Jonathan Pollard and the Bent-Over Jews

Boaz Moshkovich - Israelinsider - February 1, 2006

Translated from Hebrew by Amiel Ungar

Let me refer to a familiar joke: two Jews are standing with their backs to the wall waiting to be executed. The officer commanding the firing squad approaches them offering a last cigarette. "Go to hell, I don't want anything from you" exclaims the first Jew. "Don't cause trouble now!" hushes the second Jew.

This joke is most apt as it accurately reflects the behavior displayed by the State of Israel. The Jew of base spirit, who in times of troubles knows only how to bow his head and wait until the wave passes over him and is incapable of even telling the executioner to go the hell is the very same Jew who presently sits in the Government and in the Supreme Court of the State of Israel. Always bent-over, avoiding all contact with the wind that blows above they are constantly searching below for a rolling object which they can pocket.

Only a cowardly Jew, who has acquired a hunchback from frequent prostrations before the feudal lords, could have spurned Jonathan Pollard's request that he be recognized as a prisoner of Zion. The reasons advanced by the inseparable Siamese twins the state and the High Court of Justice are cheap bureaucratic arguments. If they believed that we would be persuaded by these arguments that Pollard is unworthy of the title, they are apparently insulting our intelligence even more than we had previously imagined. Maybe this in itself constitutes the sole innovation in the court's decision: they have again discovered a way to descend to a baser level.

Only a Jew who every minute sneaks a frightened glance, anticipating "what the Gentiles will say, could have scanned the law books in search of a small loophole that would enable him to elude the obligation to assist a captive Jew. Even the Jew Zis in the historical novel by Leon Feuchtwanger enlists to aid another Jew who is held captive in a blood libel; but the contemporary State of Israel is a different entity. The Jew Zis symbolized the diaspora, he was a man of finance and government but he remained a Jew at heart. The present government and legal system of the state of Israel is populated by a coterie of venal and adulation seeking careerists, who display scant interest in considerations predicated on Jewish morality.

Jonathan Pollard did not teach Hebrew because he was not an instructor of Hebrew in America, where the study of Hebrew is not an act for which Jews are persecuted by the authorities. Perhaps he didn't encourage immigration to Israel, but he sacrificed himself for the welfare of the state to enable its continued existence as a destination to which Jewish immigration could be encouraged. If these are the reasons that disqualify him for the title who will wish to run risks in order to act on behalf of the State of Israel?

Was Ron Arad on whose behalf we unrequitedly freed Sheikh Obeid and Mustafa Dirani, guilty of similar sins? Perhaps this is the reason that it took us so many years to liberate Azam Azam -- he simply did not provide Hebrew lessons in Egypt....

The State of Israel never scrutinized the actions of prisoners of Zion in the Soviet Union before it awarded them the title. Not everyone knew a word of Hebrew, not everyone delivered impassioned speeches on behalf of immigration and there were one of two prisoners of Zion who upon their liberation journeyed to America.

This was simply a just struggle of Jews against the evil government of the Soviet Union and the State of Israel at that time still possessed an iota of good Jewish spirit in its desire to aid a Jew in distress whose struggle is just. No longer. If we are dealing with immigration to Israel what will estrange Jews more from the State of Israel than its divestment from every last morsel of Jewish morality?

In this context the response of the Prisoner of Zion Joseph Mendelevich is important: "I thank God that the High Court of Justice didn't intervene at the time in handling my case and that of my comrades who resided in the Russian jail otherwise we would have found ourselves in jail until this very day. The disgraceful decision of the High Court of Justice prolongs and magnifies one of the most severe acts of moral turpitude in the annals of the State of Israel.

In reality aside from employing back channels vis-a-vis the Government of the Soviet Union which was of little avail, the State of Israel didn't really assist the prisoners of Zion and those who had been refused emigration to Israel even then. The brunt of the work was born by Jewish organizations in the United States and other diaspora countries. Now the situation is different: we are dealing with an American Jew who "could besmirch their reputation" The Jews have become stressed ("What will the Gentiles say") and Pollard remains exposed to fire in the tank turret.

The Gentiles, same as the Jews, without any religious, racial or sexual distinction can be subdivided into the idiots and the wise. The idiots always look for salacious gossip regarding Pollard in order to salve their consciences as if he had betrayed American agents to their deaths (what another CJIA agent of pure gentile stock actually did). The wise people look at the state of Israel and cluck their tongues: oy vey, what has happened to the Jews!?

There is one principle of human behavior that recognizes no distinction predicated on nationality, race and religion: the idiots loathe the wise person the craven contemns the brave the base-spirited hates the daring. Jonathan Pollard constitutes a threat to them his personality is so great that they find themselves spiritually incapable of honoring him. The stooped people who can see only the spittle covered floor under their feet can't look far enough in order to see their decisions blown away by the tempests of history.

Jonathan is recognized as a prisoner of Zion by the people which constitutes a higher forum than the High Court of Justice. Jonathan will be remembered as a hero when the names of the petty officials and cowardly judges will be expunged from the pages of history. The goal of his liberation is not only the problem of a single captive Jew; it poses a fundamental question for the State of Israel, will it endure as the state of the Jews?

Originally published on Global Report and reprinted on www.FreePollard.org, the Hebrew website on behalf of Jonathan Pollard.
Click here to see the original Hebrew Article.

Bio Notes:


Boaz Moshkovich, the author, writes for NFC and other Israeli publications.
Amiel Ungar, the translator, is a contributing editor of The Jerusalem Report and writes for other Israeli publications.

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