With Marissa Newman.
[Editor’s Note: Ms. Shimoni Stoil and Ms. Newman are on the editorial staff of the Times of Israel (timesofisrael.com).]
After three decades behind bars, American-Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard was released from prison early this morning.
Mr. Pollard, 61, was freed on parole from the Butner, NC, facility where he has been serving a life sentence for spying on the United States on Israel’s behalf.
The Justice for Jonathan Pollard organization confirmed Mr. Pollard had been freed and reunited with his wife, Esther. After exiting the prison before dawn, the Pollards have arrived at the apartment where they will spend the weekend. They are grateful to those who lobbied on their behalf, the organization said in a statement, without specifying their location.
In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the release and said he has “longed for this day.
“The people of Israel welcome the release of Jonathan Pollard,” the prime minister said in a statement. “After three long and hard decades, Jonathan is finally being reunited with his family.
“May this Sabbath bring him much joy and peace that will continue in the years and decades ahead.”
The long-awaited release was also greeted with well-wishes by President Reuven Rivlin and politicians from both sides of the aisle.
“Over the years, we have felt Pollard’s pain and felt responsible and obliged to bring about his release,” Mr. Rivlin said. “We wish Jonathan and his family, in their reunion, long and prosperous years ahead, health and peace,” the president said.
Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said he hoped Mr. Pollard’s first Shabbat as a free man “would symbolize a new path ahead for him,” while Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog wrote simply “Blessed is He who frees the imprisoned.”
The former U.S. Navy analyst is not allowed to give interviews to the media after his release, and the Free Pollard organization, which has lobbied for years for his release, said that no rallies or other public events will be held to mark the occasion. Hebrew-language media reported earlier this week that Mr. Netanyahu instructed his cabinet ministers to avoid publicly discussing Mr. Pollard’s parole.
According to the Walla news site, the prime minister explicitly instructed ministers to stay away from the topic in any upcoming public appearances or during radio and television interviews. Although successive Israeli leaders have campaigned in the past for Mr. Pollard’s release, sources close to Mr. Netanyahu said the prime minister considered the matter to be a “very sensitive issue,” and was trying to avoid any statement that could reinvigorate tensions between the U.S. and Israeli leadership.
Mr. Pollard’s continued imprisonment has proven for years to be a source of tension between successive U.S. and Israeli administrations. Although Mr. Pollard’s reportedly deteriorating health has been cited in requests for his early release, the possibility of parole after 30 years was part of the original sentencing rules when he was prosecuted.
Under the terms of Mr. Pollard’s parole, he is likely to be forced to stay in the United States for between two and five years. President Obama could intervene to allow him to emigrate to Israel, which is what Mr. Pollard reportedly hopes to do, but the White House indicated last week that Mr. Obama will not intervene on the convicted spy’s behalf.
Last Friday, two prominent Democratic Congressmen, Jerrold Nadler and Eliot Engel, sent a letter to Atty. Gen. Loretta Lynch noting that “after serving 30 years in prison, it is Mr. Pollard’s wish to move to Israel with his family so he can resume his life there” and asking that the Dept. of Justice “give Mr. Pollard’s request the fair consideration it deserves.”
The two said that Mr. Pollard “understands that, as a condition of being permitted to move to Israel, he may need to renounce his American citizenship” and is willing to accept the “the serious consequences that may follow such a decision, including being permanently barred from returning to the United States.”
They cited the Dept. of Justice’s own assessment that “there is no reasonable probability that [Pollard] will commit any future crimes after his release,” and argued that if the U.S. allows Pollard to renounce his U.S. citizenship and move to Israel, “this would become a near-certainty.”
The U.S.-born Mr. Pollard was granted Israeli citizenship 20 years ago, years after his conviction on one count of espionage against the United States.
Mr. Pollard was arrested in 1985 for selling U.S. secrets to Israel while he was working as a civilian intelligence analyst for the American Navy. One year later, Mr. Pollard pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit espionage and was sentenced to life in prison in 1987.
Mr. Pollard’s supporters argued for years that his sentence was excessive and that others convicted for comparable crimes received lighter sentences. Most recently, hints circulated in spring 2014 that Mr. Pollard’s release could be secured as an incentive for keeping foundering peace talks alive between Israel and the Palestinian Authority — but Mr. Pollard himself reportedly rejected any attempt at using him for leverage.
In August of the same year, after peace talks collapsed, a parole request by Mr. Pollard was denied. After that decision, a heavy-hitting group of former U.S. officials, including former CIA director R. James Woolsey, and Lawrence J. Korb, former assistant U.S. secretary of defense, wrote a missive to Mr. Obama complaining about the “unjust denial” of Mr. Pollard’s request and voicing “strongest objections” to what they described as a “deeply flawed” legal decision.
Mr. Pollard came up again for parole last July. Unlike the previous instance, the Justice Dept. did not voice any objection to his release.
The Parole Commission’s decision came at the peak of tensions between Washington and Jerusalem over the nuclear deal between the P5+1 states and Iran, but officials from both governments as well as representatives of Mr. Pollard’s legal team have denied that there was any connection between the two events.
