The Pollard Affair: Was it dual loyalty?

[Purveyor]

By ELI KAVON

I am proud to be an American. One hundred years ago the United States provided a safe haven for my ancestors who were escaping pogroms and poverty in czarist Russia. My father fought in the US Army as an infantry sergeant against the Nazi peril. I studied comparative religion and history at Columbia University in New York, an Ivy League school that would not have accepted me in the 1920s due to quotas against Jewish enrollment . My country affords me the right to express my Jewish identity and faith, giving me the freedom to stand up for who I am. The US is the leader of the free world. Why shouldn't I be proud of being an American?

Watching the inauguration of President Barack Obama, I was of course impressed with the American system of government that gives the son of an immigrant the opportunity to lead one of the world's great and diverse nations. It always amazes me how the transition of power is carried out here - democratically and peacefully. The system set in place by America's founding fathers more than 200 years ago has assured the vitality and relevance of US democracy into the 21st century.

Yet, while America is a land of opportunity and justice, there is not always justice for all Americans. I am thinking specifically of Jonathan Pollard. I was disappointed that outgoing president George W. Bush did not pardon Pollard for his treasonous acts of more than two decades ago. The FBI arrested Pollard in November 1985. A 31-year-old American Jew, Pollard was a civilian employee of US Naval Intelligence who provided Israeli spies with classified American satellite data on the location of Syrian antiaircraft batteries and of Iraqi nuclear test sites.

The Reagan administration, reeling from other espionage scandals, came down hard on Pollard and, in March 1987, an American court sentenced him to life in prison. It is not a question of Pollard's guilt or innocence - Jonathan Pollard betrayed his country. But does he truly deserve to be imprisoned for life? Was the information he gave to Israel - a staunch American ally - as damaging as information that other American traitors handed over to our enemies?

MOST AMERICAN Jews, as loyal supporters as they are of Israel, would never have betrayed this great country like Pollard did. But the Pollard Affair raises many questions about the specter of dual loyalty among American Jews. It is obvious that Pollard did not truly believe he was betraying his country. As an American Jew, I have lived my whole life hearing the mantra that "the interests of America are the interests of Israel." Fortunately, we, as Jews in America, have been protected from charges of dual loyalty precisely because the American dream and the Zionist dream share so much in common.

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[Howardx]

1. pollard is a traitor

he is right where he should be.

[provis99]

2. yep, traitor.

who knows what countries Israel sold Pollard's information too. I suspect that some of Pollard's stolen nuclear information was given by Israel to South Africa in the 1980's.

[Dick Dastardly]

3. Pollard is a traitor. He needs to stay in prison and rot n/t

[grassfed]

4. single loyalty and not to the US

[bemildred]

5. What Pollard believes has nothing to do with it.

People believe in all sorts of fatuous things. What Pollard did is the issue, and that's what he is in jail for, and why he will stay there.