Treason To Treachery

May, 1994 - Bruce Brill - Midstream Magazine

During a 1976 road trip across America, my wife and I had occasion to stop at Fenwick, West Virginia's Chamber of Commerce. A gentleman, sitting with others in an open meeting, gave us some information, and asked us to sign the visitors' book. In the residence column, we recorded, "Jerusalem, Israel." After having inspected the visitors' book, he turned to the others and announced, "Gentlemen of the Council, our guests here are from Jerusalem, Israel." Without even the slightest hesitation, all of the Council members stood up and applauded. This totally unsolicited and heart warming response expressed a feeling of fellowship toward the Jewish state among Middle Americans that we encountered throughout the US.

Clearly, Americans have a special place in their hearts for Israel. In the recent Feast of Tabernacles Celebration in Israel, some 6500 Christians pilgrims, mostly from the US, assembled in Jerusalem to express identity with and love for the Jewish state. During the Gulf War grassroots expressions of American solidarity with Israel and Israelis flowed in torrents from Columbia to Zion.

Yet the US State Department has consistently worked against Israel, the only democracy in the Mideast. Since any definition of "American" would require that American public sentiment find expression in American action, this State Department position is strangely unAmerican. This antagonism is found within the US intelligence community as well. The most poignant example that this writer can personally attest to is that US Intelligence knew of the imminent attack planned by Egypt and Syria on October 6, l973, and did not pass on this vital information to Israel until it was too late; this resulted in the unnecessary loss of thousands of Israeli lives. The unstated anti-Israel policy within the US Intelligence community is one which can and has resulted in putting a publicly declared friend in military jeopardy.

Surreptitious cells, exclusive of Jews and probably other minorities, within the US Intelligence community manipulate intelligence and remain absolutely immune from monitoring, checks or counterbalance. In effect, the likes of the secretive Skull & Bones are untouchably imbedded in the inner workings of the US Intelligence Community. This clique is a respectable white-shirt-and-tie crowd that sees no evil in working toward Israel's demise. It remains very well-taxpayer-funded without any accountability.

This clique countermanded the 1983 Israel-US Binational Understanding, which expressed both American will and law, requiring the exchange of vital intelligence. US intelligence knew beforehand and the Gulf War showed that Israel's citizen's were the potential targets of a modern-day, SCUD-delivered holocaust. Yet these Jew-free cells in the US intelligence community made sure the information was not forwarded.

The Nuremberg Judgments, represented America's indignation at the crimes of the Holocaust. The Judgments are very clear in stating the responsibility of the individual in not participating in acts of inhumanity ... even under orders. His courage would certainly be acclaimed, were he to act on behalf of the potential victims. One brave US intelligence analyst I know did just that. By forwarding the required intelligence, acknowledged as essential to Israel's security, this analyst certainly acted correctly as a good American in light of the Nuremberg Judgments and the 1983 Understanding ... if not heroically.

The analyst was found out, tried in dubious judicial proceedings, and has been in a high-security prison ward since. His name is Jonathan Pollard.

Nine long years of public perception notwithstanding, if the crime of Jonathan Pollard is treason, it is not to America, but to unAmerican treachery.


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