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A sad but true article appeared in the November 9 issue of the Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, about a guy named Jonathan Pollard, also known as Jay Pollard to those who know him personally. Written to commemorate Pollard’s 22nd year in prison (life w/o parole) the gist of the article revolved around his bitter disappointment with the Israeli government for doing literally nothing to secure his freedom. He is especially peeved off with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and President Shimon Peres, both of whom were around when Pollard and his first wife, Ann were arrested and convicted in 1985/86. While Ann (now divorced) “only” served a five year sentence, Jay wasn’t so lucky; and many are beginning to wonder if he will wind up like the German Rudolf Hess who parachuted into Scotland in 1941 to try to “persuade” the British government to make a separate peace treaty with Nazi Germany. Hess wound up being imprisoned for life in Spandau Prison and was later “allowed” to commit suicide at age 83.

The entire Pollard affair reeks with controversy, and many who have studied the case are coming to the conclusion that Jay’s actual crimes are far less that other so called spies, including some who were caught in espionage activities on behalf of the then Soviet Union. It also is becoming more apparent that Israeli officials who were either in the government at the time of Pollard’s arrest or in intelligence agencies such as the Mossad or Shin Bet made Pollard a scapegoat for their own covert activities. Peres was Foreign Minister in a power sharing agreement with Likud Party Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, and both kept silent during Pollard’s arraignment and trial. But perhaps the official who really should get the blame for what happened to Jay Pollard is Rafi Eitan, who is now head of the Pensioners Party. Eitan was a high ranking Mossad official and was Pollard’s “hander” or contact person to whom Pollard passed much of the information he acquired while serving as a US Navy Intelligence employee. Eitan’s true connection with Pollard may never be divulged, at least during Eitan’s lifetime, and Eitan even made a comment to Pollard’s present wife, Esther, a few years back that if he had had an opportunity, Eitan would have shot Pollard for his crimes.

So much for assistance from the very country that Jay Pollard wants to come to, despite the way he has been neglected by its government. How the U.S. government has treated him is also a matter of intense controversy, and even more liberal government administrations, i.e. the Clinton Administration, did nothing of Pollard’s behalf. The U.S. official who may go down in history as having the “credit” of sending Pollard to his fate was Casper Weinberger, who was Secretary of Defense during the Reagan Administration. It was Weinberger, as the story goes, who persuaded the Judge officiating at Pollard’s trial to give Jay the maximum sentence of life without possibility of parole. Weinberger is dead now, however; and as the saying goes, “dead men tell no tales”.

Jay Pollard continues to rot in a federal prison with convicted murders drug offenders and other like people as his fellow inmates. Unfortunately, Israeli and American officials, as well as much of the general public – both in Israel and abroad – seem to care less.