In recent weeks I have noticed a new drive to free Jonathan Pollard. This time the list of those who urge doing so includes some very famous and powerful names. It is the first time I have seen these names in this context. Names like Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv and Rav Ahron Leib Shteinman. And the plea does not end with only these distinguished names, both of whom are Gedolim, one of whom many consider to be the Gadol HaDor. The full force and prestige of the entire Moeztes of Agudah is now also on board as well.
So in effect it seems we have almost the entire Torah world actively seeking his release, a release that many feel is long over-due. And no less in the forefront of those efforts was my own Rebbe, Rav Aaron Soloveichik who during his lifetime made personal visits to Mr. Pollard and publicly called for his release.
Is his release justified? One would think so in light o all the rabbinic support for it. There is also the little matter of Pidyan Sh’vuyim. Although I’m not sure Mr. Pollard qualifies. If he does, I’m sure Rav Elyashiv and Agudah wouldn’t have been pretty much silent all these years.
There seems to be an over-whelming sense that what ever he did, Mr. Pollard has long ago paid is debt to society… serving over 22 years of a life sentence. And this, after agreeing to co-operate in a plea bargained deal for leniency, which he was later denied. Many perceive this to be a gross miscarriage of justice. What happened was, President Reagan’s Defense Secretary, Casper Weinberger testified that the highly classified documents Mr. Pollard disseminated to his Israeli handlers so severely compromised US security that the maximum sentence was the only fair punishment. Some saw this as pure anti-Semitism. And it has been alleged that the intelligence community is full of such prejudice.
For those who do not recall the circumstances of the case, Jonathan Pollard, a Naval intelligence analyst at the time, photographed tons of classified documents containing information he believed to be vital to Israeli interests but which the intelligence community refused to share with them. The number of highly secret documents stolen by Mr. Pollard were massive. Since they were classified, we do not really know exactly what was in them. We just had Casper Weinberger’s word for it. If I recall correctly it was alleged that those contained not only information of value to Israel, but information about the names of undercover spies which compromised their ability to function as well as putting their lives in danger.
The fact that it was released to a friendly nation didn’t matter. Once that information was leaked, it may as well have been leaked to our worst enemies, At least that’s what the intelligence community asserted and it is how Casper Weinberger characterized it. The prosecution also claimed that Mr. Pollard’s primary motivation was the money he was paid by his Israeli handlers, not the altruism he claimed it to be. Had he not taken any money, would it have helped his case? I don’t know. Israel for its part has denied any participation in this adventure and has called it a rouge action, thus washing their hands of it.
So the proverbial book was indeed thrown at Mr. Pollard and he was given a life sentence.
Was this anti-Semitism of the most nefarious kind disguised as national security needs? Or was it a just sentence in light of the damage he supposedly caused to the security of this country? I don’t know.
It has been argued that whatever Mr. Pollards crime was, no matter how serious… it was has long since become irrelevant and no longer presents any danger to this country, Add to that that he has fared no better than some of the worst traitors in American history, people like Aldrich Ames and Robert Hansen both of whom admitted that they sold American secrets to our enemies for money, makes his punishment seem more than excessive.
So the question remains is his release justified? Should we agitate on his behalf? Was his punishment too excessive? Was it justified at all? And what will be the impact of agitating for his release be on Klal Yisroel? Should we pull out all the stops to do so? And even if we do, will it work? Or will he stay in prison and just make us look like a bunch of parochialists that are interested only in our own welfare and not that of anyone else’s?
The truth is I have no real answers to these questions. My guess is that neither did Agudah or Rav Elyashiv up until recently, since this is the first time they have made any public attempts to secure his release.
Of course there are those who would say, The Gedolim have spoken. But that does not release me from questioning if this is indeed the time to agitate for his release if there ever is …or was one.
And I know that I am not alone in questioning whether it is appropriate or not to seek his release. There are reasons to oppose it. For one thing, we have no clue as to what he did. The details of it are still classified, to the best of my knowledge. And it is also true that every single President since Jonathan Pollard’s sentencing, including President Reagan himself, was very sympathetic to Israel and the Jewish people. Yet none of them would grant him clemency, not even President Clinton, who tried to do so but was told of massively negative repercussions (what ever that means) if he did. The counter to that is the fact that the media and many other government spokesmen have been sympathetic to the argument that Mr. Pollard was unjustly treated from the very start and that it is certainly long past due to correct that injustice.
Indeed, on the face of it, it would seem that to be so. 22 years is a long time. He was never an enemy of the US, just a friend of Israel, and though he was misguided and foolish he long ago paid his dues. And it seems obvious to me that he is paying the same high price that traitors far worse than he, are paying. That is a miscarriage of justice. So I lean toward supporting his release through clemency or any other means. But it should be understood, that we do so at our own peril and without complete knowledge of his misdeeds. Nor will we ever really know what his true motives really were. And we will likely never know the true motives of those who wish to see his continued incarceration. Were they really anti-Semitic, or not?
But, after 22 years in prison, the time has finally come. I believe justice will be better served by a commutation of his sentence.
