American Cruelty: Why Doesn’t Pollard Get to Part from His Father?

All the requests have been unhelpful: Morris Pollard passed away last night, without his son Jonathan Pollard, incarcerated for already 26 years, being to say the final goodbye to him. The United States goes on showing brutality toward someone convicted of espionage in favor of its friend. Now it is up to Israel to try to convince the knights of human rights in Washington — those preaching morality and democracy to the whole world — to enable the prisoner to take part in the funeral.

Saturday night at the end of Sabbath, the expected news arrived: Morris Pollard, Jonathan Pollard’s father, breathed his last breath, with no possibility for his son, confined in an American prison for 26 years already, to say his last goodbyes to him. As of now, the effort will focus on the attempt to persuade the knights of human rights in Washington, those preaching morality and democracy to the entire world, to permit the detainee to participate in his father’s funeral.

It’s not that we’re raising the expectation level here — for they refused the same request when his mother died. They do not allow him conjugal visits with his spouse Esther. They make every possible effort to obliterate the memory of Pollard from the face of the earth with a brutality unprecedented for the Western world.

All of this is after Pollard was convicted of a relatively minor violation — espionage for an ally country, not even an enemy one — which results in a sentence of eight years on average. Even after it became clear that what had caused the dramatic aggravation in Pollard’s verdict at the last minute, was baseless blood libel. And all of this after a great surge of sympathy from former high-ranking officials in the American intelligence and security structure, who began to express remorse and call for the release of Pollard.

All of this falls on completely deaf ears in Washington, where there sits a president who speaks loftily about human rights and ethics, but acts basely, as the last of the medieval dark types.

A Matter of Humanity

Before we continue, here is a proposition: in about two weeks, hundreds of distinguished guests, in their Sunday best, will gather in the villa of the American ambassador in Herzliya Pituach*, for the traditional celebration of the Independence Day of the United States of America, the Fourth of July.

Each year, our country’s best, the crème de la crème of the government administration, economic, security, diplomatic and business circles gather there and socialize, have some drinks, have some treats, listen to the boring speech by the prime minister, praise the friendship between the two countries and the “shared values” and all the other junk, sing the two hymns and get back home happy with cheerful hearts.

I think that anyone who wants to deliver a notice to the Americans that they have crossed the line, that they committed an unforgivable offense and that the time has come to let it go, should stay away from this year’s Independence Day celebrations. Yes, the United States is the biggest and the most important among Israel’s friends, and so on and so forth, but this is not connected at all.

The Americans haven’t comprehended yet how principal an issue this is from the vantage point of the people of Zion. It has nothing to do with the right or the left, with politics, negotiations, economic aid or the Palestinian move in September. It’s merely a matter of humanity.

In order to make it possible for Pollard to pay the last honor to his father, after more than 25 years in jail, you don’t even have to be “the greatest friend of Israel.” You simply have to be a human. And the Americans, as sad as it is to discover, are not humans. In this matter, they are revealing themselves in all their cruelty. And therefore, I have no intention of going over to the ambassador’s house this year. Such a small act, a personal protest.

What They Implicated to Pollard, Never Was and Never Existed

Should it be followed by many others, and should the [Israeli] presence at the American party be reduced significantly, that would be a clear, sharp and profound message. Maybe I’m being naïve. But at such moments, it’s what is left.

Maariv has been leading a campaign for Pollard’s release for many months already. Since this campaign broke out, some things have changed. First, the situation in America has shifted. The pendulum, for the first time, swung in the opposite direction. A huge sweeping wave of American higher-ups have joined the call to set Pollard free.

The driving force of this surge was Lawrence Korb, formerly assistant secretary of Defense under Caspar Weinberger, who made a false case against Pollard in a special letter to the judges who ignored the plea deal with him and gave him a life sentence. Korb wholeheartedly admits today that what was attributed to Pollard at that time was no more than a figment of imagination. The man has been sitting there for 26 years in vain because they wished it so. Because they want to punish Israel for its spying in Washington and because they are not sure that Israel transferred to their hands everything it should have.

Yet anyway, 26 years — it’s a decent punishment. Pollard’s life was devastated. He already won’t have children. He has lost his family forever. His health is ruined, too. No one could return to him the lapsed years. All that remains is to grant him mercy at last and let him spend what’s left from his life as a free man.

Not long ago, an American spy for al-Qaida (al-Qaida!!), who forwarded to the terrorist organization information on the movement of American warships in international waters (in the period when the organization hit the major United States Navy destroyer in Yemen), was sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment. He’ll probably walk out of there after six and a half years. While Pollard is still there.

A Bonfire of Hatred

The situation in Israel meanwhile underwent changes as well. Pollard’s campaign, which collected mold for years in a forgotten corner and became a “baby” of the extremist right, has reawakened. A petition of Knesset members asking to let Pollard out to visit his father at the death’s door has gathered 71 signatures over a few days.

If we add the ministers, too, we’ll get to nearly all the members of Knesset in Israel. But the petition didn’t make it in time, since the father is already gone. At the moment, we should hope that Pollard will be given at least the opportunity to attend the funeral, which is to take place tomorrow in Indiana.

It’s difficult to understand what fuels this bonfire of hatred there in Washington, which manages to take away from the Americans their human character anew every time. Inmates way worse than Pollard go out to take care of their parents at their last moments and are certainly released for their funerals. But at the prison management, they convey each time Pollard’s requests upward to the superiors in Washington — and receive a denial.

These people should understand that there is one small country in the Middle East, considered to be the anchor of American strategy because of what it symbolizes in our region, which will not agree to keep putting up with this.

I’m calling on all invited to the American ambassador’s home on the occasion of July 4th to undertake an action and not show up at the event. This way we’ll make clear that we are indeed the representatives in the Middle East of what America stands for — but on this subject, America stands for something very bad. Even facing a squire, at times you need to act with courage.

*Translator’s Note: Prestigious sea resort; one of Israel’s most affluent districts; location of embassies and private residencies of foreign diplomats, businessmen, etc.