Spy Pollard free after 30 years in U.S. jail

Pollard was released on parole Friday after spending 30 years behind bars on espionage charges, but he can not leave the country to join his wife in Israel under the terms of his early release.

Convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard (center), who was released from a US federal prison in North Carolina overnight, leaves U.S. District court with his wife Elaine Zeitz (second from right) in the Manhattan borough of NY on November 20.

“After three long and hard decades, Jonathan is at last reunited with his family”, said a statement from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had repeatedly pushed for Pollard’s release. His many supporters in Israel and the United States have vowed to continue fighting for USA permission to let him leave.

The 61-year-old was freed on Friday morning (local time), ending one of the longest-running and most contentious issues between the USA and Israel.

Israel granted Pollard citizenship in the 1990s.

The Justice Department agreed not to oppose parole at a July hearing that took into account his behavior in prison and likelihood to commit future crimes.

In the meanwhile, Pollard has gotten a job with an investment firm in NY City, his lawyers said, but they did not identify the firm.

For Pollard, this is also a beginning of a new struggle as his lawyers rolled out Friday a combative press release announcing their plan to go to court and appeal his parole conditions, which attorneys Eliot Lauer and Jacques Semmelman described as “unreasonable and unlawful”, as well as “vindictive”.

Pollard’s lawyers complained that wearing a Global Positioning System monitor would be harmful to his health because he has severe diabetes and chronic swelling in his legs and ankles.

But supporters – including Israel’s prime minister and a few USA politicians – want him to be allowed to move to Israel immediately.

In 2014 many in the Israeli media speculated about a deal between the USA secretary of state, John Kerry, and Netanyahu that would free Pollard in exchange for a freeze on contentious Israeli settlements.

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

Eytan Gilboa, an expert on U.S.-Israel relations at Israel’s Bar Ilan University, said that the quiet response in Jerusalem over Pollard’s upcoming release was intentional.

Pollard was driven away from the federal prison in Butner, North Carolina, before dawn in heavy fog.

An Orthodox Jew, Pollard has said that he gave the secrets to Israel because he wanted to help the Jewish state and felt it was wrong that the US would keep valuable information from an ally.

Seymour Reich is a former president of B’nai Brith worldwide, a Jewish campaign group, who visited Pollard twice in prison.

Just a couple of hours after his release, Pollard had already checked in with the federal probation office in NY. Anne received two concurrent five-year sentences for her role and was released on parole after three and half years, while Sella was convicted to life and a $500,000 fine in absentia.

“We rejoice in the happiness over the release of our brother Jonathan”, the place said.

But that view is not shared in United States intelligence circles – where the fact that Israel had a spy passing on classified American military documents for a year and a half was galling.

The reaction in Israel, where leaders have lobbied a succession of US administrations to release Pollard, was welcoming to the man who passed to his Israeli handler classified information that included satellite photos of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s headquarters in Tunis, which Israel later used to guide airstrikes on the Tunisian capital. But the peace effort collapsed and Pollard remained in prison.