Israel and Israelis have been blaming everyone from Shimon Peres to President Barack Obama and even Jonathan Pollard himself for the American government’s refusal to free him from prison, but the real reason is American Pride that sits deep in the gut of the United States .
It is easy, and perhaps partly correct, to cry “anti-Semitism,” but that does not explain why most of the American Jewish establishment has not been campaigning for his release.
Pollard was sentenced to life for handing over secret documents for Israel, a crime that usually is punishable by two to four years in jail.
He has languished in jail, except when he was taken to the hospital for medical emergencies. He was not even allowed to go the funeral of his parents.
Pollard was accused of but never was convicted of “spying,” but American media to this day still report he “spied” on the United States.
Pollard is different from others who have been caught in the act of espionage,
He is an American. He was born in the United States. He is not an immigrant.
That is what hurts Americans.
Whatever damage he did to American security, if any at all, Americans suffered far more pain in its pride, a characteristic that Israel cannot understand because it takes on a different form in the Jewish state.
The United States always has been proud of itself, and it had good reason to be when it was the leader of the world, economically, culturally, morally and financially.
“When willful wickedness comes, then comes disgrace, but with the modest is wisdom.” – Proverbs 11:2.
Israel is proud in the positive sense of the word – affiliation and association with its raison d’tre and the feeling that every Jew belongs to the same tribe.
Israel is known for its divisiveness, but that is the root of its strength. Jewish thought never would have developed and flourished if rabbis had not argued over minute points, discussions that are written in the Talmud.
The deep divisions in Israeli society disappear in the time of need, such as when virtually the entire country recited Psalms for the well-being of Nachshon Waxman, the soldier who was kidnapped by Arab terrorists and eventually killed in a botched rescue effort by the IDF.
Israel, from left to right, was bound together when three yeshiva youth were kidnapped by Hamas murderers last June, and the entire country, from left to right with the exception of a few zanies, walked hand in hand during the Hamas war following the kidnap-murders.
On the other hand, America was supposed to be a melting pot that has turned out to be a collection of different religions, ethnicities and races, like any other country whose only common bind is that they leave in the same country.
Except for eating a turkey on Thanksgiving, the melting pot is more like a strange and totally coincidental mosaic
Mom, flag and apple-pie no longer represent America’s manufactured pride. ”Mom” doesn’t mean much in a society that not only accepts but also encourages homosexuality; “God” has a hard time in a society that goes out of its way to keep religion in the home. As for apple pie, there is only so much that one can eat.
So when an American, a born and bred American, is reported to be a “spy,” it punctures the illusion that the United States is pure, a country of patriots without knowing exactly to what.
The same false pride that keeps the Obama administration acting as if it is the power broker that can make peace in the Middle East, put Russia in its place and turns Africa into a continent of democracies, also keep Pollard behind bars.
And think of Pollard while you are eating turkey.