Editorial

Not now

April 24, 2008

As American Jews prepare to celebrate Israel’s 60th anniversary, there could be no queasier story than the arrest of a New Jersey retiree on charges that he transferred classified documents to the same Israeli science attache who helped “handle” Jonathan Pollard.

According to the Justice Department complaint, Ben-Ami Kadish, while employed at the Picatinny Arsenal in Dover during the 1980s, shared “30 to 100 documents” with the Israeli, who photographed them in Kadish’s basement.

If true, the story rockets Americans and Israelis back to the bad old Pollard days, when U.S. officials were outraged, Israeli officials were humiliated, and American Jews cringed under charges of “dual loyalty” and bristled that a rogue American and his reckless handlers would jeopardize so much to betray a friend.

Reporting on the Kadish case has already unleashed an avalanche of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic invective on Web sites, by the usual gang of Internet cranks and inveterate bigots. They are bound to spin elaborate conspiracy theories out of the allegations, just as some pro-Israel commentators will hint ominously at the “timing” of the charges and toss out tall tales of their own.

As in the ongoing espionage case against AIPAC, in which early speculation about the nature of the case was almost entirely off base, it is important to let the wheels of justice turn before reaching unwarranted conclusions. In the meantime, it is important to emphasize that the charges against Kadish relate to a time before Israel pledged to halt similar operations, and that, if proven, represent the outrageous actions of individuals. If the Pollard case told us anything, our loyalty should be to only one thing: the truth.