Could anyone seriously believe that any Israeli gov’t would trade one lousy US traitor for Jerusalem and the Right of Return? That’s pie-in-the-sky territory.
The point has always been for N. to claim Pollard as a sop to his own right wing - to make the medicine of settlement freezing/peace dealing go down easier. At least, that’s what he’s saying.
The right of return isn’t on the table and never will be. But really - you don’t need it to make peace, do you? Isn’t what’s important that Israelis make peace with Palestinians?
I don’t remember it coming up during the campaign, no. He may have said something about it - all the major parties are in favor of his release - but it certainly wasn’t a key component of his platform.
And no, Pollard isn’t so much a national hero as a national hangnail. He’s something that won’t go away and has to be fixed.
Could you explain what is entailed in being a staunch ally of the US, which punches above its weight militarily? Some references to Afghanistan and Iraq would be helpful.
Thanks.
This might also be a part of the divide; I’d venture that more Americans who know of Pollard are aware of this than Israelis. It’s fairly surprising to me that you’d never heard of this. It’s not really suspicion and conjecture, from the NYT piece:
The Soviets may also have stolen it from Israel after Israel stole it from the US, but either way it did serious damage to American security. Even if it hadn’t gotten into Soviet hands the mainstream view of him would probably remain the same though; a traitor or a fucking traitor.
Maybe if you had followed it for more than two decades you would be less surprised that he is a traitor that most of us think should never get out of prison. He should never take another free breath in my opinion. That Netanyahu likes to rub Pollard’s treason in our faces every time he comes to Washington is just fucking offensive. Pollard put American lives in danger for money.
Then Netanyahu has the chutzpah to suggest that there is some political benefit to clemency? Bullshit. There is no political benefit to anyone other than Netanyahu who will encourage others do do what Pollard did.
Wasn’t much of the material he gave the Israelis about the missile capabilities of Arab nations?
Netanyahu is the best hope we have to reduce the number of funerals. The Palestinians are too fractured and weak to take a risk, they have to be handed a good deal on a silver plater. Even then, a deal will start another Palestinian civil war.
Let’s see if he has the balls.
No. If you’re expecting Bibi Netanyahu to make some big magnanimous gesture to just start unilaterally withdrawing and giving stuff away, you’ll be waiting for a long time. He will never do that. He’s not going to hand the Palestinians “a good deal on a silver platter”. That’s not Netanyahu.
It is not magnanimity, it is self-interest. It is better to offer the Palestinians a deal so good they cannot refuse* is to stop burying Israelis, to stop raising Israeli kids to be killers, to stop burdening Israel with the military spending that some day they will have to pay for. Peace is its own reward, Israel is not making peace to be nice, they must do it to save themselves.
*Wanna bet? Look what happened last time.
Geez- Did I type that? Let me correct that just for my own self-esteem.
===That should read===
It is not magnanimity, it is self-interest. It is important to offer the Palestinians a deal so good they cannot refuse* so as to stop burying Israelis, stop raising Israeli kids to be killers, stop burdening Israel with the military spending that some day they will have to pay for. Peace is its own reward, Israel is not making peace to be nice, they must do it to save itself.
*Wanna bet? Look what happened last time.
What do you mean by “what happened last time”? The last time Israel offered the Palestinians a deal so good they couldn’t refuse and they refused it and started the Second Intifada? But everyone agrees there needs to be peace, so what are you arguing with me about? Do you think that Netanyahu will start unilaterally withdrawing and giving stuff away? What is it about his history or personality that leads you to believe that?
Pollard handed Israel the 10 volume RASIN (radio and signal intelligence) “bible”. Some time later, all or parts of it wound up in the hands of the Soviet Union, allegedly given to them by Israel to allow Jews to emigrate.
God willing, I’ll live to see a lasting peace with Canada.
But if they keep launching Biebers over the border…
He is smart enough to see his war policies have produced a brutal, besieged Israel. He has had a lifetime of trying war and now may be willing to try something else. Netanyahu is a stiff-necked leader of a stiff-necked people and may have the courage required to make peace and to force it on those who cannot see past endless war.
I totally disagree with the people who insist that Pollard will never ever ever be released. He is a marker on a board, and one of our friends wants him, and it’s totally possible that some day a deal will be struck. I don’t know what the price will be, or what the nature of a deal that includes Pollard would be, but I don’t discount it at all.
Shit, it might even be a more or less personal gesture between a president a prime minister. These people deal in human lives every fucking day, and the fact that intelligence professionals would be upset wouldn’t count for much more than a fart in the wind if the political circumstances seem advantageous.
Having five states attack you immediately after declaring your country could tend to make one “stiff necked.” :rolleyes:
And by the way, if the Palestinian leadership is so weak that even a generous peace deal would cause a Palestinian civil war, then it’s the Palestinians who aren’t ready to make peace.
With friends like these…
Pollard’s first parole date is in 2015, and he will probably make that parole. He is not in Supermax, but in a regular federal prison.
Now, you may ask yourselves, why does a loyal ally like Israel have the need to spy on the United States? Pollard and most Jews are not patriotic to anything except their religion and Zionism. He was working for Israel, yet Israel has never been called for this. How much money did Pollard make off this deal? How many others were in Pollard’s network who got to flee back to Israel?
Go troll stormfront. Most Jews aren’t part of a secret cabal that controls the world.