Israeli PM Bibi Netanyahu loves Jonathan Pollard and has written a letter asking for his release from federal prison in the United States.
This just made us want to compare the historic Dreyfus Affair with its contrasting opposite, the modern Pollard Affair.
Let's see. The two start out similar. Both men were Jews who were accused of spying against their own countries.
Dreyfus was sentenced in 1894 to life imprisonment for allegedly having communicated French military secrets to the German Embassy in Paris, and was sent to the penal colony at Devil's Island and placed in solitary confinement.
Pollard was sentenced in 1987 to life imprisonment for allegedly having communicated American military secrets to the Israelis, and was sent to the federal prison and placed in solitary confinement.
Two years later evidence implicated someone else as the culprit in the French affair. But Dreyfus was further accused by the French Army with fabricated evidence.
Pollard admitted his crimes. Nobody ever claims that he was framed.
In his famed J'accuse letter, the writer Emile Zola exposed the framing of Dreyfus and the cover up of exculpatory evidence . The fallout from this affair divided French society.
The confessed spy Pollard tried to get Wolf Blitzer to interview him in prison. This infuriated the US authorities.
Dreyfus was fully exonerated and reinstated in the Army where he served with honor.
Pollard wants to be freed because he says he is really sorry and he has been in a nasty jail a really long time.
In the end the Dreyfus affair exposed the antiSemitism of European society and stimulated the Zionism of Theodor Herzl, which in turn led to the ultimate founding of the State of Israel.
In the end the Pollard affair is eroding the political credibility of all those Zionists who express support for him, in particular Bibi Netanyahu. We think it is seriously damaging the Zionist cause.
Just what motivates this present self-defeating behavior? We simply have no clue.
Pollard may have confessed to espionage, but at the end of the day he is a political prisoner, not a criminal. His release, even it were part of a secret negotiated settlement, would go a long way towards patching up the US/Israeli relationship, and would provide Netanyahu the needed political cover for a negotiated peace process. The point being that this man and his family have suffered long enough as a pawn in an international chess game. It's time that he be allowed to go home.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment. I don't understand it. Pollard is a convicted spy. His release would change nothing. He is not a pawn in any game. Israel and the US have excellent normal relations. There is nothing to patch up.
ReplyDeleteYes he is a convicted spy, but unlike his cell mate Bernie Madoff, he is not a convicted criminal. He is a political prisoner in the sense that his crime is one of divided political loyalties. I would also not categorize the Netanyahu/Obama relationship as excellent and normal. For the moment, Israel/US relations go through these two men. Releasing Pollard would go a long way in making this relationship more productive.
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