Former US Navy analyst, Jonathan Pollard, who spent 30 years in a US prison for selling government secrets to Israel, arrived in Israel Wednesday to a hero’s welcome. “We are ecstatic to be home at last after 35 years,” Pollard, 66, said after landing at Ben Gurion Airport, where he and his wife, Esther, were greeted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Pollard was born and raised in Galveston Texas, though upon arrival to the Jewish state, he kissed the ground of what he calls his real home.
Upon arrival of the couple, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately presented them with Israeli ID cards, granting them permanent citizenship. “You’re home,” Netanyahu said, reciting a Hebrew blessing of thanks. “What a moment! What a moment!” Pollard and his wife were flown in on a private jet provided by Sheldon Adelson, a Jewish-American billionaire supporter of both Netanyahu and a GOP mega-donor.
Pollard thanked the Prime Minister and Jewish people all over the world for supporting him. “We hope to become productive citizens as soon and as quickly as possible and to get on with our lives here,” said Pollard.
In 1985 Pollard pleaded guilty in the espionage affair, and was highlighted in a Fox News investigation that exposed more than 60 Israeli spies who may have known about the 9-11 attacks before they occurred.
Dual Loyalty?
Under the State Department’s formal definition of ‘antisemitism,’ it lists accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel than the country in which they reside as a bullet point of what it means to be ‘antisemitic.’ Jewish Americans are the only group of people in the country that have received a formal definition by the US government, defining what it means to hold prejudice against them.
The list is long and this is just one of the many bullet points. Under this formal definition, accusing Pollard or Adelson of having more loyalty to Israel than to their birth country would mean that you are ‘antisemitic.’ Accusing any other group of people of holding dual loyalty however is not controversial. Take Ngawang Dhargyal, a Tibetan-American police officer who also served a seven-month tour in Afghanistan. In October, the NYPD officer was arrested and accused of spying for China.
Would someone be accused of being ‘anti-chinetic’ for suggesting that many Chinese Americans might have more loyalty to the country of their ancestors than the country in which they were born? What about Alexander Yuk Ching Ma? He was a former CIA officer, who was arrested on Aug. 14, 2020, on a charge that he conspired with a relative of his who also was a former CIA officer to communicate classified information up to the Top Secret level to intelligence officials of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Would you say that he had more loyalty to China than to America? Is that controversial to say?
The point is that labels are mostly ridiculous, and many of them are constructed specifically to shut down any criticism of a specific group of people or country.
Criticism or Hatred?
Another bullet point listed under the state department’s definition of ‘antisemitism’ is ‘accusing Jews as a people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single Jewish person or group, or even for acts committed by non-Jews.’ This sounds a lot like what many college professors, politicians, political pundits, and activist groups are doing to white people. Accusing all white people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single white person or a group of white people.
Back in July many media outlets reported on the firing of Nick Cannon due to remarks made on his podcast and YouTube show, Cannon’s Class. Cannon claimed that white people are less than human for having less melanin, as well as ‘savages’ and ‘inferior’ genetically. But he wasn’t fired for those remarks. Viacom, which is owned by Jewish American billionaire Sumner Redstone, fired Nick Cannon for his ‘antisemitic’ remarks. Throughout the interview, Cannon asked why “we give so much power to the ‘theys.’ He also talked about the illuminati, the Zionists, and the Rothschilds,” — referring to one of the wealthy Jewish families known for helping Israel finance their not so clandestine nuclear program in the 1960’s, as well as the formal creation of the state of Israel in the 1940’s.
Almost no one in the media came to Cannon’s defense in regards to what he said about Zionists, but many defended his statements on white people. Many journalists quickly took to twitter to post their articles describing Cannon’s statements about white people as ‘speaking out against racism.’ This was an almost identical reaction we observed by the media regarding similar statements about white people made by L’oreal model Munroe Bergdorf. It is difficult to return exact search results for what Cannon said about white people, but it is even more difficult to locate the exact statements made by Bergdorf.
“Once white people begin to admit that their race is the most violent and oppressive force of nature on Earth, then we can talk,” was just one of the many statements made by the transgender L’oreal model. After the death of George Floyd, CNN reported that ‘L’Oreal dropped the model for commenting on systemic racism.’
In June, L’oreal rehired Bergdorf using Floyd’s death as a pretext. Making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews or the power of Jews as collective is another bullet point listed under the state department’s definition of antisemitism, however no such formal protection exists for white people.
Anti-Zionism is Antisemitism?
In an op-ed written by Jared Kushner in the NY times, Kushner claimed that Anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism. According to Kushner as well as the state department, being against the radical Zionism of Johnathan Pollard, Sheldon Adelson, or even non-Jewish Christian Zionists like John Bolton is considered ‘antisemitism.’ According to Jewish American NY times writer Bret Stephens, putting America first is also antisemitic, and puts the country of Israel at risk. But even some Jews take issue with the broad definition of antisemitism.
The truth is that Zionism is simply a political ideology, and in a hearing regarding the ever-expanding definition of antisemitism, two Jewish Americans described that the state department’s definition was extremely flawed. They noted that Theodor Herzl, the founder of Zionism, made it clear that ‘Jews are one people,’ and therefore it is useless to be loyal to the country in which they reside.
Military Historian Max Boot even admitted that doing ‘what’s best for Israel’ is what motivates neoconservatives. Traditional paleoconservatives in the 1980’s like Russel Kirk and Pat Buchanan who accused neoconservatives of caring more about Israel than America, were also deemed to be ‘antisemitic.’
The clean break study is probably the most talked about memo drafted by Jewish American neoconservatives like David Wurmser, Douglas Feith, and Richard Perle. The study was reported to be for the incoming Likud party of Benjamin Netanyahu, and advocated for Israel to abandon a peaceful option and do whatever it takes to topple the Arab regimes around them. So the question is, is Israel truly our greatest ally?
In an interview with Israel Hayom, Israel’s most widely distributed newspaper, Pollard said the quiet part out loud:
The bottom line on this charge of dual loyalty is, I’m sorry, we’re Jews, and if we’re Jews, we will always have dual loyalty.
During this interview, Pollard recounted how the majority of Jewish leadership in the US government did not stand up for him in the aftermath of his arrest in 1985. At the time, he was a civilian analyst for the US Navy and was eventually caught spying for Israel. “If you’re outside Israel, then you live in a society in which you are basically considered unreliable,” he commented.
Pollard is of the opinion that Jews are delusional if they see America as a home. Instead, he advises young American Jews working in American intelligence agencies to spy for Israel. “You have to make a decision whether your concern for Israel and loyalty to Israel and loyalty to your fellow Jews is more important than your life,” Pollard emphasized.
