Today I am ashamed and embarrassed to be an American citizen
The US has confirmed that the release of its hostage (and yes, hereafter I will refer to him that way), Jonathan Pollard, is on the table. But the price will be steep and I have my doubts about Israel's willingness to pay it.
US officials confirmed Tuesday that the release of long-time captive Jonathan Pollard is on the negotiating table with Israel.
The catch: Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) would be forced to resume peace talks, and Israel would have to make "significant concessions."
IDF Radio reports that American media has already been briefed on the possibility of Pollard's release - which is still a possibility and "far from being assured," according to a source close to the White House. One of the concessions may include a building freeze in Judea and Samaria while talks continue.Anyone want to take a shot at what a building freeze has to do with whether it's 'safe' to release Jonathan Pollard without compromising the security of the United States? I didn't think so. But it gets worse....
On Monday, Deputy Foreign Minister Ze'ev Elkin (Likud) stated that while Israel has an obligation to secure Pollard's release, he is against the idea of releasing a large batch for the sake of a single prisoner.
"If there is a chance to fulfill the State of Israel's moral obligation to Jonathan Pollard, I'd be willing to give them many terrorists, if it would make them happy," he continued. "I do not understand why Americans are happy over murderers being released, but that's their problem."
Elkin also clarified that his position on Israel's obligation to Pollard, in his opinion, is not the same as its obligation to protect IDF soldiers. As such, he said, he would only agree to such a deal if it were "a one-to-one ratio or close to it," and is opposed to "insane deals like we made with [Gilad Shalit]."
MK Danny Danon reiterated reservations about the exchange Tuesday morning.
"It turns out we are now caught in a conflict between the cynicism of Kerry and the morality and logic of Pollard and Israeli society," Danon wrote, in a Facebook post. He reminded readers that Pollard himself has asked not to be exchanged for terrorists, citing risks to Israel's security.I've never felt this way before, but today I am ashamed and embarrassed to be an American citizen. The country of my birth, the land of the free and the home of the brave is holding a Jew hostage to gain the release of terrorist murderers and to deny Jews the right to live in their homeland.
Does it get any worse?
PS I'm expecting some mea culpas in the comments.
Labels: Jonathan Pollard, Palestinian terrorists, settlement freeze
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:37 AM
6 Comments:
Not from me.
That said, if Jews don't have respect for themselves, they have no right to demand it from others.
What Israel has come to, that its government now finds itself haggling over how many more terrorists to release from its prisons?
And not even being sure the Palestinian Arabs won't walk out anyway. As they will unless Israel agrees to up the "rent" its paying them to sit at the table.
Never in the history of the world has good come out of doing evil. Subverting justice is a sin against G-d and the Jews lower themselves even beneath righteous G-d fearers when they commit it.
The Laws Of Noah state very clearly one of mankind's obligations is to establish courts of justice. This is incumbent upon every people on earth - without exception.
And without justice, there can be no peace. This is forgotten today and whether or not Israel capitulates to Obama and Kerry again in the future, that is exactly the outcome.
Releasing more killers of Jewish children from prison won't bring about peace. If that lesson hasn't sunk in yet with Israel's leaders, its hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Paying Palestinian Arab extortion is not going to strengthen Israel. Its time to say "no" to more of this farce.
Pollard is indeed a hostage and Israel is dealing with an entity (Obama and Kerry) that is much like Hamas.
They both demand that large numbers of terrorists are released for one Jewish man and they want to make it as humiliating as possible for Israel to do it.
No wonder Hamas raised money for Obama's presidential campaign.
Hello. Taking $$BBillions of $lu$h from the US Democrat Party should have been an embarrassment all along. Look at the post about Dermer... The US Govt people doling out the $lu$h are freezing out Dermer, just because he talks to the Republicans? Team up with someone and either help or donate to get the Dems voted out. They are doing bad things to US Citizens... not just Israel. The "criminal convictions" referenced here: home invasions, assault, drugs, rape, etc etc etc
DHS document: 68,000 illegal immigrants with criminal convictions released in 2013
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/202142-dhs-document-68000-illegal-immigrants-with-criminal-convictions-released-in
Everything Obama does is for domestic political reasons. American Jews would vote for him as they were being marched to the ovens in Camp Obama. So freeing Pollard won't make any difference for that. Moreover most American Jews in the Obama camp have to show their bona fides by saying they are more anti Pollard than anyone else. Read the comments on Politico, they want him executed. So if this doesn't play in the 2014 elections then Obama won't do it.
BTW this prattle about how he's going to be freed soon anyway after 30 years is merely convention not law. Some but not all Federal prisoners are freed from a life sentence after 30 years but clearly the US has and is committed to burying Pollard no matter what.
I'm afraid it's all fake and Israel needs to ignore all of it and stay the course of not freeing any more murderers.
I too am ashamed to be American and agree with you 100% on this.
Carl, I used to say (jokingly) that Jewish blood is cheap. However, we see over and over that it isn't! It takes 1000 monsters released to free Gilad. It takes 400 more monsters to free Pollard? What other country in the world trades so unevenly??? Jewish blood is so expensive!
I think the country has gone to pot. There is only bad things that can come from this. Just remember, Hashem blesses those who bless Israel and curses those who curse Israel. The US is in big trouble. Seriously. Hashem is not going to sit back. I just don't want to get caught in the cross fire. (Please convince DH to make aliyah already!!)
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