Israel needs to give Jonathan Pollard a quiet homecoming
There is very little to gain from making grand public statements and touting Pollard’s return “home.”
By JPOST EDITORIALJONATHAN POLLARD and his wife, Esther, exit Manhattan Federal Courthouse in New York City, in 2017.(photo credit: BRENDAN MCDERMID/REUTERS)
As we implored in an editorial last week, the right thing was done and the United States on Friday removed all the remaining restrictions on Jonathan Pollard.Since he was released from prison five years ago after serving 30 years of a life sentence for spying on the United States on Israel’s behalf, his parole conditions required him to wear an electronic GPS arm brace at all times, subjected him to unfettered monitoring and inspection of his computers, and prevented him from leaving his New York home before 7 a.m. or returning after 7 p.m. And, of course, those conditions also prevented him from his ultimate goal of making aliyah.That all changed on Friday, when Pollard’s lawyers received a call informing them that the government had issued a certificate terminating Pollard’s parole and lifting all existing restrictions.On Sunday, Pollard’s confidants published photos showing his wife, Esther, removing the GPS bracelet that had monitored him during his five years of parole restrictionsThe Pollards, through their representatives on Saturday night, said that pending Esther’s ongoing treatment for cancer, they want to move to Israel “as soon as possible and fulfill their dream of living together in Israel.”The issue of the Pollards moving to Israel and to what extent the Jewish state should welcome them, if and when it takes place, has been debated vigorously this week.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu telephoned Pollard on Tuesday, telling the couple: “We are waiting for you. I am glad your nightmare is over. It will be a big moment for all of us when you return to Israel.”However, not everybody is in such a welcoming mood. Columnist Gil Troy wrote in these pages that Pollard’s sustained imprisonment was “the worst act of official American antisemitism in our lifetimes.” Yet, he urged Israel’s leadership not to give him a hero’s welcome.Likewise, public personalities ranging from former prime minister Ehud Olmert to Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman cautioned against treating Pollard like a returning hero.
“We don’t owe him anything. He was a spy who worked for a lot of money. He was not a Zionist volunteer who came and sacrificed his life. He was an American who loved Israel and worked for a lot of money, spying for Israel,” Olmert said this week at the Maariv newspaper’s business conference.Saying that the Pollard affair had dealt a damaging blow to US-Israel ties, Olmert warned that if Israel holds a festive welcoming ceremony for Pollard, it will only serve to antagonize the incoming Biden administration.Liberman also advised keeping any sense of celebration over Pollard moving to Israel on the back burner, due to American public opinion.“I recommend we celebrate less, because of American public opinion,” Liberman told KAN radio. “I suggest we lower our level of excitement, because it doesn’t help with the American defense community, which sees the Pollard affair as an unacceptable incident that violated acceptable codes between Israel and the US.”We strongly disagree with Olmert’s comments that it would be better if Pollard remains in the US and forgets about moving to Israel. Whether he spied for Israel out of altruistic motives or for profit, the ex-spy paid a far greater price for his crime than anyone else convicted in the US under similar circumstances.He deserves to spend the rest of his life in the Jewish homeland, if that is his desire. And he should be welcomed by Israel. How he will be welcomed can be debated, but there is no reason, as Olmert argued, for Israel not to let him move here.Israel needs to be smart and take into account the context and background of the Pollard case, an affair that indeed caused damage to our relationship with the US. There is very little to gain from making grand public statements and touting Pollard’s return “home.”The action of Jonathan Pollard arriving in Israel and establishing his home here is a fitting finale to this long saga. Words of adulation accompanying that action won’t benefit anyone – neither Pollard nor Israel’s relationship with the US.
