Israeli Spy Admits Dual Loyalty

Pollard claims Jews ‘will always have dual loyalty,’ whether they know it or not
Convicted spy laments US Jews see themselves as more American than Jewish, suggests he’d counsel Jew working in American security apparatus to spy for Israel even now

Jonathan Pollard, an American who served a 30-year sentence for spying for Israel and who moved to Israel in December after the end of his parole, made blunt comments on supposed Jewish dual loyalty and the FBI in an interview published Thursday.

“American Jewry has one major problem: they consider themselves more American than they do Jews,” Pollard told the Israel Hayom daily.

Asked how he felt about being accused by US Jews of having dual loyalties, Pollard did not take issue with the title. “If you don’t like the accusation of double loyalty, then go the F*** home,” he said bluntly.

“It’s as simple as that. If you live in a country where you are constantly under that charge, then you don’t belong there. You go home. You come home. If you[‘re] outside Israel, then you live in a society in which you are basically considered unreliable. 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,” he added.

An he suggested that if asked for advice, he would counsel a young US Jew working in the American security apparatus to spy for Israel.

“I’d tell him, not doing anything is unacceptable. So simply going home [to Israel] is not acceptable. Making aliyah is not acceptable,” Pollard said. “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.

“If you do nothing, and you turn your back, or simply make aliyah, and go on with your life, you’ll be no better than those Jews who before and after the destruction of the Temple said, ‘It’s not my responsibility.'”

Pollard, now 66, sold military secrets to Israel while working as a civilian intelligence analyst for the US Navy in the 1980s.

Dual loyalty is not really the right term, as he is advocating loyalty to Israel and Jews, over loyalty to America.

To be fair here, he concedes that many American Jews are loyal to America. He is now a citizen of Israel, and it doesn't bother me that he aligns with his own kind. Most of the world have some group that they identify with, and then they are loyal to that group. Jews happen to have particularly strong tribal loyalties.

I had thought that he served an extra-long sentence because he got double-crossed in his plea bargain. But the article quotes him as saying that he refused to cooperate with prosecutors, so maybe he was the one to renege on the bargain.