You know what a shonda is? Shonda is a Yiddish word that has become pretty widely used in the U.S. The simplest definition is "a shame," but especially behavior by a Jew in front of non-Jews that causes Jews embarrassment. Trumpist Stephen Miller is a recent personification of the word. But there was never anyone more of a shonda for American Jews than Jonathan Pollard, a US Navy analyst and an admitted spy who supplied top secret information regarding America's global electronic surveillance network and other classified materials to Israel.
Pollard was spared the death penalty, even after admitting to selling top secret materials to Pakistan and South Africa as well, and in 1987 was sentenced to life imprisonment. After immense pressure and lobbying from Israel and its American sock puppets, he was paroled in 2015 and, after Trump was defeated but before he left the White House, at the urging of notorious scumbags Henry Kissinger, Newt Gingrich and Alan Dershowitz, Trump allowed another Israeli spy, Sheldon Adelson, to have Pollard flown to Israel on his private jet, where he was met by Netanyahu at the airport and granted a pension for life equivalent to what all Mossad spies get.
Yesterday, Israel Hayom, a right wing newspaper founded by Adelson, published a long interview with Pollard-- his first since escaping to Israel. Unrepentant and bitter, Pollard said "If you don't like the accusation of double loyalty, then go the fuck home. 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. American Jewry has one major problem-- they consider themselves more American than they do Jews."
Israel Hayom asked him what advice he would give a young Jewish naval intelligence officer today is asked by the Mossad to work for Israel. "I'd tell him," said Pollard, "not doing anything is unacceptable. So simply going home is not acceptable. Making aliyah is not acceptable. 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. Because you know what would probably happen to you if you get caught. It will be hell. But you have to look at yourself every morning in the mirror, and you have to live with yourself. 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.'"
On a somewhat brighter note, Netflix has just released the long-awaited third season of Shtisel