If i send my son over to my neighbor’s house to steal their jewelry and he gets caught, do you think I should be able to go over there and say, “Don’t arrest him-just let me take him home because I am responsible for him.”? In a case like that, what is more likely to happen is that my son will be arrested for the attempted robbery, and I will be arrested for my confession.
Not only do you not get Mr. Pollard back, I think your government should hand over whoever ordered him to do this deed.
If you want responsibility, you should damn well accept responsibility.
I just wanted to highlight this for Malthus and Allesan to let them know that this is the mainstream sentiment about Pollard in the US, and this is why no US President could release him even if they wanted to (and so far, none of them have even been sympathetic).
Excellent point, and well-made. But Pollard is not ‘one of yours,’ he is ‘one of ours.’ It is our business what we do with him.
Amit is ‘one of yours;’ do with him in a star chamber as is your wont.
No, that’s not the important point at all. The Israeli public could be educated that it is deeply offensive to Americans to imply that we are somehow acting in bad faith with an ally by keeping a criminal in prison. At the very least, that could change the way in which Israelis make their case for leniency.
It would also be nice if the Israeli public understood the gravity of how Pollard’s actions hurt the United States. (See the New Yorker article I linked to earlier, esp. the evidence on why it is believed that a substantial amount of information was passed along to the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War, as well as the sheer volume of secrets that Pollard stole – enough to fill a room 10 feet x 6 feet x 6 feet according to Pollard’s own estimate.)
It would be really nice if Israel would make a commitment to stop passing US secrets on to countries adversarial to the United States – not just the Soviet Union thing, but also stories like this as well.
In summary, I see no need to consent to the notion that Americans should accept or understand the Israeli public’s views on the matter, if the Israeli public does not accept or understand that the persistent requests to release Pollard is flat-out offensive to most Americans.
It seems so to me as well, but that’s the way the American justice system works. All American sentences seem draconian to me. I’m not all that familiar with Pollard’s case, but it seems to me that releasing him wouldn’t be such a bad idea at this point, especially if it helps Netanyahu sell his people necessary but politically difficult decisions. As Alessan points out, he seems to have acted at least in part for reasons of ideology (yes, he was also paid), which makes it more forgiveable in my mind.
Well, the US was founded by traitors. But I see your point. And I’d assume that Israel, given its precarious position in the world, would have a similar or even harsher view of traitors as you do.
That’s a valid objection, although I don’t believe right-wingers usually blame Obama for being too pro-Israel. If he were to release a man convicted of spying for an Arab state, then the political fallout would be terrible.
Just as an aside, it seems to me that Americans often to think they know the people whose ethnic heritage they share, even though they live in a completely different country, with a completely different culture.
First of all, I’m pretty sure Israel apologized for the whole thing. It’s been 25 years or so - I was just a kid when it all happened - but I doubt Reagan, Schultz et al would have let relations between the two countries return to normal without a formal apology.
Second of all, the person responsible for sending him was the Prime Minister at the time, whether or not he knew the operation was taking place. It’s considered bad form for leaders to sell out their subordinates, even if they deserve it.
Third of all… given your hypothetical: won’t you go up to your neighbor, every now and then, and say, “Can’t you let him go? I know he did something wrong, but hasn’t it been long enough?” Even if you know he’ll never say yes, don’t you think you have to try? Or will you completely disown your son?
Nations living in peace with their neighbors - real peace, not a ceasefire of a decade or two - is not the natural state of human affairs. Sad, but true
The US will trade foreign spies for our guys. But American citizens who are spies do life in prison, and before that, like the Rosenbergs, were executed. Hanson, Aldrich Ames, the Walkers, etc are going to do life in prison. Pollard is actually going to get out in a few years and should consider himself extremely lucky that he will get out and be something of a hero in Israel if he is allowed to leave the country and move to Israel.
As for trading him for some sort of peace concession, it would be suicidal for the party of the President that gave clemency. Not only that, but there is a strong feeling in the US that Israel is not interested in peace with the Palestinians unless it involves taking more land that is disputed. In short, we expect to get nothing out of it.
The fact that most Americans don’t care that Israel and their military is highly subsidized by the US treasury really should make the Israeli’s happy. Nobody ever talks about cutting aid to Israel, and I would think that very special status would make the beneficiaries of that aid stop being really insulting about Pollard (yes, it is insulting to ask for clemency for him when he is actually going to get out one day when it should be LWOP.)
If Obama does release Pollard, which political party will object? Will the Democrats turn against the President, or will the Republicans go apeshit if he does something ostensibly pro-Israel? Have any major U.S. political figures, outside the White House, ever said anything about Pollard?
The Republicans will certainly object if Obama releases Pollard. The Republicans object to everything that Obama does, including the Health Care Plan which they supported back in 1993. If the Republicans had wanted Pollard out, they could have had Bush do it during his 8 year term. Reagan could have granted clemency and so could Bush Sr. Had they done so the Democrats would have objected, but not as strongly and loudly as Republicans. Their base would have been furious.
This isn’t the same as a non-citizen spying. We know that happens all the time and that Israel has plenty of operatives in the country. We are unforgiving of citizens spying. By US standards Pollard got off very lightly because it was for Israel. Compare Hanson, Ames, Walker, Rosenberg.
A large number of Clinton and Bush people have vocally opposed any clemency for Pollard, as have several notables from the US Intelligence community. One former CIA Director, Robert Woolsey, has publicly voiced support for letting him go under certain conditions, and Bill clinton wrote in his memoir that he considered it but was talked out of by the intelligence community, Madeline Albright and others, largely because Pollard has never expressed any remorse and because the feeling in the US intellegence community and the government is that his motives were purely mercenary (despite the Israeli perception that it was ideological).
There are some pro-Pollard activists in the US like Alan Derschowitz, but he’s not a politician.
If Obama were to let Pollard go, the right would not characterize it as pro-Israel, but as anti-American – that he is “freeing a traitor.” They attack everything Obama does as anti-American anyway, but this is a case where the right is already locked into a position of opposition to releasing Pollard because the whole Bush administration was against it.
Actually, it might be interesting to see how the right would try to walk that tightrope of vilifying Obama without vilifying Israel (and trying to paint Obama as anti-Israel is one of the memes they really try to push). Come to think of it, Obama might have more leeway on this than his predecessors becuase it would force the right wing to either stop calling him anti-Israel or risk sounding anti-Israel themselves.