Forget about Pollard

Yes. That's right. Forget about Pollard, the man who is sitting in prison, quite possibly for the rest of his life, for having pled guilty to selling American secrets.

Let's take him out of the equation and look at the silly arguments people make in his defense.

There are really only 2 main arguments that I hear in his defense:

#1 It's discrimination. He's rotting in prison in the US because he's a jew. No other spy has been punished for these types of crimes, so it must be anti-semitism.

So the US is anti-Semitic, anti-jew, anti-Israel. Not any one president, but all the presidents in all the time Pollard has been in prison were all jew-haters. Disregard the tens of billions of dollars in aid they gave Israel during that time period, deep down they are happy to have a Jew in their clutches. Disregard that 2 of the US's largest cities have Jewish mayors. Disregard the numerous other jewish politicians of note, and jewish judges, and oscar winning jewish movie stars, and freedoms and unquestioned equality and safety that Jews have in no other place outside of israel; the US is really a jew-hating land and that's why Pollard is rotting in jail. Jew.

Or just maybe there is a difference when you catch an enemy spy or you catch a spy from a close ally. And then that ally plays games for decade(s) as to whether or not he was a spy for them in the first place. He's not our guy, they said, but it's really important to us that you free him. Perhaps when you catch an enemy spy you are less disturbed because you expect your enemies to betray you. Perhaps you expect spies from your enemy, or even from countries you have a cold peace with. But how many other freed spies came from a country that touts itself as America's biggest friend and ally and is the recipient of vast sums of aid?

#2 Look at all the famous people who are in support of Pollard.

Kissinger? a few weeks ago the same people praising Kissinger today for coming out, now, in favor of clemency, were blasting him as a self-hating jew when his own secrets were revealed.
Potential presidential candidates and other politicians who have their own hands out for votes and donations are hardly unbiased.

Should he be freed? I don't know. How many people really know what happened?

I do know that these arguments in his favor turn my stomach. So until someone can give me a reasonable argument why Pollard should be freed from the deal he signed, I'd rather just forget about him. There are plenty of Jews in far worse places than Pollard for far less reason who could use a bit of help.