If Clinton really has only agreed to look at it again, and perhaps under a somewhat different procedure or something, I have no problem.
Really, though, I must say I will be guided by what happens. On Oct. 1 Clinton turned down another request for clemency. What has changed since?
I firmly believe no clemency is warranted. The notion that Israel is a "friendly" country hardly covers the waterfront, or excuses the action, so far as I am concerned.
Sure, they have generally been our ally. Or more accurately, we have been theirs. (What they have done for us is very limited, and has hardly offset the enormous geopolitical jeopardy we have placed ourselves under by supporting them. Yes, they have sometimes had better Middle East on the ground intelligence than we have had, and it has on a few occasions been of some use to us. But the overwhelming truth is that this country has paid an enormous price to support Israel. We have done so for humanitarian, and ideological reasons, initially, increasingly mixed with domestic ethnic politics. I almost always agree with US support for Israel.)
However, I utterly reject the notion that a U.S. citizen of divided loyalties should be free to pass highly classified information to the other object of their affection, under the theory that the "wrong" people have too much influence in the United States, and that this country is accordingly too little compliant with the needs of their first love.
Frankly, such action is treason. That is, if it violates the national secrets laws of the United States. Which Pollard's actions most assuredly did, and to a HUGE degree.
Life imprisonment is too light in my view. I say never release him. And to ever release him under Israeli pressure deeply offends me.
He may be an Israeli patriot. He is an American traitor. I am an American. He is in an American jail. DO NOT RELEASE HIM.
Doug
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