Editorial: Obama era same old news for Pollard

Issue of Jan. 23, 2009 / 27 Teves 5769

We are very blessed.

In many, or most, places in the world, the elevation of a new leader means battles were fought — in the streets or, if the luck of ordinary citizens held, through the successful application of threat and influence behind closed doors. Either way, the words 'freely elected' do not apply.

We are blessed to live in a land where a president and his successor can share a stage, a handshake — even a hug — and where a document written long ago that prescribes a transfer of power at noon on the 20th of January every four or eight years is adhered to with precision and respect.

We pray for our new president to lead with wisdom. In his inaugural address President Obama signaled to the world a new willingness to discuss, consult and negotiate — all good things — but also said in no uncertain terms, “We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.”

We can only hope that the young Obama administration will recognize this same determination on Israel's part, and honor its right to not waver in its own defense.

President Obama inherits monumental tasks, fixing the economy chief among them, followed closely by decisions concerning Iraq and Afghanistan.  Understandably, the situation of a convicted criminal serving his sentence is not likely to attract his valuable attention any time soon.

That makes it all the more unfortunate that former President Bush chose to leave office without using his power to grant clemency or pardon to Jonathan Pollard, who broke the law when he spied for Israel but who has since been punished out of all proportion to his crime.

Pollard’s most outspoken advocate, Rabbi Pesach Lerner of the National Council of Young Israel, was disappointed Tuesday at the failure of the effort to sway Mr. Bush toward mercy.

“We're not happy,” Lerner said. “We played the system; we played it right. We got into places we never thought we would but he's still sitting in prison. We have to come up with a new focus and a new direction. We can't give up.”

Admirably, Mr. Bush made a great many decisions based on principle and belief. He absorbed a great deal of criticism, if not outright ridicule, and ended his administration on a low note of historic proportion. It is, therefore, hard to blame him for choosing to not make a last minute decision for which he surely would have been criticized some more. Nonetheless, we respectfully and truly wish he had summoned the will to do so.