Anat Kam and injured innocence

If you all forgot the name, here are some reminders: the initial report, some subsequent updates and a (shallow) overview of the case. In short, under the pretext of whistleblowing, the lady in question accumulated (during her army service time in the GOC Central Command Yair Naveh's office) more than two thousand sensitive and secret documents, which she passed to an Haaretz journalist. Only one or two of the documents were related to the case that caused her the unbearable urge to blow the whistle.

And now Anat Kam, via her lawyer, appeals her prison sentence of 4.5 years. An appeal is an appeal, but this one is somewhat unusual. You see, Kam's appeal is built on a comparison of her sentence to the sentence (or the lack thereof) of other offenders against the security of the state. Starting with the above mentioned Haaretz journalist, Uri Blau that received from her the documents and got off with four months community service. You may say that, with all due respect (hm...) the receiver should get less than the thief, but who knows indeed?

Then the appeal gets into even more murky areas. To start with, the case of Eli Zeira (closed). Then the case of Yitzhak Yaakov (two years suspended). You may say that both cases look somewhat fishy and, anyway, in both cases the offense didn't include willful accumulation and disclosure of thousands of secret documents. But what do we know about the complexity and deviousness of the legal minds?

Of course, not being a lawyer, I can't challenge this approach, although on the face of it the chances this appeal has are comparable to the chances of snowball in hell. But what if we try another direction - that of the Israelis spying for other powers? Like Yosef Amit, spying for US - 12 years. Or Israel Bar, spying for Soviet Union - 15 years.Or Ehud 'Udi' Adiv, spying for Syria - 17 years. Or Marcus Klingberg, spying for the Soviets - 20 years?

So, Anat - count your blessings instead of submitting stupid appeals, which may bring the opposite of what you are praying for. Behave yourself and in three or so years you will be out. And I bet Haaretz will have a job waiting for you.