Pollard Collapses in Prison Cell, Rushed to Hospital
Imprisoned Israeli agent Jonathan Pollard was rushed to a North Carolina hospital on Friday after having collapsed in his jail cell. Pollard’s wife Esther was informed of his hospitalization, but the severity of his condition was not initially known. The Free Pollard Campaign said he had been in great pain in recent weeks.
Pollard, who marked the 27th anniversary of his arrest two weeks ago, was last hospitalized in April after suffering from extreme pain. Sources described his situation at the time as lifethreatening.
His long list of ailments include: Diabetes, nausea, dizziness, blackouts and ongoing issues with his gall bladder, kidneys, sinuses, eyes and feet. He also suffers from Meniere’s disease, which causes him to lose consciousness and fall without warning. Esther Pollard asked the public to pray for her husband, whose Hebrew name is Yonatan Ben-Malka. She said she was very worried about him.
President Shimon Peres and Esther Pollard have issued formal clemency requests to US President Barack Obama, but he has never responded.
US presidents usually grant pardons and commute sentences during the American holiday season that began with Thanksgiving on November 22.
Those who are Responsible
Those who are responsible for the injustice and the terrible conditions this man has had to endure will definitely hear from G-d, if they haven’t already.
Non Zionist - Anti-NK
Those who are responsible for the injustice and the terrible conditions this man has had to endure will definitely hear from G-d, if they haven’t already.
—
That would be the government of the state of Israel, which bought secrets from this jackal of a traitor, and then left him high and dry when he tried to flee to the embassy.
He was ready to sell secrets to China, the USSR and any other bidder. He is not a hero, and it is a tribute to the people of the US that there were no pogroms when he was arrested.
TO NUMBER 2
I’m sure glad you do not sit in judgement of the rest of us. with friends like you enemies would be better!
Non Zionist - Anti-NK
I am proud to call enemies of the malchus shel chessed my enemies – especially those who acted against the US at that time, when America truly was great.
When Pollard was arrested, the state of Israel was a US dependency in every sense of the word. In many ways it still is now, even with its illusion of a booming economy that could absolutely crash tomorrow morning. It is a credit to the people of the US that no one even thought to respond to this treason with a pogrom against innocent Jews in the US.
However, his actions did jeopardize many Jews in government positions, particularly shomrei Shabbos who often could only find employment with the government in the 80s.
This criminal is the problem of the state of Israel. He is a stain on klal Yisroel just as the Yevsektzia and kapos were.
serel maness
# 4 IS RIGHT,VERY FEW PEOPLE KNOW THAT POLLARD SOLD SECRETS TO OTHER NATIONS,IT’S A LONG STORY,L STILL FEEL SORRY FOR HIM
To Number 4
You are naive and misinformed. The enemies of the malchus were those such as US Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger who hated Jews and for that reason wrongfully withheld important information from Israel, putting many Jewish lives and the best interests of the US at risk. I’ve seen Pollard’s writings and they are about being moser nefesh to save other Jews. That is exactly what Pollard did. Had you lived in the times of the megillah you no doubt would have deemed Mordechai a traitor of the malchus too. Had you lived in the time of the Exodus no doubt you would not have been redeemed.
Non Zionist - Anti-NK
No 6, I was alive and very aware when this menuval was arrested. I was a high school student in a Jewish school that was located in a former public school building in a very non-Jewish area. Believe me, I expected broken windows at best because the school was full of blue-and-white flags.
While I don’t live in the US anymore, I will always remember how nothing happened to my school or anyone affiliated with it as a sign of how America was, under Reagan, a true malchus shel chessed.
Pollard was a drug addict, and all sources agree he did what he did for cash and an engagement ring. Had China or the USSR wanted the garbage he was peddling, he would have sold it to the highest bidder.
He blew his plea bargain deal because his wife spoke to reporters. He also could have asked for parole ages ago but failed to do so.
Weinberger was a meshummad and a rosho, but he did not withhold anything. The information Pollard stole and sold did not include plans of the reactor in Iraq. Those legends were spun by those who bought the secrets in EY. Some of that information did end up in the wrong hands, although it is unclear whether anyone suffered because of it.
Those governments you mention are not the American government, without which the state of Israel would not survive.
Yossi
Harav mordechi eliyahu זצקל
Said many times that pollard saved um yisroel from
Very hard things and the rav tried many times himself
To get him out if jail the rav loved him and took personal
responsibility for him .
Non Zionist - Anti-NK
Harav Mordechai Eliyahu ZYA was not perfect – no man is or was. He made a very bad judgement error when it came to both Pollard and his wife; his wife duped the rav on many occasions, one of which I had the misfortune to witness myself.
If Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin got 27 years for crimes that hardly hurt anyone, Pollard deserves 2700 years. When he gets to the beis din shel maala, he will surely get 12 months.
To Number 2, etc.
You claim:
“He was ready to sell secrets to China, the USSR and any other bidder. He is not a hero, and it is a tribute to the people of the US that there were no pogroms when he was arrested.”
How do you know what he was ready to do? He was blinded by his Zionism, but the thought that he would sell secrets to enemy governments is nonsense – it was made up to try and mask the charge that other Jews, such as yourself, might have a dual loyalty to Israel.
To Number 9
Don’t compare what he did to what Rubashkin did. Compare what he did to what other spies did – and it is then clear he was treated disparately harsh. But even more important now are the humanitarian issues relating to his deteriorating health – which would justify a presidential pardon this many years later.
ROTC recruit
In the mid 90’s a frum gun expert was begged by the ROTC to join their ranks, because they were very impressed by his marksmanship. Since he had military connections, I asked him about Pollard.
He told me that some of the information he gave Israel, if that would have gone to another country than Israel, the US could have been in big trouble.