Ex-spy who sold US secrets to Israel says he’s sorry : NPR
Jonathan Pollard, an American who served 30 years behind bars for giving freely categorised US paperwork for Israel, attends the funeral of Yehuda Gueta, a 19-year-old Yeshiva pupil, in Jerusalem on May 6, 2021.
Menahem Kahana/AFP through Getty Images
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Menahem Kahana/AFP through Getty Images
TEL AVIV, Israel — Convicted spy Jonathan Pollard, whose espionage for Israel within the Nineteen Eighties led to a rupture in US-Israel relations, stated he’s sorry for his crime, in an interview with NPR.
“I made a mistake, I didn’t think about the consequences. And 30 years later, here I am trying to leave a better legacy,” Pollard instructed NPR in an interview on Zoom from his house close to Jerusalem’s walled Old City.
This week, Pollard introduced to run for the Israeli parliament in elections later this yr as a member of a small new right-wing celebration.
Pollard’s complicated emotions about Israel
Pollard moved to Israel in late 2020 after spending 30 years behind bars within the US While serving as a US Navy intelligence analyst, he sold suitcases of high secret paperwork to Israel, together with reconnaissance images of Israel’s enemies.
At the time, he stated he had felt a powerful connection to Israel as a result of his mom misplaced kinfolk within the Holocaust, and he thought the US was withholding intelligence that was essential for Israel’s safety.
In 1995, whereas Pollard was imprisoned within the US, Israel granted him citizenship.
After 30 years in US custody, he was required to keep within the US for 5 extra years, then moved to Israel as quickly as he may. He landed in Tel Aviv on Dec. 30, 2020, kissing the tarmac as he was welcomed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Pollard’s turning level after the Oct. 7 assault
When he was uncovered as a spy in 1985, he sought refuge within the Israeli Embassy however was denied asylum and instantly arrested by the FBI.
“I also had assumed that my abandonment and betrayal by the Israeli government was the… exception to the rule,” Pollard instructed NPR. “When October 7th happened, I suddenly realized that the entire country had been betrayed and abandoned.”
In Jerusalem, Pollard helped dig graves for fallen Israeli troopers after the Hamas-led assault on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the deadliest assault in Israeli historical past. Pollard factors a finger at Netanyahu.
“He’s never taken any share of the blame for the disaster that fell upon us on that day, and he’s made a series of horrific blunders, following October 7th, where we have not decisively defeated any of our enemies,” Pollard stated.
Israel’s retaliation in Gaza, the deadliest warfare in Palestinian historical past, didn’t eradicate Hamas, and its wars concentrating on Iran’s management and the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon left each standing.
Pollard joined small right-wing Israeli political celebration
Pollard says he needs to unify the Israeli proper on this yr’s elections. He additionally requires the “involuntary transfer” of Palestinians out of Gaza, repopulating it with Israelis.
“The decision of Jonathan Pollard to join Israeli politics is an amusing anecdote,” says Yossi Melman, a journalist protecting intelligence affairs for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz and a co-author of “Spies Against Armageddon,” a historical past of Israel’s intelligence companies. “It won’t have any impact on Israeli elections, on Israeli politics. If he decides to run to be the next pope, his chances are similar.”
Pollard says he’s sorry for his espionage crime
In 2021, after Pollard moved to Israel, he defended his espionagesaying he had no selection. This week, he instructed NPR he was sorry about his crime.
“I wish I had found a more appropriate and legal way of acting on my concerns for the safety and security of my people in Israel,” Pollard instructed NPR. “I didn’t give myself enough time to find that solution, and for that I am deeply remorseful…all of the consequences, political consequences, social consequences, that flowed as a result of my crime would never have occurred. So for that, yes, I’m deeply sorry.”
When Pollard was sentenced within the late ’80s, then-US Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger stated he had “substantially harmed” the US
Last yr, nevertheless, Pollard was given an viewers on the US Embassy in Jerusalem with President Trump’s ambassador, Mike Huckabee. At the assembly, Pollard stated, he thanked Huckabee for calling for his launch greater than a decade in the past.
