As I take a break for the Jewish HolyDay of Yom Kippur, I want to write a short note to place Jonathan Pollard in the context of what I have been writing about recently.

The grave injustice of the American Justice system's treatment of Mr. Pollard and the unfair interference by the vile Caspar Weinberger are discussed at length in my novel, The Second Catastrophe.

Suffice it to say that Pollard was convicted (he pled guilty) of spying for an ally, but was sentenced as if he was convicted of treason (that is, spying for an enemy at war) or at least as if he was convicted of spying for an unfriendly country.   The median sentence for what he was convicted of is about 3 to 5 years, yet he was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.

The American Jewish community has, to its shame, not made Pollard's release an important issue for American Jews. Despicably, Senator Joseph Lieberman even wrote a letter to President Clinton asking him not to pardon Pollard, as Clinton made the usual bulk pardons at the end of his administration.

The American Jewish community is afraid that Pollard emphasizes the "dual loyalty" fear:  i.e. that American Jews will be seen as serving two masters, and therefore cannot be trusted to be part of the mainstream of American political life. So we see why Lieberman felt so threatened by Pollard.

Where I differ, and what you can see from my recent posts, is that I argue that the American Jewish support of Israel must be seen as support for the front lines in the very war that has been declared not only on Israel, but on America and Europe.

Instead of following the European approach of willingness to sacrifice the Jews and the Jewish State of Israel to buy time against Iran, America must impress on the world that Israel's struggle is the exact same struggle as America's struggle to be free of terrorism and intimidation against our liberal freedoms.

Once we understand that, we insist that Pollard must be freed.  It is that simple.

May we include in our prayers a prayer for the freedom of Jonathan Pollard and a prayer that the American people will soon understand that America is not just Israel's supporter, but as I have said earlier, America has become Israel.

You can read more about Jonathan Pollard at:  http://www.jonathanpollard.org/