Former PM Ehud Olmert attacked the US government’s decision to nullify Jonathan Pollard’s parole restrictions.
“We don’t owe him anything,” said Olmert. “His coming to Israel will only increase the fallout from his case.”
Nothing seems stranger than the above statement by former PM Ehud Olmert. There is one thing from refraining to comment on the Pollard case while he was in jail. While not commendable, at least such a move would be understandable, but to attack the US for following their own laws because by letting Pollard it will only further “embarrass” Israel is not only circular logic, but totally preposterous.
So, what is really going on here?
To understand why Olmert, whom most Israelis consider to be the worst Prime Minister the country has ever had, has come out strongly against Pollard being set free from his parole and most likely moving to Israel, it is imperative to understand what the Pollard case is really about.
Arrested for spying on the US in 1985, Jonathan Pollard was in a sense a romantic Zionist – in love with what he believed the State of Israel to represent. His arrest came after a series of meetings with LAKAM agents, which was a clandestine section of the Mossad. Both Pollard and his wife were drawn into the LAKAM circle through high value gifts and trips.
Eventually, LAKAM decided to. activate Pollard, who was responsible for bringing the group high value information, the US was holding back from Israel – essentially in opposition to agreements the two countries had signed.
While Pollard sought help and refuge at the Israeli Embassy in Washington D.C. when he and his wife found out they were to be arrested, the embassy under direction from Israel refused and threw him out. Moments later the FBI arrested him.
Everyone now agrees, Pollard’s sentencing was extreme. While most people who spy for friendly countries get a maximum of 10 years, Pollard’s sentence was for life, which translated into 30 years and then five years of a heavy restrictive parole.
While it is understandable for Americans to have a negative viewpoint of Jonathan Pollard, what is not understandable is the level of negativity espoused by Israelis like Olmert. The intelligence Pollard handed off to the LAKAM agents saved lives, and yet the elite in Israel are scared about his return.
In many ways Pollard is analogous to each of us. We all want to do good. We make decisions based upon noble intentions and then just like that – it all falls apart.
These decisions can cost us; especially when we are abandoned by the very thing that we believed could do no wrong.
This was Pollard and this is why the Deep State in Israel is nervous. At least this is the most probable reason.
Ultimately though, it is more or less the same attitude that caused Israel to flinch in the first place, which resulted in abandoning Jonathan Pollard for so many years, that Olmert is working from. It is this spineless, subservient attitude that has caused us never to accept collective responsibility as anation for what Jonathan Pollard went through. After all, he did it for all of us and it was for us that he needlessly spent so many years in jail.
The Deep State in Israel is nervous about Pollard’s potential move to the Holy Land, not because of any piece of information he may have. No, those people have already left this earth. The Deep State is nervous, because in prison Jonathan Pollard appears to have transformed into a wall of faith by humbly and accepting his lot. He has become a source of unity within the Jewish people. This unity and transcendence is what the elite and Deep State truly fear. His move to Israel would in many ways shift the focus away from faux Israeli “heroes” to a man who may have erred, but did so because of his love of Israel and paid the price for it year after year, while those who abandoned him moved up the political ladder.
The elite and Deep State in Israel don’t want an actual hero to show up here. That in of itself would expose their petty tirades and squabbles that have in the past led the third Jewish commonwealth to near disaster.
Pollard is far more about us than it really is about the man. It is how we as a collective accept national responsibility and come to terms with it when we don’t. The world is going through an uncertain time right now and yet, Israel appears poised to move forward into the future with a tremendous amount of positive energy. However, it suffers from disunity and a lack of meaningful leadership.
Could a man, who suffered behind bars due to the weakness of the government he believed he was helping be the leader we need after all?
We’ll soon find out.