I've never really read much about the Jonathan Pollard case.
A question...do JTFers think that he should not have been punished at all, or do they think he did break the law but that the punishment was excessive?
Jonathan Pollard is rotting in jail because he took upon himself to pass information that was vital to Israel's security and that was being withheld by the Pentagon, in violation of a 1983 Memorandum of Understanding between the two countries regarding the sharing of vital security intelligence. This included : reconnaissance satellite photography of PLO headquarters in Tunisia, specific capabilities of Libya's air defenses, and U.S. intelligence about Arab and Islamic conventional and unconventional military activity, from Morocco to Pakistan and every country in between.
This is his twenty-sixth year in prison, making him the longest-imprisoned convicted spy in American history. The median sentence for the offense Pollard committed -- one count of passing classified information to an ally -- is two to four years.
From a moral point of view, my personal view is that Jonathan Pollard is a Jewish hero.
From a legal point of view, he should have served a three-year sentence at most. What he has been going through is outrageous.