oints of view >> Send letters to: letters@thejewishnews.com Contributing Editor Editorial David Project's Israel Model Could Endure Time To Let Pollard Go Convicted Israeli spy has more than paid societal debt. W ith Israeli President Shimon Peres stepping up the pressure for Israeli agent Jonathan Pollard's release from the U.S. prison system after almost 27 years of incarceration, much of the time in soli- darity confinement, Barack Obama has no choice but to listen ... hard. The time has come for the U.S. presi- dent to extend clemency in part on humanitarian grounds, but also given that Pollard is the only per- son in U.S. history to receive a life sentence for disclosing classified information to an American ally. Obama is the fifth president since Pollard's spying conviction, but the clemency ground- swell is now at a fever pitch. Peres visited Washington last week to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Obama at the White House. Honored on June 13, Peres brought along a petition, signed by 70,000 Israelis, that seeks Pollard's release. The petition circu- lated just two months. The diverse list of signers includes former Israeli President Yitzhak Navon, former cap- tive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, Nobel laureates Dan Shechtman and Aaron Ciechanover of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa and left-wing Israeli authors Amos Oz, David Grossman and A.B. Yehoshua. Earlier, Peres, armed with a supportive petition from 80 Israeli lawmakers, had sent a personal letter to Obama, via U.S. Ambassador Dan Shapiro, urging clemency. Pollard, 57, underwent kidney surgery last year and is in poor health. "It is only a matter of time until the next medical crisis occurs:' his wife, Esther, told JTA. He remains at the Butner Federal Correctional:Complex in North Carolina. It's remote he'd ever commit another felony should he be released. 28 June 21 ' 2012 T Jonathan Pollard The former civilian intelligence ana- lyst for the U.S. Navy is serving a life sentence for passing classified infor- mation to Israel. He was first jailed in 1985 and was sentenced two years later. Ever since, debate has raged about not only his guilt, but also the severity of his sentence. Current clemency calls rightly focus on the latter while affirm- ing his guilt in the eyes of the law. A 2010 U.S. House letter to Obama pointed to "a great disparity from the standpoint of jus- tice between the amount of time Mr. Pollard has served and the time that has been served — or not served at all — by many others who were found guilty of similar activity on behalf of nations adversarial to us, unlike Israel:' A bipartisan House letter now circulating asks Obama to commute Pollard's sentence to time served while acknowledging Pollard "broke the law and deserved to be pun- ished for his crime." Certainly, time served should be mea- sured against the established time line for such a conviction. Pollard commit- ted a felony, took money for his illegal actions, was found guilty, expressed remorse and has paid a fair, even stiff, price. The median sentence for such a crime is two to four years in prison; the maximum punishment is now 10 years. Jewish support for clemency is broad and deep, ranging from Orthodox, Conservative and Reform groups to the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. Many high-ranking former U.S. government officials on both sides of the aisle have implored Obama to extend clemency. Over the years, it has been broached that Israelis could construe clem- ency as further affirmation of the unshakable ties between America and Let Pollard Go on page 29 rue anti-Israelists represent a small, determined minority of students who wield little sway in influencing the larger 1) student population on campuses of higher education. Reacting to their protests and pro- FAR vo,„s SRAEG grams by challenging them directly has little long-term impact because their participant num- bers already are proportionately low. A better strategy is to promote Israel through positive rallies and activities. That's the emerging attitude of the David Project, a Boston-based Israel education and advocacy organization intended to encourage and support a pro-Israel spirit on campus. The aggressiveness of old has assumed a more- upbeat style in standing with Israel to avoid stepping into the quicksand of counter-productivity where confrontation is bound to founder. For example, instead of publicly challenging organizers of a boycott, divest- ment and sanctions conference against Israel and its corporate supporters, the David Project now would turn its spotlight off the anti-Israel gathering and train it on the realities of the Jewish state. This game changer on the minefield of political discourse is more attuned to the literal message that it projects than the figurative enemies that it punches. The David Project's new direction is told via the Israel Campus Beat (ICB), a thoughtful student online publication that synthesizes Israel-related news emanating from North American campuses. It's a direction that triggers a provocative question: Should the venerable tactic of confronting anti- Israelism on campus, and giving precious additional exposure to Zion-bashing, give way to dynamic, educational actions that build networking among stu- dents who see the enduring benefit of the U.S.-Israel alliance? "It's got to be systematic," the David Project's executive director, David Bernstein, told the ICB (www.israelcampusbeat.org ). "It starts with stu- dents mapping out their campuses to understand the diverse sources of lead- ership, and then reaching out to them and finding ways of building long-term ties that raise understanding of Israel. There's no one size fits all, but engag- ing the process in the long term can produce great results." Time, of course, will determine that. Midwest campus coordinator Jason Horowitz told ICB how a pro-Israel stu- dent took the president of the black student union out for coffee in hopes of sparking an alliance between Jews and blacks at Michigan State University – and the chat blossomed into a Jewish Hearts in Africa event together. Jews and blacks are more likely to find common ground than Jews and anti-lsraelists. But the David Project change has a seductiveness that could well withstand the gales of Israel hatred and actually work. In February, the David Project released a sobering report that concluded: "To ensure continued strong American support for Israel in the decades ahead, the American Jewish community must find ways to turn the discussion of Israel on campus in a more positive direction." The report sought "to assist the leadership and staff of the pro-Israel campus network and the wider Jewish community in developing a set of generally agreed upon principles." Some schools are predisposed to a pro-Israel point of view. But improve- ments in the nuances of Middle East discussion elsewhere can still be consid- ered a win even if they fall short of generating widespread support for Israel's policies, according to the report. A key finding stresses that Israel supporters shouldn't frame Israel only in Jewish terms. This finding makes sense on a number of levels, not the least of which are that Israel is America's best friend in a strategically important, but embattled region, and that Israel, though a Jewish state, is religiously significant to Christianity and Islam as well. . The David Project's strategic change is a bold gamble that could dissolve in the swirling waves of unrest on our unpredictable campuses. Still, it's worth embracing to test its seaworthiness in those harsh mists. 1 111 Avic, PojEcr :