The proposed Arab-Israel prisoner trade, being a lop-sided hundreds:1, would result in more Israelis captured or murdered than the one released. Judaism teaches the duty of redeeming captives, but not at a price that would, in effect, make more captives of others.
On the same ethical basis, but not mentioned in this piece by Jonathan Pollard and his wife, Pollard: (1) Pollard warrants release from his disproportionate sentence on its own merits, not as a bargaining chip for cynical State Dept. policy against Israel; and (2) He has denounced some plans to exchange him for Marwan Barghouti or numerous other convicted Arab terrorists. He does not want to see new blood spilled by the released Arabs, certainly not in his name.
Pollard has been under harsh U.S. imprisonment for 24 years. Israeli soldier Schalit has been in Hamas captivity for three years. A deal is pending that may release Schalit for hundreds of Arab terrorists, many being serious felons.
Pollard and wife write in the Jerusalem Post, “Why is the life of one Israeli captive deemed so precious that Israel's leaders are willing to dispense with all logic and morality in order to redeem him? Why is the life of another Israeli captive dismissed as if it were worthless?”
“Why is the life of one captive such an urgent national priority that the safety and security of every single Israeli citizen must be put at risk? Why is the life of the other captive so inconsequential - after decades of captivity - that negotiations for his release have never been undertaken?”
The government claims it is making the trade as a matter of principle, the principle being not to leave its agent in captivity. If that were its principle, them why does it leave the other agent in captivity? Not principle, but politics is motivating the government. The government is risking the lives of its people by the proposed deal, for politics.
“Are we, the People of Israel, so incompetent, so bereft of will, talent, imagination and faith in God that we really believe the only way to secure the release of the former captive is at a price so exorbitant that it beggars the imagination? Do we really believe that the wholesale release of terrorists and murderers is a rational response? Are we, the People of Israel, so bereft of vision that we cannot grasp that burying one captive alive while we pray for the release of the other drives the blessing away and brings shame and dishonor upon us all?”
The government is morally bankrupt. It is run for mere expediency. Why don’t the people of Israel see this?
When Israel’s leaders ignore one captive but rescue another for political reasons,
“…there can be no national honor, nor national self-respect. There is only political expediency. Self-serving, opportunistic, political expediency.”
Those who ignore how unconscionable the prisoner deal is, in allowing mass “…to pour forth from Israeli jails are placing their own lives at risk as well as the lives of their loved ones.” They become accomplices of this criminally negligent deal (www.imra.org.il, 11/26.27).
PM Netanyahu may get more Israelis killed than Abbas has. What does that make him? A right-wing “extremist?” No. A left-wing extremist? Possibly. More likely, he is doing what may be popular, until the resulting casualty figures mount.
I think I can explain why Israel does not get Pollard released. In many countries, the worst people become rulers. Israel’s rulers appease the U.S., whose Establishment was embarrassed by Pollard’s less publicized discoveries relating to Iran-Contra, building a poison gas factory in Iraq, and its subversive policy on Israel, plus initial but mistaken suspicion that Pollard was helping the Soviets. The Establishment committed itself to keeping him in prison, against precedent and much more severely than it punishes most spies who harm the U.S.. Then, to appease them, Israeli leaders, now in senior positions, abandoned Pollard. Now they would be embarrassed if he emerged to expose their complicity in his long-term confinement. Hence, contrary to their duty, they do not try to get him released.
Such a duty is normal, but Israeli leaders are not normal. All the more shameful on their part, considering that the intelligence Pollard gave them enabled them to prepare an effective civil defense that deterred Saddam from putting poison gas in the missiles he fired at Israel.
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