Pollard Writes to Bassi

Greer Fay Cashman - The Jerusalem Post - September 27, 2004

Jonathan Pollard, who is serving a life sentence for espionage on behalf of Israel, has sent an open letter from America via his wife Esther to Yonatan Bassi, the Director of the Disengagement Authority.

In the letter that Pollard characterizes as "a wake up call", he criticizes Bassi for voluntarily accepting the mission of uprooting Jews from the Land of Israel and of expelling Jews from their homes.

Pollard finds this kind of behavior on the part of a Torah Jew to be an abomination and unforgivable desecration.

"There can be no rationalization for this kind of immorality," he writes, "no mitigating factors, no justification "

Pollard is at a loss to understand why Bassi, instead of heeding the words of great rabbis who are recognized as Torah authorities and who have come out against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan and the evacuation of settlements, prefers to listen to the government, the Justice Ministry and the army.

"The religiously ignorant and the irreligious now have in Bassi a model of a religious Jew who has sold out," states Pollard.

Rather than recognizing Bassi's official title, Pollard refers to him as "the Chief Liquidator of Jewish homes and communities in Israel."

Declaring that it is still not too late to turn back, Pollard urges Bassi to return the mantle of office to the Prime Minister and not to stain his soul with Jewish blood.