U.S. to Release Convicted Israeli Spy Jonathan Pollard, Officials Say

The Obama administration is preparing to release convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard,according to U.S. officials, some of whom hope the move will smooth relations with Israel in the wake of the Iran nuclear deal.

Such a move would end a decadeslong fight over Mr. Pollard, who was arrested on charges of spying for Israel in 1985 and later sentenced to life in prison. The case has long been a source of tension between the U.S. and Israel, which has argued that a life sentence for spying on behalf of a close U.S. partner is too harsh. For decades, Israel has sought Mr. Pollard’s early release only to be rejected by the U.S.

Now, some U.S. officials are pushing for Mr. Pollard’s release in a matter of weeks. Others expect it could take months, possibly until his parole consideration date in November. Some U.S. officials strongly denied Friday there was any link between the Iran deal and Mr. Pollard’s prospective release, saying that any release decision would be made by the U.S. Parole Commission.

A White House spokesman referred questions to the Justice Department, where a spokesman declined to comment on a matter which may be before the Parole Commission.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been a vocal opponent of the deal struck between Iran and six world powers to curb Iran’s nuclear program. Discord between Israel and the U.S., longtime allies, has led to a deteriorating relationship that is the stormiest it has been in decades.

Mr. Netanyahu has personally pressed for years to get the U.S. to release Mr. Pollard, who is currently serving time in a federal prison in Butner, N.C.

Mr. Pollard, 60 years old, was a civilian analyst with the U.S. Navy when he was arrested for passing secret documents to Israel. He eventually pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life.

The mechanism or likely rationale for freeing Mr. Pollard couldn't immediately be learned. The most likely scenario would be to free him when he first becomes eligible for parole in November, according to some U.S. officials.

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Anne Henderson Pollard and Jonathan Pollard at their wedding Aug. 9, 1985, in Italy. PHOTO:GETTY IMAGES

Under sentencing laws at the time he was convicted, Mr. Pollard has to be considered for parole after 30 years. The Bureau of Prisons website currently lists his possible release date as Nov. 21, which is the date the federal parole commission is slated to consider whether to end his sentence.

A parole hearing for Mr. Pollard was held in early July. Mr. Pollard’s lawyer, Eliot Lauer, said he hasn’t heard from the parole commission “and I would expect that either I or my client would be the ones who would be notified.’’

Last year, President Barack Obama told an Israeli interviewer: “I have no plans for releasing Jonathan Pollard immediately but what I am going to be doing is to make sure that he, like every other American who’s been sentenced, is accorded the same kinds of review and the same examination of the equities that any other individual would provide.’’

To get out before November would require unusual intervention. In the federal prison system, often the easiest way to free an inmate early is to cite deteriorating health. Mr. Pollard’s supporters say he is suffering from a host of medical ailments that should qualify him for mercy.

The U.S. has considered releasing him before but always backed away from such a move, largely because of opposition from senior leaders at the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Justice Department.

It is possible such opposition could again scuttle any release, but it appears his chances at winning freedom are better now than they have ever been, U.S. officials said. Some U.S. officials have concluded he will be a free man before the year is over, these people said.

The prospect of Mr. Pollard’s freedom still grates on many U.S. intelligence officials, in part because his release wouldn’t likely come as part of like-for-like swap, as is often how espionage cases are resolved. Other officials counter that 30 years is a fair punishment and that keeping Mr. Pollard in prison until he dies would serve little purpose.

Mr. Pollard has explained his espionage activity by citing a great affinity for Israel, though counter-intelligence officials say he was paid tens of thousands of dollars for his work.

From June 1984 through November 1985, Mr. Pollard removed large amounts of highly classified U.S. intelligence from his office, made copies and delivered it to Israeli operatives.

About a year after his spying began, federal agents stopped Mr. Pollard as he was leaving work and questioned him about the possible unauthorized removal of classified information.

During that conversation, he twice took breaks to call his wife, using a prearranged code word “cactus,” signaling that she should remove a suitcase full of classified information from their apartment. She also pleaded guilty and served three years in prison and later moved to Israel.

Schumer .... Where are you?

Sen. Chuck Schumer is famous for his ability to locate the nearest TV camera and plant himself squarely in front of the lens.

And yet, as about 8,000 rallied in Manhattan Wednesday night on an issue near and dear to Schumer’s heart — Israel’s security — the senator was a no-show.

The rally was in opposition to the Iranian nuclear deal. Schumer was absent because he hasn’t yet decided whether to do the right thing and oppose President Obama’s disastrous deal, or do the opposite of the right thing and shepherd it through Congress.

Israel’s supporters in the United States have many reasons to hope the deal goes down in Congress.

Yet one goes unmentioned: Schumer’s role in securing passage of the Iran deal represents what would be the capstone in Obama’s quest to distance the United States from Israel.

To understand why, some brief background is in order.

In July 2009, about a month after making his famous “address to the Muslim world” in Cairo, Obama hosted national Jewish leaders at the White House.

Malcolm Hoenlein, head of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, offered the president a word of advice. “If you want Israel to take risks, then its leaders must know that the United States is right next to them,” Hoenlein said.

Obama disagreed, saying that during the George W. Bush years “there was no space between us and Israel, and what did we get from that? When there is no daylight, Israel just sits on the sidelines, and that erodes our credibility with the Arab states.”

This statement neatly demonstrated the two major weaknesses in Obama’s view of the Middle East.

The first is historical ignorance: Far from Israel sitting on the sidelines, when Bush stood steadfastly by Israel, the Jewish state — then led by rightist Prime Minister Ariel Sharon — evacuated every last Jew and soldier from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank.

Second, Obama was signaling clearly his intent to put “daylight” between the two countries.

But the president can only create so much of that daylight himself.

In reality, the “special relationship” between the United States and Israel is so strong precisely because it goes far deeper than the whims of the current occupant of the Oval Office.

Both the US military and Congress have close working relationships with their Israeli counterparts.

This is deeply frustrating for Obama, so he set out to weaken those pillars of the US-Israel relationship.

How would Obama weaken military ties? Here’s what he did.

During last summer’s war in Gaza, Israeli defense officials wanted to replenish munitions from stocks of American weapons stored in Israel for just such an occasion. The Pentagon didn’t need presidential approval to green-light the transfer, which it did.

Obama, however, objected when he found out about it. He withheld additional weapons transfers to Israel and forced the Pentagon to route such requests through the White House. Obama had essentially downgraded the US-military alliance during wartime.

But Congress is a coequal branch, and thus harder for Obama to control. That doesn’t mean he hasn’t tried, of course.

The most recent example was when House Speaker John Boehner invited Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress without coordinating it with the White House. Obama cast congressional attendance at the speech as a betrayal.

But nothing Obama has done to damage Israel’s standing in Congress could compare to getting Chuck Schumer — the supposed shomer (guardian, in Hebrew) of Israel — to ensure the survival of a nuclear deal that rearranges America’s Mideast alliances by elevating Tehran at the expense of the Israelis, the Saudis, the Jordanians and the Egyptians, among others.

And that’s why crowds in Times Square Wednesday night chanted “Where is Chuck Schumer?”

As Schumer continues to avoid answering questions about his stance on the nuke deal, his constituents are wondering how far he’s willing to go to become the Democrats’ next Senate leader.

Would Schumer the shomer throw America’s allies under the bus and allow Obama to drive a wedge between Washington and Jerusalem? If Schumer won’t answer that question directly, his handling of the Iran deal will.

Twins who married twins have babies minutes apart

The twin brothers, Niv and Ran Cohen, 24, and the twin sisters, Leah and Rivka, 20, become parents to daughters born only 20 minutes apart on Sunday 

Twin brothers, Niv and Ran Cohen, with their newborn daughters  |  Photo credit: Kikar Hashabbat

In a rare but happy coincidence on Sunday in Israel's Breslov hassidic community, twin sisters, who are married to twin brothers, each gave birth to a baby girl at almost exactly the same time.

Like the twin sisters, and their twin husbands, the two baby girls were born 20 minutes apart, Orthodox news website Kikar Hashabbat reported.

The twin brothers, Niv and Ran Cohen, 24, and the twin sisters, Leah and Rivka, 20, were married four days apart.

Both couples live in Yavne'el and follow the late Rabbi Eliezer Shlomo Schick, who matched the sets of twins to marry and predicted that they would have children at the same time.

Niv remarked that his and his brother's state ID numbers are only two digits apart, as are their wives' -- and now the same will be true for their daughters.

The sisters' mother said, "With us, everything comes in twos.

Schumer has Hikend arrested because he dared protest in front of his office paid by taxpayers

Trump tells CNN "The people don't trust you"

In an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper that was broadcasted tonight, Republican candidate for president Donald Trump berated the reporter for continuing to address polls that shed him in a negative light instead of polls showing his upper-tier status.

 "I am leading across the board," Trump said in the interview. "And then you hit me with this poll that I didn't see before, where oh, gee, it's not even that kind of a poll. All i know is I have a very big group of support. And I think one of the reasons." 

 "Let me tell you. The people don't trust you and the people don't trust the media. And I understand why," Trump lectured Cooper. 

 Trump also said the American dream is "dead," but he will revive it and "make it bigger, better and stronger than ever before." 

 "You know I tell the story, the American dream -- I talk about the American dream in speeches," Trump said. "The American dream is dead but I'm going to make it bigger, better and stronger than ever before."

DONALD TRUMP: You keep bringing up negative. You only want to talk about negative. Why don't you bring up the positive? 

 ANDERSON COOPER, CNN: I did. 

TRUMP: Excuse me. 

 COOPER: I started off with the Washington Post poll. 

 TRUMP: You started off the interview --

 COOPER: No, I started off with the Washington Post poll. 

TRUMP: You start off the interview with a poll that I didn't even know existed. 

 COOPER: I started off with the Washington Post poll. Intentionally, because I knew you would accuse me of that. 

TRUMP: All I know is every poll I am leading in and you give me these two polls where it is different states. They're not even a national poll. 

 COOPER: Check the record. 

 TRUMP: I'm sure the record is fine. 

 COOPER: I started off with the Washington Post poll where you are way out in front.

 TRUMP: I just think it is very unfair. Talk to me about a poll I have never even saw.

 COOPER: It came out today. 

 TRUMP: It's not even a poll. It's in three different states and you are hitting me with this. Frankly, I think it is a very unfair question. I think it is an extremely -- you start off the interview with that. You don't say, I led in the FOX poll. I'm leading in the ABC/Washington Post poll. 

 COOPER: You're leading across the board. 

 TRUMP: I am leading across the board. And then you hit me with this poll that I didn't see before, where oh, gee, it's not even that kind of a poll. All i know is I have a very big group of support. And I think one of the reasons. 

 COOPER: Among Republicans you are way out in the front. 

TRUMP: Let me tell you. The people don't trust you and the people don't trust the media. And I understand why. 

 COOPER: Right. And politicians. 

 TRUMP: You know, I have always been covered, fairly, accurately because it was usually a financial press. And you know numbers are numbers and my numbers happen to be great. So, I was always sort of treated fair. With the media it's, not all cases, some, some of the political media is great. And really honest. Even if they've don't want to want to be, they're really honest. But I find that 60%, 70% of the political media is really, really dishonest. You know I tell the story, the American dream -- I talk about the American dream in speeches. The American dream is dead but I'm going to make it bigger, better and stronger than ever before. The American dream is dead. But i'm going to make it bigger, stronger. Right. And I go 'boom!' and I do it with great bravado and the audience goes crazy.

Neutrei Karta Savages Wave Iranian Flags At Anti-Nuke Rally In Times Square

Faigy Mayer posted old family pictures minutes before she jumped

She broke free from the iron-tight grip of her ultra-conservative Hasidic community — only to kill herself after years of struggling with that decision.

Tortured soul Faigy Mayer, who leaped to her death from a trendy Manhattan roof bar Monday night, was shunned by her parents for choosing to live in the secular world, relatives and friends told The Post.

The tragic woman, 30, posted touching old family photos on Facebook just six minutes before she climbed over the ledge of the 230 Fifth Rooftop Bar in the Flatiron ­District at 6:45 p.m. and jumped.

“My family refuses to allow me to have my baby pictures so finding these pics were cool!” the woman wrote above the snapshots.

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Photo: Facebook

Her final words were to a bartender — whom she asked, “Where’s the east deck?’’ a law-enforcement source said.

The question was laden with symbolism. Jewish people pray in that ­direction, toward Jerusalem.

After the bartender pointed, Mayer walked over to a 4¹/₂-foot brick wall along the roof and put one leg over it, then the other, the source said.

The bartender ran to her and grabbed her hand, but she pulled loose and jumped, the source said.

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Photo: Facebook

Mayer’s death came after years of battling manic depression — and her Brooklyn family’s devastating rejection over her decision to leave the faith, relatives and friends said.

In 2009, she appeared in a National Geographic documentary called ­“Inside Hasidism” — admitting that her loss of faith was a long time coming.

“It was actually at the age of 3 that I already showed no interest in Yiddish or Hebrew,” she said.

After she openly began eschewing the faith, “My parents, they were like, point blank, ‘You have to get out of here because you are not religious anymore,’ ” she said.

A source in the community who knew Mayer said, “Once you don’t feel loved by your own parents, it’s the end of the world. You hate yourself. You don’t want to live.”

Mayer’s parents’ biggest fear became a reality after she left home — one of her sisters also ­renounced their religion.

“[Mayer] was very worried about her sister all the time,’’ the source said.

But she put up a good front, defiantly mocking her former faith.

Mayer boasted on Twitter that she loved bacon, and skewered ­ultra-Orthodox wedding customs on Facebook.

“Hahaha my people are hilarious, putting the bride on a leash while covering her as if she’s the devil. #onlydogsneedleashes,” Mayer wrote July 5 in a post with a video about a “mitzvah tantz,” or custom dance.

The clip showed a man dancing in front of a bride and holding one end of a sash attached to the woman, whose face is veiled.

But inside, her distance from her family was destroying her.

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View of the Empire State Building from the rooftop bar at 230 Fifth in New York.Photo: Chad Rachman

A source described one particularly heartbreaking attempt by Mayer to connect with another family after being rejected by her own.

“She loved family. She used to beg to baby-sit the rabbi’s kids,’’ the source said. “It was like an outlet to relieve her pain, caring for the babies. It was a tremendous connection for her.’’

Mayer’s parents were still so bitter about her renunciation of their lifestyle that some of their anger continued even after her death, another source said.

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A makeshift memorial for Faigy Mayer outside 230 Fifth.Photo: Chad Rachman

Her family told her ex-Orthodox friends that her funeral would be at noon Tuesday — then scheduled it for 2 p.m., the source said.

“The family did not want the friends to show up to the funeral. It’s disgusting,” the source said.

Still, her parents and siblings attended her service in Borough Park. About one-third of the 150 mourners were ex-Orthodox.

And her stricken dad offered an olive branch to those from outside the community when he stood to speak — opening his eulogy in English rather than Yiddish.

“I did not prepare my speech in English. I apologize. I really ­appreciate you coming,’’ he said.

The dad then said in Yiddish, “We’re never going to recover.”

A source close to the family said Mayer was bipolar and schizophrenic, having been in and out of mental institutions for years.

“She changed her personalities almost as often as she changed socks,’’ the woman said.

A friend and fellow ex-Hasid, Srully Stein, 23, said Mayer also was “brilliant . . . a genius.’’ She was working on an app to help former Hasids like herself in New York City, friends said.

On June 30, Mayer posted a photo on Facebook of a mural at the High Line park.

“Yes, life is beautiful!” she wrote, standing in front of the pink letters with a paint roller in her hand.

A friend commented on the photo early Tuesday, writing: “Wish you believed it, girl. *hugs*”

Additional reporting by Amber Sutherland, Yaron Steinbuch, Kathleen Culliton

Call Schumer to Publicly Oppose and Fight Iran Deal: Hikend

Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn) called on Senator Charles Schumer (D-New York) to publicly oppose the Iran deal and to commit to leading the fight to stop it in Congress. 

“We’ve listened to Senator Schumer for years and how he takes every opportunity to explain the origin of his name Schumer and what it means for him to be a proud “Shomer”—which in Hebrew means protector. From your time as Congressman to one of the most powerful members of the Senate, Senator Schumer, you have repeatedly called yourself our ‘shomer’ (protector). Now is the time to live up to your claim and put your words into action. We need you to demonstrate leadership on one of most critical foreign policy issues of our time. Be our protector and stop this terrible deal,” said Hikind.

Hikind added, “Senator Schumer says he will “do the right thing.” These are unprecedented times and it’s time to stop this deal, which is disastrous for America and our allies in the Middle East. This will define your legacy. Please do not allow partisan politics or any other considerations to cloud your judgment."

“I call upon all New Yorkers to contact Senator Schumer’s office – call him at 202-224-6542, Tweet him @SenSchumer, e-mail him, let him know how you feel. Senator Schumer is a powerful voice in Congress and he needs to hear from you. Now is not the time to be silent.”

Contact Information for Senator Charles E. Schumer
New York:
Phone: 212-486-4430
Fax: 202-228-2838

Washington, D.C.:
Phone: 202-224-6542
Fax: 202-228-3027

Web: http://www.schumer.senate.gov/contact/email-chuck
Twitter: @SenSchumer

Faigy Mayer dies jumping off roof in Manhattan UPDATED!

At the scene of her death

A woman jumped 20 stories to her death from a swanky rooftop bar in the Flatiron District Monday night.

As onlookers sipped pricey drinks at the 230 Fifth Rooftop Bar during a corporate party at 7:30 p.m., 30-year-old Faigy Mayer suddenly sprinted toward a row of bushes that lined the edge of the establishment, cops and onlookers said.

She went through the shrubbery, over a wall and plummeted to the sidewalk on West 27th Street, shocking pedestrians.

“I was waking across the street and I saw she was falling,” said Dale Martin, who witnessed the tragedy. “You can tell it was a lady. She had on shoes and a dress.”

The section of the bar where Mayer jumped was cordoned off by police as they investigated.

“There was a big corporate party up there and she kind of ran through them [the partygoers] and jumped,” said another witness Becky Whittemore.

“They closed off the section where she jumped from. I think a lot of the people up there had zero clue what was going on.”

Officials recovered two bags that might have belonged to the victim, a purse and a backpack.

UPDATE!

The woman who jumped to her death from a rooftop bar in the Flatiron District Monday night was a former Hasidic Jew who carved a new path in the secular world as an app developer – but apparently harbored deep-rooted unhappiness.

Faigy Mayer, 30, who leapt 20 stories from the 230 Fifth Rooftop Bar during a corporate party Monday night, described herself on Twitter as a “Former #hasid who codes in #iOS.”

Mayer was the founder and CEO of Appton, a New York-based mobile and web solutions startup, according to her LinkedIn page.

She wrote on Twitter that she loved coding, bacon, the Apple Watch – and life.

On June 30, she posted a photo on Facebook of a mural at the High Line.

“Yes, life is beautiful!” she wrote with a paint roller in her hand standing in front of the pink letters.

A friend commented on the photo early Tuesday morning, writing: “Wish you believed it, girl. *hugs*”

The tragic techie also was an avid foodie, with her last photo on Instagram showing a close-up view of her bibimbap – a signature Korean dish – from Bonchon on 38th Street.

She also has uploaded pictures of matzoh ball soup from Katz’s Deli, a thai dish from Kiin Thai Eatery and a breakfast sandwich from BEC.

But her lively public pronouncements belied serious problems in her life.

“The word is out that she was an unhappy person who had left the community. She has a history of emotional problems and was seeing a psychiatrist,” a Hasidic source told The Post.

On June 21, she posted about needing some help moving out of her Brooklyn pad.

“Paid job: looking for someone to help me move on Sunday, June 28, from Greenpoint to a 20 min drive away. Have 12 boxes to move. Need you to drive a car,” she wrote.

Ari Mandel, who posted his recollections of Mayer on Facebook, told The Post that she had been “fairly open” about suffering from depression.

“She was in and out of mental institutions every so often. In between, she was a really lovely person,” he said. “She was working on an app. The app was meant for ex-Hasidim. We had talked about working on it and then I got busy so we never went through it.”

He said her death doesn’t come as a complete shock.

“But it’s not any sadder and it doesn’t suck any less,” he said, noting that she had struggled with family issues after her strict upbringing in Williamsburg.

He also said she may have been upset because of trouble finding a new apartment.

“I know that her lease had run out and I know she was struggling to find housing very recently and that may have something to do with it. But who knows? I don’t know what made her do it. Maybe she felt like there was no way out,” he said.

The young woman appeared in a 2009 National Geographic documentary called “Inside Hasidism,” in which she described her decision to leave her insular ultra-Orthodox Belz communities of Williamsburg and Boro Park in Brooklyn.

“It was actually at the age of three that I already showed no interest in Yiddish or Hebrew,” she said on the show. “It was just like so challenging, like the whole transition.”

Mayer hooked up with Footsteps, a NewYork-based organization that helps Ultra-Orthodox men and women in their challenging journeys into secular society.

Mayer graduated summa cum laude from Touro College with a bachelor’s in accounting and earned a master’s in accounting from Brooklyn College. She also earned a certificate in Data Science Specialization from Johns Hopkins University this year.

Among the apps she said she developed were NYCTips, a Big Apple restaurant tip calculator, a parking app called Carma and All About Hasids.

In a recent Facebook posting, Mayer made a telling observation on Ultra-Orthodox wedding customs.

“Hahaha my people are hilarious, putting the bride on a leash while covering her as if she’s the devil. #onlydogsneedleashes,” she wrote July 5 in a post with a video about a “mitzvah tantz,” or custom dance.

The clip shows a man dancing in front of a bride as he holds onto one end of a sash as the other end is attached to the woman, whose face is covered by a veil.

A Hasidic volunteer who helped clean up the scene of the tragedy Monday night said his group found out Mayer was Jewish because a friend who had been with her contacted the Hasidic community.

“It was very tough. It’s never easy to do these things. It’s hard on the volunteers. We do it to maintain religious rites and decorum. But it’s very hard, especially when you know that it’s somebody very young,” the volunteer told The Post about the cleanup task.

“It’s an important mission that is very difficult to accomplish because of the background behind it. When you’re going to help somebody who is 90 years old who passed away versus somebody who is so young and had her whole life ahead of her it just makes the job 10 times harder,” he said.

Mayer jumped from the 230 Fifth Rooftop Bar during a corporate party at 7:30 p.m. after running toward a row of bushes that lined the edge of the establishment, cops and onlookers said.

She landed on the sidewalk on West 27th Street, shocking pedestrians.

It was not immediately known if Mayer was connected to the party.

After the tragedy, some bar patrons still enjoyed table service at the bar, where bottles can fetch as much as $300 each.

Supporters of Taubenfeld mock Victim at Abuse Trial!

Posted by Pesach Sommer

I know that I can’t have held my breath for 1 ½ hours this past Friday. Still, as i sat in the courtroom listening to Laiby Stern testify about the abuse he suffered at the hands of his former neighbor Moshe Menachem Taubenfeld, a powerful and influential member of the chassidic community in New Square, I felt like I couldn’t breathe.

As I listened to Laiby as he was cross-examined by the defense lawyer I felt so many different emotions rise up inside of me. Perhaps the strongest emotion that I felt was anger. Anger at the dozens of men who were there to support Taubenfeld. Men who smiled, smirked, and even laughed each time Stern, who has a learning disability, was tripped up by the high-paid defense attorney. Anger at a community that instinctively circles the wagons around its most powerful members, rather than protecting those who are most vulnerable. Anger at a community that refuses to recognize the dangers posed by abusers in their community, where the abuser might receive, at most, a beating and a warning to not do it again, or, if they are influential enough, no consequence at all. I also felt anger at the the fact that the community fears the outside world more than it fears its children being hurt, and anger that it blames the victim for any subsequent problems  he or she might face, rather than holding the abuser responsible.

After the trial, I heard about how other victims of abuse in New Square and other chassidic communities are following this case, anxiously waiting to see whether it’s worth it to come forward to bring charges. If Laiby loses his cases, these young people will take it as a sign that they can not succeed if they come forward. I was told that some might give up more than that, and had suggested they might jump off a bridge if Taubenfeld is found not guilty.

After having had some time to process what I saw and heard, more than anything, I feel powerless, knowing that whatever anger, fear, and frustration I might feel, there is little if anything I can accomplish to bring about change. Perhaps the presence of those who attended the trial to support Laiby gave him some encouragement as the defense lawyer tried to get him frustrated and catch him in a lie, but I am left wondering what, if anything else, I could do to effect change in a community of which I am not a part. I attended the trial wanting to give hope to Liby, and to other victims, wanting to believe that somehow, justice would prevail, and to believe that, finally, in communities like New Square the wellbeing of the children would finally take center-stage. It was this lack of power, and the wishful thinking it subsequently brought about, that, in the end, leaves me feeling so deeply sad and afraid.