?s case have anything to do with covering up the incompetence of the U.S. intelligence community? According to information Pollard gave to Israel, the U.S. knew of the threat of Bin Laden?s terrorist network and the Saudi connection as early as 1984.
Pollard has learned the hard way that injustice is often in the form of na?ve, good-hearted individuals getting embroiled in systems designed to protect self-serving cynics and the hard-hearted status quo.
But my perspective as an expatriate American Jew living in Israel is forcing me to consider yet another explanation. Could it be that, in this case, American self-righeousness is blind to justice, because it is so set on punishing disloyalty?
So many in the American melting pot have dual loyalties. A strong, patriotic, single-minded America under attack is unwilling to excuse or try to understand this - perhaps even rightfully so. But should someone be serving an undeserved life sentence for disappointing America? Of course not. Is there any way I can help to correct this one glaring injustice in an imperfect, indifferent world full of injustice without being labeled an obsessed Jewish crackpot? Probably not. But that pointing finger is driving me crazy.
After reading this piece, I suspect many of you feel it pointing in your direction, as well. (To offer your help via e-mail: pollard@jewsite.org)
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Leah Epstein is a writer, educator, songwriter and performer. She has a B.A.from Brown University and an M.Sc. in Adult and Continuing Education from the University of Wisconsin. She made aliya in 1981 and has lived with her family in the pastoral Golan Heights for over 20 years.
Pollard is in prison for transmitting information to Israel while working for U.S. Navy Intelligence. It was erroneously thought that U.S. operatives (spies) in the former Soviet Union were killed as the result of information he passed on falling into the hands of Russian spies in Israel. It turned out that two other American agents who were spying for Russia were the culprits and that Pollard never had the security clearance to give him access to names of American spies in Russia. Pollard?s crime was naively trying to inform Israel about matters related to its security interests, because the U.S. was failing to do so. For this crime he probably would have gotten no more than five years. (Moment Magazine, June 2003)
Is this my thing - spies, politics, Jewish advocacy? I?ve been living in the Golan Heights since I moved to Israel 22 years ago. I write idealistic songs about my life here. My son is in an elite unit in the Israeli army. I feel the pain of Jewish victims of Arab terror and have known some of them personally. But what is Jonathan Pollard?s case to me? If he cared so much about Israel he could have come here to live. Didn?t he know that the U.S. government is strongly self-righteous and doesn?t like to admit its mistakes, and doesn?t take lightly strong-minded independence on the part of its intelligence employees, who pledge to loyally obey its codes of conduct. But the accusing finger won?t stop pointing at me!
Does Pollard?s case have anything to do with anti-Semitism? Jews high up in the U.S. government also helped to seal his fate. Does Pollard?s case have anything to do with covering up the incompetence of the U.S. intelligence community? According to information Pollard gave to Israel, the U.S. knew of the threat of Bin Laden?s terrorist network and the Saudi connection as early as 1984.
Pollard has learned the hard way that injustice is often in the form of na?ve, good-hearted individuals getting embroiled in systems designed to protect self-serving cynics and the hard-hearted status quo.
But my perspective as an expatriate American Jew living in Israel is forcing me to consider yet another explanation. Could it be that, in this case, American self-righeousness is blind to justice, because it is so set on punishing disloyalty?
So many in the American melting pot have dual loyalties. A strong, patriotic, single-minded America under attack is unwilling to excuse or try to understand this - perhaps even rightfully so. But should someone be serving an undeserved life sentence for disappointing America? Of course not. Is there any way I can help to correct this one glaring injustice in an imperfect, indifferent world full of injustice without being labeled an obsessed Jewish crackpot? Probably not. But that pointing finger is driving me crazy.
After reading this piece, I suspect many of you feel it pointing in your direction, as well. (To offer your help via e-mail: pollard@jewsite.org)
--------------------------------------------------------
Leah Epstein is a writer, educator, songwriter and performer. She has a B.A.from Brown University and an M.Sc. in Adult and Continuing Education from the University of Wisconsin. She made aliya in 1981 and has lived with her family in the pastoral Golan Heights for over 20 years.