Former American Spy Jonathan Pollard Returned to Israel

Former American Spy Jonathan Pollard Returned to Israel At the airport, Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed former US naval analyst Jonathan Pollard, who was imprisoned for 30 years for leaking documents to Israel. Jonathan Pollard, a former US Navy analyst, was released on parole after 30 years in prison for leaking thousands of classified documents to Israel and returned to Tel Aviv. In footage distributed by the Prime Ministry, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu greets Pollard and his wife Esther as they descend the stairs of a private jet. The Orthodox Jewish couple took off their masks and kissed the ground before they greeted Netanyahu which was recorded cameras. US-born Pollard, who was given Israeli citizenship at the time of his imprisonment, said: “We are happy to be home after 35 years. No one can be more proud of this country and its leader than us.” [embed]https://twitter.com/IsraeliPM/status/1344171638443671559?s=20[/embed] Reading a prayer of thanks in Hebrew on behalf of the salvation of detention, Netanyahu presented the 66-year-old Pollard with Israeli identity documents and said, "Welcome home." Arrested by FBI agents in 1985, shortly after his asylum attempt at the Israeli embassy in Washington failed, Pollard was sentenced to life in prison in 1987. The US relations with Israel, a close ally, have been strained for a long time due to Pollard's continued prison sentence. Netanyahu had been pressing for Pollard's release for years. In fact, Pollard was given Israeli citizenship during Netanyahu's first rule in the late 1990s. Repeated attempts to persuade US presidents to show mercy to Pollard had all failed. Pollard's release from parole last month is the latest in a series of gestures made by the Trump administration to the Netanyahu government. Netanyahu, who had a phone call with Pollard last month, said: “When will we see you here? We are waiting for you.” “It's a dream come true after 35 very difficult years,” Pollard's lawyer Eliot Lauer told the Times of Israel. The couple is expected to enter the country after a few days of quarantine, which is mandatory under coronavirus measures.   Source: https://www.theguardian.com/ You may also be interested in:

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