Prime Minister Netanyahu was at the airport to greet him and hand him his Israeli ID Card
By Nosson Shulman: Licensed Tour Guide of VIP Israel Tours & Authentic Virtual Tours (click here to check out his free trailer videos)
An unfortunate chapter which captivated the entire nation of Israel for over 35 years, is finally over. Jonathan Pollard, the only man in US history to ever get a life sentence for spying for an ally, landed this morning in Israel after 30 years of cruel incarceration. Seven of those years were spent in solitary confinement in a tiny cell, three stories below ground, followed by five more years of strict home confinement, with conditions more restrictive than most paroled inmates. This left him unable to care for his wife Esther who was battling cancer.
When Jonathan descended from the plane with Esther, he immediately got on his knees and kissed the ground of the land which he yearned for decades to return to. Prime Minister Netanyahu, who spent years working for his freedom, was there to greet him. Immediately he was handed his Israeli citizenship card and welcomed home!
This saga began in the 1980’s, when the Stanford University graduate became an intelligence analyst for the US Navy, receiving top secret clearance. While at his position, the US and Israel signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU), requiring the US to give all documents relevant to Israel’s security to the Jewish state. During his research, he found that Israel’s enemies were developing weapons of mass destruction which threatened to annihilate Israel (their stated goal was to attack civilian centers). As this was information that the US security establishment had committed to providing Israel, Pollard went to his superiors to get official permission to hand it over, a mere technicality he thought. He was surprised and shocked when his superior told him to “mind his own business” and “Jews get nervous talking about poison gas; they don’t need to know.” He now faced a dilemma; either break the law or watch the potential, unnecessary destruction of a true American ally. He chose the former.
He then contacted Israel, providing them with the lifesaving documents, allowing Israel to destroy the deadly weapons being developed by state and non-state actors like terrorists. Undoubtedly, American lives were saved as these terrorists would later target US troops and civilians. According to declassified US documents, not once did Pollard ever hand any information to Israel which put American troops in danger. The only information he ever gave was US intelligence on Israel’s enemies.
Eventually, Jonathan Pollard was caught. On November 21, 1985 (the FBI hot on his trail) he and his wife entered the US embassy in Washington, where he thought he would be safe and spirited secretly to Israel to start his new life. One of the guards even told him, “Don’t worry Mr. Pollard, we will take care of you”. The guard then made a call to Jerusalem to inquire about the next step. Then Prime Minister Shimon Peres was worried about fallout with the U.S., so he ordered Pollard to be thrown out of the embassy grounds into the waiting hands of the FBI, where he was arrested. He also denied that Pollard worked for Israel, calling him a “rogue agent” (in 1995, Israel would finally admit that he was in fact a bona fide Israeli agent).
Both the U.S. and Israel requested that he take a plea bargain, to avoid an embarrassing trial, by pleading guilty to one act of “Conspiracy to commit treason” with a 2 to 4 year sentence. Pollard agreed, but the day before sentencing, then Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger (a known ideological opponent of the state of Israel) sent the judge secret documents which the judge used to sentence a surprised Pollard to life imprisonment despite his pleading guilty (today this charge carries a maximum of 10 years in prison). His lawyers were not allowed to access the documents (it should be noted that Caspar Weinberger was later indicted on serious felony charges for betraying America by illegally selling missiles to the anti-American Iranian regime). If convicted, he would have had life in prison, but George H.W. Bush pardoned him one month before he left office).
Thus, Jonathan Pollard became the only man in U.S. history to receive a life sentence for spying for an ally. Over the years, those with the most intimate knowledge of the case and its implications to U.S. security (the Reagan administration officials who served at the time of his arrest) including Secretary of State Schultz, FBI director William Webster, U.S. Senate Intelligent chairman Dennis Deconcini, NSA Robert McFarlane and Deputy Defense Secretary Lawrence Korb, have all called his case a travesty of justice and called for his release. Other officials with access to the relevant classified intelligence, including former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey, Vice President Dan Quayle, Director of the CIA James Woosley, Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Senator John McCain, Senator Chuck Schumer, and several other congressmen (both Democratic and Republican) also called for his release. Jewish and Christian religious leaders, including Governor Mike Huckabee, Pastor Pat Robertson, and Pastor John Hagee joined chorus. The fact that the Obama Administration in 2014 offered to release Jonathan Pollard in exchange for the release of several hundred Palestinians in Israeli prisons, most of whom were convicted of murder and terrorism charges (including some with multiple life sentences) lent credence to the idea that Jonathan Pollard’s release posed no threat to US national security, and that he had become a pawn in the larger Israeli-Arab Peace process.
In a country of less than 9 million people, yet still has a mind-boggling 12 elected parties represented in the Knesset (Israel’s parliament), there are few consensus issues. Yet the Pollard case united the far left, the right and even the Arab parties. In 2013, when it was leaked that the Obama administration had agents spying on Israel, 106 out of the 120 Knesset members signed a petition asking for Pollard’s Clemency. In fact, every Prime minister since 1995 has officially asked for his release.
It has been a long 35 years. Welcome Home Jonathan!
Nosson Shulman is a journalist and Licensed Tour Guide in Israel specializing in Biblical tours. To allow tourists to experience Israel during the Corona era, he created the new hit Israel tour video series which brings Israel to the home of viewers by simulating actual tours. To check out his free sneak preview tour videos, click here.
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