Israel spy Jonathan Pollard freed by US

“May this Sabbath bring Jonathan Pollard much joy and peace that will continue in the years and decades ahead”. But he is barred from leaving the United States for five years.

The computer monitoring, the appeals board ruled, was warranted for home and business computers because “the boundaries between personal and business computer use are blurred”.

Pollard’s lawyers are asking the court to vacate those conditions of his parole.

United States officials have said Pollard, over a series of months and for a salary, provided intelligence summaries and huge quantities of classified documents on the capabilities and programs of Israel’s enemies.

Does anyone think that Pollard will be forced to wait five years to go to Israel? A United States court jailed Pollard for life in 1987 after he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to deliver national defence information to a foreign government.

The lawyers wrote that the conditions were illegal, because they violate a federal statute, federal regulations, and the constitution, which strictly constrain the imposition of conditions on parolees. The op-ed also argued that the “sheer volume” of documents passed on by Pollard was nearly unrivaled, and his support was only due to a “clever public relations campaign”.

Two New York-based lawyers for the 61-year-old Pollard, Jacques Semmelman and Eliot Lauer, vowed to contest the conditions of his probation as “unreasonable and unlawful”. “It’s a political decision, and with him, it’s been about politics all along”.

Yoffie, an influential figure in U.S. Reform Judaism, said “the key is to deal with it in a way that reflects what most American Jews are now feeling: unequivocal condemnation of Pollard’s crimes and compassion for the broken man who committed them”.

Hours later, as the sun rose over the prison near Raleigh, numerous cameraman still stood along the freeway outside the prison, unaware that the object of their stakeout was long gone and already starting his new life in NY.

Convicted spy Jonathan Pollard and his wife, Esther leave the federal courthouse in NY on Friday. President Clinton rejected Netanyahu’s request.

Education Minister Naftali Bennet praised Pollard as a hero Thursday, even as Netanyahu instructed officials to keep quiet over the sensitive issue of the release.

He said that in time they will consider how to best deal with the wide restrictions that have been placed on Pollard.

But he has secured a job at a NY financial firm, and is expected to begin work in the coming weeks.

In 1984, he was introduced to an Israeli military officer on sabbatical in NY and stated his desire to serve Israel. He suffers from severe diabetes and chronic leg and ankle swelling.

Pollard’s release was welcomed by a number of prominent American Jewish organizations.

His life sentence was called antisemitic and overly harsh by supporters while opponents saw it as just.

“The people of Israel welcome the release of Jonathan Pollard”, said Mr Netanyahu. He became an Israeli citizen in 1995 while in prison.

But President Obama’s deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said that “the president does not have any plans to alter the terms of his parole”. The release took place shortly after midnight in a well-planned deception meant to make sure that cameramen and news crews staking out around the prison gates would not get a glimpse of the spy as he was set free.