Jonathan Pollard is more than just a spy who stole secrets from the United States that exposed America’s spy network to benefit a foreign country, Israel. He represents the Israelis mindset that America is little more than a pawn that can be exploited to benefit their selfish interests. Pollard betrayed America, but he is an Israeli asset and Americans will be forced to pay for it
By Ray Hanania
Jonathan Pollard spied on the United States at the direction of Israeli military personal to steal secret information in order to strengthen Israel’s interests in the world.
Despite the sophisticated spin from the Israelis who have invested much to corrupt any fundamental research on the damage Pollard caused to Americans who risk their lives to protect this country, Pollard’s actions exposed many Americans to danger in ways that Israel has fought hard to suppress.
Even a basic overview of Pollard’s traitorous actions have been buried in lies and distortions on information sites like Wikipedia, where links supposedly justifying false claims that “Pollard is the only American ever to receive a life sentence for passing classified information to an ally of the U.S.” are distortions of fact that have citations that do not exist and never existed.
The truth is that Pollard is the only American who spied for a foreign country “favored” by American foreign policy who received a life sentence. The fact is most spies have received life sentences, and worse. The fact is that Pollard actually was a spy for spied for a foreign country that is ostensibly “friendly,” the only distinction and a distinction that Israel and Pollard’s defenders exploit to cast him in a separate category. Israel is the ONLY foreign country that is considered “friendly” who has not only spied on
Americans and put Americans in danger, but also has engaged in policies and actions that have killed Americans with impunity including the attack on the U.S.S. Liberty and the murder of American non-violent peace activist Rachel Corrie.
Many spies have been given life sentences for their traitorous actions. Many spies have been given death sentences. Only an Israeli spy is argued to be above the law and should not be sentenced so harshly.
Despite the fact that American taxpayers give Israel more than $5 billion a year in financial support to underwrite their destruction of the Christian identity in Israeli occupied areas like Bethlehem and Jerusalem — the Christian Church of the Nativity where Jesus was born is under Israeli military siege and Americans don’t care — Israel wants more.
Israel’s government believes it is entitled to more, and more without accountability or more importantly, without respect.
Many Americans who support Israel do not serve in the American military to defend this country, (although they use the Israeli lobby –AIPAC — to force America to provide weapons to Israel) do serve in the Israeli military.
That’s something Israeli defenders like to keep hush-hush. Americans are allowed to have dual citizenship with Israel and they refuse to serve in the American military. But they will serve in the Israeli military.
It’s a part of the Israeli mentality that America doesn’t really count except as a pawn to get what Israel wants. Americans are exploited after being brainwashed by the pro-Israel influenced biased mainstream American news media to support Israel blindly. Israel can get away with crimes because Americans are numbed to Israel’s crimes. Any American who challenges Israel’s extremist policies is attacked and vilified and “slibeled” (slandered and libeled” by the pro-Israel Machine in America.
The media downplays Israel’s crimes, exaggerates criticism of Israel as anti-Semitism, and uses American taxpayer dollars to underwrite huge Public Relations campaigns that are designed to make Israel look good, make Americans stupid, and make Israel’s critics all “anti-Semitic terrorists.”
The latest campaign is that Pollard was an innocent victim of anti-Semitism and that the secrets that he stole and gave to his Israeli handlers (who have never been prosecuted in this country because Israel refuses to allow them to be brought to trial in America, “a friendly” country) and has served a worse sentence than any other spy who betrayed this country is a high-financed lie.
But it is a lie that Americans accept and swallow without question because Israel manipulates the media in America from newspapers, radio, television and even the movies in Hollywood and the programs on television.
So many Americans just believe the lie because they have been brainwashed and they are bullied into accepting the lie of face the threat of being called “anti-Semitic,” and worse, a “terrorist sympathizer.”
Jonathan Pollard not only deserves to remain in prison for the rest of his life, but he even should have been considered for the death penalty. We will never know the extent of the damage that Pollard did to America, or the countless American lives that were put at risk or that were lost because Israel has used its power in Washington D.C. and in the Congress to prevent a full and complete accounting of Pollard’s damages.
He pled guilty to avoid a trial that would have exposed Israel’s government crimes.
Most Israelis do not support this kind of immoral behavior, but they go along with this Israeli government policy to protect Israel. And you can’t blame them. Israel is more important to them than America is or ever will be.
But the real tragedy is how easily Americans can be manipulated by the sinister Israeli lobby. Americans are bullied into ignorance when it comes to Israel and its crimes in the Middle East. Americans have been conditioned to believe through years of media brainwashing that killing Christians and stealing Christian lands in the Holy Land is acceptable and permissible because the criminal destroying the Christian identity in the Holy Land is Israel.
Christians are dying at the hands of Israelis and losing their lands and possessions and their history and culture in the Holy Land and Christian Americans don’t care.
The only author who has given us an honest account of Pollard’s betrayal of America at the expense of the interests of the American people is by author and investigative journalist Seymour M. Hersh, who has been attacked, vilified and “slibeled” by the pro-Israel lobby. Click here to read his overview.
Ray Hanania is an award winning political and humor columnist who analyzes American and Middle East politics, and life in general. He is an author of several books.
Hanania covered Chicago Politics and Chicago City Hall from 1976 through 1992 at the Daily Southtown and the Chicago Sun-Times. He began writing in 1975 publishing The Middle Eastern Voice newspaper in Chicago (1975-1977). He later published “The National Arab American Times” newspaper (2004-2007).
Hanania writes weekly columns on Middle East and American Arab issues as Special US Correspondent for the Arab News ArabNews.com, at TheArabDailyNews.com, and at SuburbanChicagoland.com. He has published weekly columns in the Jerusalem Post newspaper, YNetNews.com, Newsday, the Orlando Sentinel, Houston Chronical, and Arlington Heights Daily Herald.
Hanania is the recipient of four (4) Chicago Headline Club “Peter Lisagor Awards” for Column writing. In November 2006, he was named “Best Ethnic American Columnist” by the New American Media. In 2009, Hanania received the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award for Writing from the Society of Professional Journalists. He is the recipient of the MT Mehdi Courage in Journalism Award. He was honored for his writing skills with two (2) Chicago Stick-o-Type awards from the Chicago Newspaper Guild. In 1990, Hanania was nominated by the Chicago Sun-Times editors for a Pulitzer Prize for his four-part series on the Palestinian Intifada.
His writings have also been honored by two national Awards from ADC for his writing, and from the National Arab American Journalists Association.
Hanania is the US Special Correspondent for the Arab News Newspaper, covering Middle East and Arab American issues. He writes for the Southwest News newspaper group writing on mainstream American issues.
Click here to send Ray Hanania email.
Follow RayHanania on Gettr.com, the uncensored Twitter Ray Hanania on Gettr, the new Twitter
- Hostages versus Prisoners: Israel war on Gaza is as much a war on weaponizing words - December 1, 2023
- Muslim American woman challenges unresponsive Congressman Sean Casten in March 19 Democratic primary - November 21, 2023
- More than 50 journalists killed in Israel-Gaza war - November 21, 2023
He has been locked up for 30 years. That’s enough. This may be a gesture to soften Israeli opposition to the nuke deal. With Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, et al all free after lying to start a criminal war which has killed half million and cost trillions, 30 years is enough for spying.
Here is a list of others who were convicted of spying and how they cooperated with the US Government. Pollard, on the other hand, refused to cooperate.
Americans who spied for foreign countries
Aldrich Ames: convicted of espionage against his country in 1994. He is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole in the high-security Allenwood U.S. Penitentiary. He cooperated with the US Investigation.
David Henry Barnett: In October 1980 Barnett pleaded guilty to espionage charges, admitting that he had sold CIA secrets to the Soviets. He was sentenced to 18 years’ imprisonment and was paroled in 1990. He cooperated with the US investigation.
Harold James Nicholson: a former Central Intelligence Agency officer and a twice-convicted spy forRussia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR). Harold Nicholson is currently incarcerated at the United States Penitentiary, Florence ADX, the federal supermax prison in Colorado, and is scheduled for release in 2024. He cooperated with the US Investigation. Cooperated with the US Government
Nathaniel Nicholson: Testified against his fatherand sentenced in December 2010 to five years on probation after making a deal with prosecutors to help build the case against his father.[3] Cooperated with the US Government.
Larry Wu-Tai Chin: In 1986, Chin was sentenced to a lengthy prison term for espionage and tax evasion. Chin admitted to the espionage, but he also claimed his deeds were intended to pursue reconciliation between China and the United States. Chin stated he would fully cooperate with debriefings in an effort to avoid further charges, but on the day of his sentencing, when prison guards arrived at Chin’s cell to transport him to court, they found him lifeless with a garbage bag over his head. An autopsy concluded that Chin had committed suicide in his cell. Cooperated with the US Government
Sharon M. Scranage: Charged with spying, convicted after agreeing to cooperate to build evidence against her boyfriend, another spy Michael Soussoudis. Cooperated with the US Government
Michael Soussoudis: Ghanaian spy who used his American girlfriend to collect secrets for his government. Cooperated with the US Government
William Kampiles: Spied on the US, fled and then turned himself in. He was originally sentenced on November 17, 1978, to 40 years imprisonment; however, his prison sentence was later reduced to 19 years, and he was released on 16 December 1996, after serving 18 years as Federal Prison . Cooperated with the US Government
David Sheldon Boone: Boone was indicted on three counts: one for conspiracy to commit espionage and the other two related to his alleged passing of two Top Secret documents to his Soviet handler.[4] Boone pleaded guilty to conspiracy December 18, in a plea agreement, and was sentenced 26 February 1999, to 24 years and four months in prison.[5] Under a plea agreement, Boone was also required to forfeit $52,000 and a hand-held scanner he used to copy documents. He is scheduled release of December 20, 2019. He cooperated with the US Government.
Ronald Pelton: exposed by a captured soviet spy, he was tried and convicted of espionage in 1986 and sentenced to three concurrent life sentences. He cooperated with the US Government in exchange for a lighter sentence and will be released in Nov. 2015. He cooperated with the US Government
Earl Edwin Pitts: in 1996, was arrested at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia. Pitts was charged with several offenses, including spying for the Soviet Union. In February 1997, he pleaded guilty to conspiring and attempting to commit espionage in exchange for a reduced prison sentence. He provided information on super spy Robert Hanssen that helped convict Hanssen. He cooperated with the US Government.
Richard Miller: On October 9, 1990, Miller was convicted on all counts of espionage for the second time and on February 4, 1991, was sentenced to 20 years in Federal prison. On January 28, 1993, a Federal Appeals Court upheld his conviction. On May 6, 1994, Miller was released from prison following the reduction of his sentence to 13 years by a Federal judge after agreeing to cooperate with the US Government.
Robert Hanssen: The worst spy ever, On July 6, 2001, he pleaded guilty to fifteen counts of espionage in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.[4][5] On May 10, 2002 he was sentenced to fifteen consecutive sentences of life in prison without the possibility of parole. He publicly apologized to the American people for spying on his own country. He cooperated with the US Government.
Clayton John Lonetree: In 2001, Lonetree testified as an expert witness at the trial of former United States Army Reserve Colonel George Trofimoff, who was charged with spying for the KGB. After remorsefully describing his own recruitment by the Soviet State, Lonetree publicly sobbed on the witness stand.[8] Colonel Trofimoff was subsequently convicted of espionage and sentenced to life imprisonment. He cooperated with the US Government.
John Anthony Walker: n late 1985, Walker made a plea bargain with federal prosecutors, which required him to testify against his co-conspirator, former senior chief petty officer Jerry Whitworth, and provide full details of his espionage activities. In exchange, prosecutors agreed to a lesser sentence for Walker’s son, former Seaman Michael Walker, who was also involved in the spy ring. Died in prison in 2014. Cooperated with the US Government to reduce the sentence of his son who also spied on the US>
Morris Cohen: Convicted of spying but sent to the Soviet Union in a prisoner exchange. He died in 1995.
Harry Dexter White: Died before he could be convicted.
Kendall Myers: a retired U.S. State Department Officer who, with his wife, Gwendolyn, was arrested and indicted on June 4, 2009, on charges of spying for Cuba for nearly 30 years.[2][3][4] He was sentenced to life imprisonment by a U.S. federal court in July 2010.
Samuel Dickstein: Died before his spying for the Soviet Union was discovered.
Whittaker Chambers: A journalist, spied for the Soviet Union but renounced his Communist ties and worked with the US Government until his death in 1938.
Andrew Daulton Lee: Spied for the Soviet Union. Was an American who was convicted of espionage for his involvement in the spying activities of his childhood friend, Christopher Boyce. Lee was the adopted eldest son of Dr. Daulton Lee, a wealthy California physician. His lifelong friendship with Boyce led him into espionage activities after Boyce, a code clerk employed with the large US defense contractor, TRW. He was sentenced to life in prison and moved to the federal penitentiary. He was paroled in 1998 after providing evidence against colleague Boyce.
Christopher John Boyce: Convicted May 14, 1977, of espionage and sentenced to 40 years in prison, initially at Terminal Island and then the Metropolitan Correctional Center in San Diego. Released in 2002.
Jonathan Pollard: pleaded guilty in 1987 to selling classified information to Israel while working as a civilian intelligence analyst and was sentenced to life in prison. Eligible for parole in 2015. Refused to cooperate with the US Government and sought protection from the State of Israel where funds were raised and officials lobbied for his freedom. Pollard refused to apologize for his actions against his country, America and became an Israeli citizen while in prison.
Stewart Nozette: Spied for Israel, but was never able to turn over secrets he tried to steal for Israel. A convicted felon for attempted espionage and fraud against the United States. The FBI arrested him October 19, 2009,[3] charging him with attempted espionage. Cooperated with the US Government.
END