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 My lecture tour of America was very
successful. But the best surprise awaited me back in Israel. As soon as I
turned on my cell phone, I discovered that I would not yet be driving home
to rest after two weeks of lectures and flights. Instead, I would be driving
straight to Israel’s Channel 2 television studio for an urgent interview on
my visit to Jonathan Pollard. This was not my first visit to our brother,
Jonathan Pollard. But this was the first time that my visit to him aroused
media interest. The channel 2 interview was followed by more interviews.
Official Israel’s betrayal of Pollard continues. But it seems that the
people of Israel are beginning to wake up.
The following article by Moshe Feiglin appeared in Hebrew this week in
Makor Rishon and the Ynet website.
Nissan, 5768
April, ‘08
He almost never talks about himself. Throughout our conversation, he speaks
about Israel, about the Jewish People, about me. But not about himself.
We hug. “You’re banned from England, eh?” he chuckles, before we even have a
chance to sit down. These were the first words out of his mouth when we met
last Tuesday. It never ceases to amaze me how this man, betrayed by us and
buried alive in prison 24 years ago, is always so up to date on everything.
How clear he is and sharp as a razor.
In the hours leading up to the meeting, I feel distressed. A kind of
uncomfortable collective guilt enfolds me before meeting with the betrayed
captive. He probably senses it and tries to dispel the dark feelings with
his smile.
Jonathan Pollard begins with a detailed analysis of what is going on in
Israel. Of the 2 hours that have been allotted to us, Jonathan uses 90% of
the time to discuss the problems we are facing as a nation. He keeps to a
minimum any talk about himself, and that is why the few personal words which
he does volunteer have such a tremendous impact.
 When names like
Yisrael Maimon (the former Cabinet Secretary who was previously responsible
for the Pollard file) come up, it is hard for him to control his feelings,
but he does. The names of other Israeli officials, like Ehud Barak who was
the head of Israel’s Military Intelligence back then, come up in the course
of the conversation from time to time and produce a similar response. “They
betrayed me 24 years ago, and they are still stabbing me in the back in
prison now,” he says.
The reaction to the Israel State Comptroller’s decision to investigate the
continuing failure of the government and its abandonment of an agent was to
be expected. Too many top officials were involved in the espionage and they
want to keep Pollard buried along with the operation. It is not just the
Minister of Defense Ehud Barak. It is not just Minister Rafi Eitan, and not
just the Supreme Court Justice Eliyakim Rubinstein, who was the Special
Envoy at the Washington Embassy and who bears direct responsibility for
throwing Jonathan out, into the arms of the FBI agents waiting outside of
the gates. Not just because of Israel’s refusal to make an official request
for Jonathan’s release, while at the same time peddling lies to the Israeli
public claiming that “exhaustive efforts for his release are continuously
implemented behind the scenes.” 112 Members of Knesset signed a petition for
Jonathan’s release, but Prime Ministers Sharon and Olmert prefer to ‘forget’
to relay it to the President of the United States.
It was also to be expected that the State Comptroller’s investigation of the
case would generate a move to blacken his name. “This populist investigation
is sabotaging efforts to secure the release of Pollard,” allege unnamed
“security” officials, close to the Prime Minister’s office.
Simultaneous with the attack on the State Comptroller comes a co-coordinated
attack on Jonathan himself. If we can trash Jonathan and his wife Esther and
falsely portray them to the public as mercenaries lusting after luxury
apartments and money, then public concern for their plight will evaporate.
So we get a pack of lies published in Yediot Achronot [under the
‘respectable’ byline of Nachum Barnea, a.k.a winner of the Israel Prize for
Journalism.]
Esther Pollard doesn’t live in a luxury apartment. For years, Esther rented
a tiny room in a cheap motel close to the prison, to be near her husband. It
was the best she could do. When she realized that the reason that her
husband continues to languish in prison is situated in Israel and not in
America, Esther relocated her place of residence to Israel. Not to a luxury
apartment in Jerusalem either --- but to a small room in the apartment of a
kindly Jerusalem widow who opened her home and her heart to the Pollards.
“If you come anywhere close to winning the primaries,” Pollard switches the
subject to talk about me, “they will simply murder you. Two weeks before he
was assassinated, Ghandi (Rechavam Zeevi z”l) came to visit me. I tried to
warn him. I told him what I feared was going to happen, but he just brushed
aside my warnings. They did it to one of their own; do you think that they
would have any trouble doing it to you?” This is not the first time that
people have cautioned me about this possibility, but when the warning is
coming from the mouth of Jonathan Pollard, the words take on greater
meaning.
“How is Israel able to succeed in having the Americans keep you in prison?”
I ask Jonathan, “Even the head of the CIA has been saying for some time that
it is time to let you go.”
“They have never given the Americans the slightest reason to officially
begin the process,” Pollard replies. In matters like this, there are no free
gifts. As opposed to what Israel is telling its own citizens, it has been
made clear to the Americans through every channel, that Israel has no
interest whatsoever in the man who saved the State by providing vital
intelligence to ensure its survival.
All it would take is a sign from Israel to bring about Pollard’s speedy
release. Israel has numerous ways to secure the immediate release of
Jonathan Pollard, but prefers instead to seek his death in prison.
Only towards the end of the visit does Jonathan share what he keeps locked
in his heart. He describes the hostile, violent and noisy atmosphere he
lives in. He says that he spends most of his time alone in his cell with
earplugs in his ears. He speaks of his deteriorating health and how he is no
longer able to climb up into his top level bunk bed; he is now forced to
carry a medical permit allowing him a bottom bunk. He speaks of his legal
situation. “Legally speaking, my life sentence condemns me to spend 45years
in prison. I am supposed to leave prison at age 75. They will never let that
happen,” he says with disgust.
“At a certain moment in time,” I tell him, trying to encourage him, “these
gates are just going to suddenly open, and you are going to walk out, a free
man. That moment is closer than you think.”
Jonathan Pollard is a mirror that reminds us of who we are; a mirror that
Israel is trying to shatter.
When the Pollard case first broke, I was a young officer. Even back then it
troubled me that Jonathan (the Jew) was thrown out of the Embassy, while his
handler, IAF officer Aviam Sella (the Israeli), was given asylum and
defended by Israel. Despite American pressure to hand him over, Israel stood
firm for Sella. It looks like Israel is not a State of the Jews, I remember
thinking at the time, but a State of Israelis.
Pollard is the Jew who saved the Israelis from American treachery. He did
not save us because we are Israelis. He saved us because we are his Jewish
brothers. The Pollard case imposes a Jewish identity upon Israel. Israel’s
current leadership prefers to keep its Jewish identity safely stored under
lock and key, in a jail cell in Butner, North Carolina.
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 The last question asked at the end of
Moshe Feiglin's last US lecture was different than all the other questions.
The questioner was obviously well versed in Israeli politics:
“They say that you convince people to register for the Likud,” he said to
Moshe, “but that when voting day comes, your people do not vote Likud. How
can you explain that?”
Moshe Feiglin’s answer comes in two parts; to Israelis and to Americans.
Answer to Israelis:
We encourage all of our people to vote for the Likud. Interestingly, our
loudest detractors are the very same people who registered entire
communities that have nothing at all in common with the National Camp
(usually Arabs). In addition, they illegally paid the registration fees for
the new members and sometimes even paid them to come to vote. In other
words, there is no reason to relate to the crocodile tears of those people
who, with their tricks, have artificially coerced the ruling party of the
National Camp into implementing the policies of the most radical Left. How
can they complain about Manhigut Yehudit, which has registered the very core
of the National Camp and continuously encourages the Likud to return to its
traditional, nationalist ideology?
The ethical finger pointed against those who registered for the Likud but
did not vote Likud leaves a lot lacking. Every business deal has two sides.
When the Likud voters saw that the Likud encourages policies opposed to its
written constitution, when they saw how every effort was made in the Likud
to prevent Moshe Feiglin from attaining his rightful place on the Knesset
list – they felt that the Likud had turned its back on them and did not see
any reason to continue to vote for the party.
We think that those people who did not vote Likud made a mistake. There is
no democracy in Israel. That’s why there are no politics in Israel. When you
vote Left you get Left. And when you vote Right you get double Left. So how
one votes is insignificant. The only factor with true potential to change
this dictatorial situation is Moshe Feiglin’s movement to create authentic
Jewish leadership for Israel. In effect, Manhigut Yehudit is working to
return the State of Israel to the large Jewish majority – finally lending
true meaning to Israel’s “democracy.” Since the Likud is the tool that
brings about this vital process, we must vote for it and do all that we can
to strengthen it – regardless of the policies that it implements – policies
over which the “democracy” in Israel has no control.
It makes no difference how much we are attacked by various factors from
within the Likud. We owe the Likud a lot. Without it, the faith based
alternative would not have gotten past a few newspaper articles with no
tools with which to turn them into reality. Today, after we have received
one quarter of the votes of the ruling party of the National Camp, we are in
a totally different place – thanks to the Likud.
Answer to Americans:
The above answers do not really get to the root of the matter. Is it wrong
to be a registered member of one party and to vote for another?
This question seems a bit strange. After all, one of the principles of
democracy is to vote one’s conscience - discreetly. There is a reason why
voting takes place behind a curtain and inside sealed envelopes. The very
question, “Who did you vote for?” is actually illegitimate. It would have
been easy to restrict registered members of political parties from voting,
and to automatically add their votes to their respective party’s tally or to
open separate polling places for them, where their votes are open for all to
see. Clearly, though, these ideas are not democratic. So why the complaints
against Manhigut Yehudit’s registered members?
“What are you? A Democrat or a Republican?” Moshe answered the questioner.
“A Republican,” he answered.
“And will you be voting for McCain?”
“Of course.”
The audience seemed to identify with his answers.
“Now please tell me,” Moshe continued to question him, “What would you do if
McCain would be running on a Democratic ticket and Obama on a Republican
ticket? Who would you vote for?”
“For McCain,” he answered without missing a beat.
“How about the rest of you?” Moshe turned to the audience, which nodded in
approval.
“Is that ethical? Is it democratic to put the interests of the nation above
the interests of the party?
The audience seemed to think that the question was superfluous.
“So if that principle is so clear, why do you think that in Israel loyalty
to the party takes precedence over loyalty to the nation?” Moshe brought the
point home to the sounds of loud applause.
The truth is the very fact that this issue is a question in Israel is due to
its 100 year old socialist mentality – a mentality that blurs the borders
between party and state.
Can this simple yet fundamental explanation be understood in Israel? Can it
be explained in Israel that the Republican president Ronald Reagan, for
example, was elected with the votes of the democrats, which is absolutely
fine in America’s true democracy? Can we explain in Israel that in some
states in the US, members of all the parties can participate in the
primaries? Can we answer the Israeli media with the same, simple answer that
Moshe gave the American questioner?
Unfortunately, the answer to that question is “no.” The State of Israel is
still chained to its slave mentality. The principles of liberty and
democracy are way off its screen. Unfortunately, the truth that convinced
the American audience is still irrelevant in Israel.
Manhigut
Yehudit needs your help now more than ever. You can also help create the Jewish
majority revolution. Now is the time to support Manhigut Yehudit.
Click here
for our on line secure donation
form. If you are in Israel, now is the time to volunteer to help. For more information,
call (Israel) 02-996-1123.
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 Just hours after the Twin Towers fell,
Moshe Feiglin wrote an article in which he correctly predicted the war that
America would initiate and its assured defeat. Moshe understood that the
Americans could not admit that they were attacked by a religion and not by a
nation-state. Thus, they would not be able to identify the enemy and to
defeat him. That article, printed in Moshe’s book, “The War of Dreams,” has
already become chilling reality.
In their recent trip to the US, Moshe and Shmuel witnessed yet another
ominous warning that America had lost the war. In the security check-in at
various airports throughout the US, they encountered woman guards wearing
the traditional Muslim head gear. It was hard for them to believe that
America would entrust its security to the very people fighting against it.
But then again, what is so strange about the Americans hiring Moslems to
enhance airport security? In Israel, we give the terrorists guns.
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