Jonathan Pollard to be released on parole in November

For Pollard’s release to have any effect on Israeli attitudes toward America, Bergman said, the U.S. will have to make clear that they are releasing him as a special gesture, not just because he’s up for parole.

“He wasn’t doing this for purely ideological reasons”, said the former official. Last year, the Obama administration reportedly considered the possibility of giving Pollard an early release to keep Israel at the peace negotiation table with the Palestinians. His lawyers say he’ll be released from prison in November.

Other Israeli officials also reacted to the announcement, with Israeli justice minister Ayelet Shaked, saying, “Thirty years of suffering will come to an end this November; not though kindness but through the law”.

Had Pollard’s parole been denied, he would have been required to serve an additional fifteen years in prison.

US officials earlier had denied speculation that Pollard’s release would be aimed at smoothing tense relations with Israel over president Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran, which Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu fiercely opposes. To put it in plain English, an increasingly rare commodity these days, “Go along with our deal to let Iran have its Bomb, whatever that may mean to your very existence, and we’ll let you have your spy back”.

“The Department of Justice has always and continues to maintain that Jonathan Pollardshould serve his full sentence for the serious crimes he committed, which in this case is a 30-year sentence as mandated by statute”, its spokesman Marc Raimondi said.

Israelis, however, aren’t inclined to see Pollard’s release as token of goodwill after the Iran deal, says Boaz Bismuth, editor at Israel Today. U.S. lawmakers are consistently puppets of AIPAC and Pollard’s release is no exception. “There is absolutely zero linkage between Mr. Pollard’s status and foreign policy considerations”, said Baskey.

2009: It’s Pollard’s 25th year behind bars. So if he can be released from his North Carolina prison cell before November, all the better.

Besides, his parole was mandatory, unless he was a national-security threat. The former Naval intelligence analyst was convicted of selling classified information to Israel, and has been in prison for almost 30 years.

While Israelis might view the decision as simply power play by the U.S., the real pawn in this political chess game is the U.S. government, who is desperately catering to the Israel lobbying group American Israel Public Affairs Committee – who hold significant weight with American Jewish voters. Portions of the Weinberger document that have been declassified state that Pollard admitted passing to his Israeli contacts “an incredibly large quantity of classified documents” and that U.S. troops could be endangered because of the theft.

She said she knew nothing about the terms of his release.

“I am looking forward to being reunited with my beloved wife Esther”, Pollard said in a statement issued by his attorneys.

Information for this article was contributed by Eric Tucker and staff members of The Associated Press.

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