“They even mock the Holy One of Israel and dare the Lord to punish them,” Isaiah notes discomfitedly. Whilst he spoke of his own generation, his words fit this present one like a glove.

We have just witnessed the release of Mordechai Vanunu from Israeli prison, a Maroccon Jewish immigrant who divulged secrets about Israel’s nuclear project. He not only betrayed people and country when he exposed Israel’s secret defense capabilities, but by so doing also demonstrated his utter disregard for Israel's wars forced upon her by her mortal enemies surrounding her. Vanunu should not have been released from prison.

Yet he was greeted by self-hating Jews and Israel-bashing liberals as a great hero and a martyr who risked his freedom for a “good cause” --- to have Israel stripped of its nuclear defense capabilities to ultimately dismantle the State of Israel.

In contrast, Jonathan Jay Pollard ⁶ (an American Jew who cares for Israel’s safety) languishes already 19 years in a U.S. prison for a much minor offense. All appeals for parole have been denied him. Although the average sentence for his offense – warning Israel of Saddam Hussein’s plan to hit her with weapons of mass destruction (a vital information that was being purposely withheld from Israel by the U.S., Israel's closest ally) is 2 to 4 years, Jonathan Pollard received a life sentence without trial as a result of a plea bargain which he honored and the U.S. government violated. 

For more information, see the “Jonathan Pollard Web site.

But Vanunu, bitter and unrepentant, walked out of prison on Wednesday, April 21, after serving 18 years for exposing Israel's nuclear secrets. Defiant of Israeli restrictions he held an impromptu news conference with international media, flashed victory signs and waved to hundreds of cheering supporters saying he was proud of his actions.

"To all those who are calling me traitor, I am saying I am proud, I am proud and happy to do what I did," Vanunu said⁷. 

On Monday (April 19th) Israelis heard the 50-year-old's voice for the first time in a tape recording of a recent interrogation in which he defended his actions. Many listeners were incensed when Vanunu said the Dimona nuclear reactor where he worked should be destroyed and Israel should not exist. 

"We don't need a Jewish state. There needs to be a Palestinian state," he said on the tape (Vanunu's brother Meir, however, called into question the veracity of the tape).

Asked if he was a hero, Vanunu said "all those who are standing behind me, supporting me ... all are heroes."

His revelations and imprisonment made him a hero to international peace activists, and dozens of supporters, including British actress Susannah York and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire of Northern Ireland, greeted him upon his release⁸. 

Vanunu, who was raised as an Orthodox Jew, converted to Christianity in the mid-1980s⁹, and spent his first night of partial freedom in an Anglican church in Jerusalem. Vanunu will live in a luxury apartment complex in Jaffa (who is paying for it?), an old seaport and today part of Tel Aviv. Jaffa has both Arab and Jewish residents. 

One wonders --- what makes Vanunu a celebrated “hero” and Pollard a “villain”? Vanunu turned against his own nation, compromising her safety and capability of self-defense against a hostile environment, yet he walked out a free man. 

Pollard, on the other hand, contributed to Israel’s safety without compromising U.S. security. He did not spy against the United States. He was never indicted for intent to harm the United States, nor for treason, yet received a sentence far harsher than most enemy spies. Only Jonathan Pollard, a Jew who spied for America’s friend and ally, the Jewish State Israel, remains in prison with no end in sight¹⁰.