Monday, March 14, 2011

Obama, Let My Pollard Go!

In a letter to the US leader, Kissinger said "I believe justice would be served by commuting the remainder of Pollard's sentence of life imprisonment."

It has come to the point where Israel’s Prime Minister will formally approach the American president and request him to free Pollard.

With great anticipation, we await the moment that Prime Minister Natanyahu says to President Obama, “Let My Pollard Go!”  How strange that this event is slated to happen at the same time that synagogues around the world are reading from the opening chapters of the Book of Exodus.


After 25 years of prolonged imprisonment and 1,000’s of articles written about the Pollard case and the miscarriage of justice, it has come to a point where Israel’s Prime Minister will approach the American president and request to free Pollard.

For years, the anti-Pollard voices claimed that Pollard committed an unspeakable crime but no one seemed to know the significant details and no one had access to supposedly a locked secret allegation document. Yet, significant witnesses as well as Casper Weinberger who for years had enforced Pollard’s life sentence confessed that the substance for penalizing Pollard was trite. Plus, now we know that the most serious charges were bogus.

It has been stated untold times that Pollard apologized for his actions of supplying information to the nation of Israel which has always been a friend to America. Further confusing, the information which Pollard brought to Israel was information which America was to legally provide Israel. Anti-Pollard people have claimed that Pollard’s information went to a third party and resulted in the death of American agents in Russia. This claim was determined to be the basis of his life long sentence.  When this claim was discovered to be a false, nothing was done to rectify punishing Pollard for the misdeeds of others.

It is despicable that Pollard has been imprisoned on false charges that have been known to be false for many years. The continued imprisonment of Pollard has been a crime upon the hands of all who keep him imprisoned.

President Obama is currently the only person with the power to end the Pollard injustice and to take an action which will at least bring an end to the wrongs of the past.

Once Natanyahu makes his formal request, we will wait to see if President Obama will respond with correct action or will there be a "hardening of the heart"?

Some political advisors state that Obama should wait and leverage the Pollard release when he can gain renewed Jewish support for the 2012 election. Others say Obama should only release Pollard if he can get Israel to make major political concessions with the Palestinian leaders including an extended building freeze in Jerusalem.

What happened to doing the right thing because it is the right thing? Why is it that the right thing has to be linked to a wrong thing or to another thing?

Pollard must be released because it is a flagrant injustice to give a life sentence for an uncommited crime.  Pollard has gone far beyond the duty of paying his debt to society. Society now has a much larger debt to pay Pollard.

The human race shares a value of justice and the responsibility to build a fair and just society. When justice is abused, the entire human race suffers and bares the responsibility to rectify the wrong.

It is time that every American not be silent till Pollard is pardoned and released.

We look forward to see the American Congress and the American people stand together to support the right decision of President Obama for the immediate pardon and release of Jonathan Pollard
by Dr. Daryl Temkin
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Tevet 23, 5771 / 30 December 10

Irv Rubin and Earl Krugel