Anti-Semitism and Jonathan Pollard

A number of recent Jerusalem Post articles have been dedicated to the subject of Jonathan Pollard. In one of them, Esther Pollard, compared her husband's case to that of French military officer Alfred Dreyfus. In response to Esther's article (which was itself a response to another article), Jerusalem Post columnist Larry Derfner declared that it would be crazy to think that anti-Semitism was behind Pollard's long sentence.

Derfner writes:

You have to be way over the top with Jewish paranoia to believe that George W. Bush and Bill Clinton are anti-Semites or haters of Israel, that they acted out of such motives in the White House. I think any reasonable person, Jew or gentile, has to agree that neither Bush nor Clinton would have treated any Jew unfairly because he wanted to punish American Jewry or the State of Israel.

Therefore, Derfner concludes, it must be that Pollard deserved his life sentence for an offense, which as Esther Pollard said, "carries a median sentence of two to four years."

But Derfner is "way over the top with Jewish" naiveté, to believe that anti-Semitism had nothing to do with a ridiculously harsh sentence being given to a Jew spying for the Jewish state.

First of all, there is no magic pill that U.S. Presidents take to immunize themselves from anti-Semitism. Can there really be any doubt that anti-Semitism was behind U.S. immigration policies keeping Jews out of the United States during World War II? What about Nixon's numerous slurs against Jews (and other groups) caught on tape?

Regardless of a President's possible anti-Semitic feelings, the President didn't put Pollard in prison and therefore no one is accusing President Clinton or Bush of taking any anti-Jewish action. But just because the president isn't anti-Semitic doesn't mean that anti-Semitism has nothing to do with the case.

It is hard to believe that Pollard's actions were so heinous as compared with others convicted of passing classified information, as President Clinton agreed to consider releasing Pollard and the U.S. prosecutor did not seek a life sentence.

Instead of an anti-Semitic president cruelly keeping Pollard in prison, the picture Derfner says Pollard supporters (who include most of Israel's Knesset) have in mind, what is more likely is that high level officials in the executive branch are the ones with anti-Semitic feelings. As Derfner forgets, there are in fact people who believe that U.S. support for Israel has no rational basis, and is only due to overbearing Jewish lobby groups who have more control over U.S. policy in the Near East than they should. Such people would see Pollard's release (or being given any sentence other than life) as a miscarraige of justice and as being against U.S. interests. They would therefore oppose granting Pollard any mercy despite Pollard's cooperation with U.S. Prosecutors, their promise not to seek a life sentence, and the U.S.-Israel friendship, in a way they wouldn't even consider with a person convicted of passing classified information to any other country.

For more information see:

• The Official Website for Jonathan Pollard.
• Richard A. Best Jr. & Clyde Mark, Jonathan Pollard: Background and Considerations for Presidential Clemency (CRS Report for Congress, Jan. 31, 2001).
• Eli Kavon, The Pollard Affair: Was it Dual Loyalty (Jerusalem Post, Feb. 11, 2009).
  
• Ruthie Blum Leibowitz, One on One: 'I was the resident skeptic' (Jerusalem Post, Feb. 12, 2009).
  
• Esther Pollard, Right of Reply: Not treason, not dual loyalty, but equal justice is the issue (Jerusalem Post, Feb. 15, 2009).
  
• Larry Derfner, Rattling the Cage: Jewish paranoia and Jonathan Pollard (Jerusalem Post, Feb. 18, 2009).