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| By Caroline Glick May 6, 2005 |
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Why does the name of the Israeli agent languishing in an American prison evoke such animosity in Washington Jews? On the eve of Passover, the Secret Service is looking for spies with Jewish names.
Very few names cause the kind of visceral reaction by Washington Jews that the name Jonathan Pollard does. "Why are you even bothering with that scoundrel? Don't you know what he did to us here! I hope he rots in prison." These are the kind of reactions that one hears from Washington Jews.
Last summer (and now again), the name of a Washington analyst, Larry Franklin, is in the news headlines. Franklin is a Catholic supporter of Israel who believes in a strategic common fate shared by Israel and the United States. Last summer it was reported that Franklin gave classified information about US policy on Iran to the pro-Israeli lobby group AIPAC, and that he did this as the emissary of "real spies" in the Pentagon and in the Bush Administration itself -- Jewish neo-conservatives.
At once the names of all the Jews holding top positions in the Defense Department appeared in a list in The Washington Post, in a report written, in fact, by the journalist responsible for reporting on the affairs of the Department of State. Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith, Harold Rood, Richard Perl, Scooter Libby -- all were suddenly under suspicion of betraying the US. Not a single name of a non-Jew was mentioned. The entire affair appears to have been contrived. The "information" that Franklin was supposed to have given to AIPAC had previously been published in The Washington Post, and did not at all represent American official policy towards Iran, but just a possible approach which had been brought up at a discussion which took place regarding American policy on Iran. Since the accusations were first made, nearly a year has passed and there has not been a single indictment. But in the process, all the Jews who work for the Administration were investigated and humiliated, and along with them a considerable number of Jews who have no connection to the Administration as well.
THE ZIONIST CLIQUE
The Jews themselves say that the name Pollard is always in the air. According to some of them, the FBI is still searching for Agent X -- the mythological highly-placed American for whom Pollard is supposed to have worked. Twenty years have gone by since Pollard's arrest and the FBI is still trying any way it can to prove that there was another Jew involved in the episode.
The publicized investigation of Franklin, as well as the publicized attacks against the "neo- conservatives" which began in the months before the American invasion of Iraq two years ago, still continue to this day. According to critics of the Administration, right, left and center, Washington has been taken over by a clique of "Zionist - neo - conservatives" which is promoting a foreign policy that enslaves simple Americans to the murky interests of Israel. The names of individuals which are mentioned are always those of Jews.
All that is needed to reveal the depth of the insult, the anger and the demoralization of the Jews in Washington, is to bring up the name Pollard. "He is the reason they suspect us to this day," they say. The Pollard problem has become a gaping abyss dividing American Jews and Israel. It is true, as they say, that perhaps the Israeli public is sympathetic to him, but for us he is a scoundrel. It is not just that he betrayed the US, they say; first and foremost, he betrayed American Jews; and by running him Israel betrayed us as well.
There is no doubt that Pollard hurt the reputation and the good name of American Jews, nevertheless, it is frankly worth asking, how it is that his influence is still so strongly felt after 20 years. There are 3 players who are responsible for why the Pollard affair still continues to affect the situation of all American Jews so deeply, as well as the relations between the US and Israel. They are: the American Intelligence community; the leaders of the American Jewish community; and the State of Israel.
THE SILENCE OF THE JEWISH ESTABLISHMENT
Pollard has become an effective tool in the hands of the Intelligence community in the US. It is not just that he stole classified information and transferred it to a foreign country; he stole the information and he gave it to Israel. Anti-Semites like the former Secretary of Defense in those days, Caspar Weinberger, and the former deputy head of the CIA, Bobby Ray Inman, recognized in Pollard an opportunity to weaken the influence of the Jews in America. The Jews at the time were strongly opposed to the limits which were imposed on Israel after the destruction of the Iraqi nuclear reactor; and they were similarly vociferously opposed to the sale of upgraded weapons systems to the Arabs, such as the sale of AWACS fighter planes to Saudia Arabia.
Israel-haters in the American Administration reckoned that if American Jews had to worry that they were sounding unfaithful to America every time they opened their mouths on behalf of Israel, then they might be less zealous in their defense of Israel. These same officials in the American Intelligence and security establishment working against Jews, did what every anti-Semite has always wanted to do to us since time immemorial: they decided to define for us what it means to be a Jew.
The trouble is, the American Jews allowed them to do so. Ever since the arrest of Pollard, the American Jewish establishment has accepted the unusual treatment he has been subjected to by the American Justice system without complaint. Pollard spent seven years in solitary confinement with barely a word of complaint by American Jewish leaders.
The witch-hunt against Jews that has been ongoing ever since, has been met with weak and half-hearted protest by the Jewish establishment. Even though the Jews marched shoulder to shoulder with Black American human rights activists in the 1960s, when it came to crying out against discrimination for "one of our own", the American Jewish leadership was utterly impotent.
If American Jewry in 1986, or even today, were united in protest against the life sentence imposed upon Pollard and against the witch-hunt of Jews in Washington, as if the deeds of one were indicative of all, then the Justice Department and the Intelligence community would be forced to curtail open season on all Jews. In other words, if the American Jewish establishment were more willing to defend itself -- American Jews would be under attack far less.
This is where we come to Israel. As much as they make noises about being independent leaders, the Jewish leadership in America gets both its courage and its signal to act, in no small measure, from Israel.
In the 1990s, for example, Israeli leaders such as Shimon Peres and Yossi Beilin instructed American Jewish leaders to change gears and to work for "peace", instead of for Israel. That is how it came about that almost all of the large Jewish organizations began to lobby Congress to give money to the PLO, and supported the CIA training Palestinian terrorists. In general, those leaders and Jewish activists repulsed by these policies, who asked emphatically to continue to support Israel, were fired for not showing more enthusiasm for the new policies. So it happened when the war for peace broke out in September 2000, it took a long time for the American Jewish Community to recover from the joy of lobbying for the PLO, and to return to defending itself and Israel.
In the case of Pollard, Israel abandoned her agent because her leaders reckoned that the abandonment would facilitate the repair of relations with the Americans. But that is not what occurred; the abandonment merely strengthened anti-Israel forces in Washington. When Israel failed to defend her agent and her interests, she was weakened. The Americans realized that Israel had no honor and that it was possible to pressure her and humiliate her. Instead of demanding an end to this treatment, Israel agreed to the humiliation. What this means is simple: defending Pollard, no matter how difficult it may seem is, in effect, self defense. And when Israel fails to defend herself, she is weakened, and all who are identified with her, are weakened as well.
BETRAYAL BY THE STATE
By abandoning Pollard, Israel has demonstrated that at least on one thing she has worked with consistency for the last 20 years. Pollard, the South Lebanese Army collaborators, the Palestinian collaborators and the settlers in Gaza and the northern Shomron who are under fire and living in constant threat of terror, day in day out, merely for trying to help the nation of Israel to hold on to the Land -- all have received the same treatment: betrayal by the State. The State betrays her friends, and shows preference instead to Hezbullah, to the PLO and to the anti-Semites in the US Intelligence community, and the anti-Israel activists of Gush Shalom and the rest of the pro-Palestinian movements.
The holiday of Passover is the Holiday of Freedom. In order to earn its freedom, a nation must be responsible for its actions. That includes showing good faith to friends, especially in difficult circumstances. In order to do this, a nation must adopt a model of honorable behavior. Without honor there can be no responsibility; and without responsibility there is no freedom. Achieving freedom is not a one-time event; it is an on-going struggle which lasts forever. The fact that it is a lasting and ongoing exercise, means that it is it never too late to begin. Israel, as the State of the Jewish People, is responsible to all Jews for as long as he is there. Pollard may be an Israeli hero, or not. But he is certainly an Israeli agent who fell victim to terrible discrimination, and it is up to Israel to secure his release -- not just for his sake -- but for ours.
Reprinted with permission of Makor Rishon. Translated to English by Justice4JP.
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