Jonathan Pollard: I am so sorry. Can you ever forgive me?

I was born in 1969. In 1985, when I was barely 17, Jonathan Pollard was arrested for espionage activities on behalf of the State of Israel in the United States. That sentence alone should have been enough to quickly spirit Jonathan out of the US, after all the US and Israel are "strategic allies," and if Israel felt it needed a spy in the US military (Jonathan was a US Navy intelligence analyst) then all parties should have been embarrased, and the underlying causes addressed.  Instead Jonathan was made a sacrifical lamb, and the underlying issues remain (more on that another time).

In 1989, when I was 20, and Jonathan had been imprisoned for four years (in solitary confinement), I had the incredible experience of being one the first people outside his family to visit him in prison. I found Jonathan to be a sweet, genuine, soulful individual, obviously a genius, deeply depressed. We went on to become friends, and over the next 2-3 years I visited him several more times.

Unfortunately, as time went on and very few people came to his defense, Jonathan became more and more cynical, paranoid, and bitter. And my life went on, I married, had children, became busy. Like all of us. But Jonathan...he remained in prison.

Jonathan has now started his 24th year in jail. He has served longer than any other person convicted of espionage --for full details see www.jonathanpollard.org. Yes, I have many excuses, as we all do, but I feel I need to say to my friend Jonathan, I am so sorry. I cannot believe it is now almost 20 years since we met in a maximum security jail. So much has happened, and yet for you life has stood still. Except you are now 20 years older. Gevalt. I am so sorry.

Jonathan, I will do more this year to see you set free. I pray that this be your last year behind bars, and look forward to greeting you here in Jerusalem.

At a minimum, I ask anyone reading this to take 5 minutes and help Jonathan as instructed below. If you can do more, please do. I will.

The Committee to Bring Jonathan Pollard Home has arranged
a special local Israeli telephone number to call the White House that
does not require callers to pay long distance charges. Using the number
077-5664305, callers are charged as if they had made a regular local
call, not a long distance call.

For those not in Israel, the regular numbers remain in effect: White
House, 202-456-1111 or 202-456-1414 and fax numbers 202-456-2883 or
202-456-2461.