IMRA - Tuesday, April 8, 2008 Moshe Feiglin describes visit to Pollard

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Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Moshe Feiglin describes visit to Pollard

A Hug for a Betrayed Brother
By Moshe Feiglin - Makor Rishon - April 8, 2008

Moshe Feiglin visited Jonathan Pollard in prison on Tuesday, April 2, 2008.
The following is his report on the visit as translated to English by J4JP:

He almost never talks about himself. Throughout our conversation, he speaks
about Israel, about the Jewish People, about me. But not about himself.

We hug. "You're banned from England, eh?" he chuckles, before we even have a
chance to sit down. These were the first words out of his mouth when we met
last Tuesday. It never ceases to amaze me how this man, betrayed by us and
buried alive in prison 24 years ago, is always so up to date on everything.
How clear he is and sharp as a razor.

In the hours leading up to the meeting, I feel distressed. A kind of
uncomfortable collective guilt enfolds you before meeting with the betrayed
captive. He probably senses it and tries to dispel the dark feelings with
his smile.

Jonathan Pollard begins with a detailed analysis of what is going on in
Israel. Of the 2 hours that have been allotted to us, Jonathan uses 90% of
the time to discuss the problems we are facing as a nation. He keeps to a
minimum any talk about himself, and that is, in fact, why the few personal
words which he does volunteer have such a tremendous impact.

When names like Yisrael Maimon (the former Cabinet Secretary who was
previously responsible for the Pollard file) come up, it is hard for him to
control his feelings, but he does. The names of other Israeli officials,
like Ehud Barak who was the head of Israel's Military Intelligence back
then, come up in the course of the conversation from time to time and
produce a similar response. "They betrayed me 24 years ago, and they are
still stabbing me in the back in prison now."

The reaction to the Israel State Comptroller's decision to investigate the
continuing failure of the government and its abandonment of an agent, was to
be expected. Too many top officials were involved in the espionage and they
want to keep Pollard buried along with the operation. It is not just the
Minister of Defense Ehud Barak. It is not just Minister Rafi Eitan, and not
just the Supreme Court Justice Eliyakim Rubinstein, who was the Special
Envoy at the Washington Embassy and who bears direct responsibility for
throwing Jonathan out, into the arms of the FBI agents waiting outside of
the gates. Not just because of Israel's refusal to make an official request
for Jonathan's release, while at the same time peddling lies to the Israeli
public claiming that "exhaustive efforts for his release are continuously
on-going behind the scenes." 112 Members of Knesset signed a petition for
Jonathan's release, but prime ministers Sharon and Olmert prefer to 'forget'
to relay it to the President of the United States.

It was also to be expected that Lindenstrauss' investigation of the case
would generate a move to blacken the State Comptroller's name. "This
populist investigation is sabotaging efforts to secure the release of
Pollard," allege unnamed "security" officials, close to the Prime Minister's
office.

Simultaneous with the attack on the State Comptroller comes a co-coordinated
attack on Jonathan himself. If we can trash Jonathan and his wife Esther and
falsely portray them to the public as mercenaries lusting after luxury
apartments and money, then public concern for their plight will evaporate.
So we get a pack of lies published in Yediot Achronot [under the
'respectable' byline of Nachum Barnea, a.k.a winner of the Israel Prize for
Journalism.]

Esther Pollard doesn't live in a luxury apartment. For years, Esther rented
a tiny room in a cheap motel close to the prison, to be near her husband. It
was the best she could do. When she realized that the reason that her
husband continues to languish in prison is situated in Israel and not in
America, Esther relocated her place of residence to Israel. Not to a luxury
apartment in Jerusalem either --- but to a small room in the apartment of a
kindly Jerusalem widow who opened her home and her heart to the Pollards.

"If you come anywhere close to winning the primaries," Pollard switches the
subject to talk about me, "they will simply murder you. Two weeks before he
was assassinated, Gandi (Rechavam Zeevi z"l) came to visit me. I tried to
warn him. I told him what I feared was going to happen, but he just brushed
aside my warnings. They did it to one of their own; do you think that they
would have any trouble doing it to you?" This is not the first time that
people have cautioned me about this possibility, but when the warning is
coming from the mouth of Jonathan Pollard, the words take on greater
meaning.

"How is Israel able to succeed in having the Americans keep you in prison?"
I ask Jonathan, "Even the head of the CIA has been saying for some time that
it is time to let you go."

"They have never given the Americans the slightest reason to officially
begin the process," Pollard replies. In matters like this, there are no free
gifts. As opposed to what Israel is telling its own citizens, it has been
made clear to the Americans through every channel, that Israel has no
interest whatsoever in the man who saved the State by providing vital
intelligence to ensure its survival. There are an endless number of American
spies who have been caught in Israel. One of them was even a member of the
Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

All it would take is a sign from Israel to bring about Pollard's speedy
release. Israel has numerous ways to secure the immediate release of
Jonathan Pollard, but prefers instead to seek his death in prison.

Only towards the end of the visit does Jonathan share what he keeps locked
in his heart. He describes the hostile, violent and noisy atmosphere he
lives in. He says that he spends most of his time alone in his cell with
earplugs in his ears. He speaks of his deteriorating health and how he is no
longer able to climb up into his top level bunk bed; he is now forced to
carry a medical permit allowing him a bottom bunk. He speaks of his legal
situation. "Legally speaking, my life sentence condemns me to spend 45years
in prison. I am supposed to leave prison at age 75. They will never let that
happen," he says with disgust.

"At a certain moment in time," I tell him, trying to encourage him, "these
gates are just going to suddenly open, and you are going to walk out, a free
man. That moment is closer than you think."

Jonathan Pollard is a mirror who reminds us of who we are; a mirror that
Israel is trying to shatter.

When the Pollard case first broke, Pollard was a young officer. Even back
then it troubled me that Jonathan (the Jew) was thrown out of the Embassy,
while his handler, IAF officer Aviam Sella (the Israeli), was given asylum
and defended by Israel. Despite American pressure to hand him over, Israel
stood firm for Sella. It looks like Israel is not a State of the Jews, I
remember thinking at the time, but a State of Israelis.

Pollard is a Jew who saved the Israelis from American treachery. He did not
save us because we are Israelis. He saved us because we are his Jewish
brothers. The Pollard case imposes a Jewish identity upon Israel. Israel's
current leadership prefers to keep its Jewish identity safely stored under
lock and key, in a jail cell in Butner, North Carolina.
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