Comments (0)Jews In Jail
September 25, 2009Kenneth Lasson
Special to the Jewish Times
As the Day of Atonement approaches, it is hard to say who among us will be charged, tried and convicted of criminal activity, and who won’t, in the year to come.
Of the high-profile American Jews currently in jail, two deserve to be there and one doesn’t.
In January 2006, Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty to three federal felony counts related to the defrauding of American Indian tribes and corruption of public officials. In September 2008, he also was convicted of trading expensive gifts in exchange for political favors.
Abramoff, who said he became a ba’al teshuva (one who has repented) at age 12 after seeing “Fiddler on the Roof,” is currently incarcerated at a prison camp adjacent to the federal penitentiary in Cumberland.
In June of this year, Bernard Madoff, admitted mastermind of the largest investor fraud ever committed by a single person — bilking thousands of investors of billions of dollars from the early 1990s onward — was sentenced to 150 years in prison (the maximum allowed) and $170 billion in restitution.
Madoff also was a prominent philanthropist, whose Madoff Family Foundation made sizable donations to hospitals, schools, theaters and charities (including those later forced to close because of his fraud). He is currently at the Federal Correctional Institution in Butner, N.C. One of Madoff’s fellow prisoners is Jonathan J. Pollard, the former civilian intelligence analyst who in 1987 pleaded guilty to spying for Israel and was sentenced to life in prison with a recommendation against parole.
It is not necessary to rehearse the sad facts of the Pollard case — the botched spy operation, the failed plea bargain, the grossly disproportionate sentence — except to point out that Pollard has been locked up in a federal penitentiary for 24 years (he was arrested in 1985) and has little prospect of getting out.
These high-profile Jewish Americans committed punishable offenses. Those perpetrated by Abramoff and Madoff were for personal gain. But Pollard transferred documents containing information about Syrian and Iraqi chemical weapons production and other significant security matters. It is undisputed that these documents were knowingly being withheld from the Jewish state. None of them jeopardized American interests.
Who’s to say whether the other two have truly repented? Pollard has long conceded his wrongdoing. Yet, he has exhausted his legal remedies. His appeals were denied for technical/procedural reasons that fly in the face of traditional American values of fairness and compassion. (A dissenting judge on one of his appeals called the government’s conduct and the legal reasoning applied by the courts a gross miscarriage of justice.)
Dispassionately viewing the facts, it is hard to avoid that our justice system failed to deliver basic due process and that the ensuing punishment has clearly been excessive. (The average sentence for this offense is four years.)
Now Pollard’s only chance for relief is a presidential commutation — or a deal done at the behest of Israel, which in 1996 granted citizenship to its acknowledged agent but has done exceedingly little over the years to seek his freedom.
Several weeks ago, a supposedly independent report by Micha Lindenstrauss, Israel’s comptroller, largely exonerated successive prime ministers from responsibility for Pollard’s plight. The Lindenstrauss Report has been roundly criticized as a whitewash.
It was. The Israeli government has always been reluctant to assume responsibility — waiting more than 10 years to acknowledge Pollard’s working on its behalf. Nor is there anything on the record to support claims that “Israel has made many efforts over the years to secure [his] release,” and continues to do so.
In the 11 years since Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu abandoned Pollard at the Wye Plantation to former President Bill Clinton’s promises “to review” the case, he has done precious little to bring the matter to public attention. Whatever he may have done behind closed doors remains a matter of empty speculation.
In 2007, Mr. Netanyahu said that if he were elected prime minister he would bring about Pollard’s release. Now is the time for him to try keeping that promisey.
Pollard’s supporters have organized an online statement of kinship that will be relayed to him in prison in the next few days. (atzuma.co.il/petition/freepollard/1 )
On this Yom Kippur, may Jonathan Pollard be written and inscribed for a year that sees him released to Israel, where he belongs.