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After 30 Years, Jonathan Pollard Released from Prison

After spending 30 years in prison, Jonathan Pollard, an American who was convicted of spying for Israel, was released Friday morning.

Pollard, who as a Navy intelligence analyst passed classified documents to Israel, was released from a federal prison in Butner, North Carolina, after receiving parole on a life sentence, ending a long imprisonment that has been a constant irritant in relations between the United States and Israel.

As per the terms of his parole, Pollard has to check in regularly with a parole officer for a year and can be returned to prison for poor behavior. He is not permitted to leave the United States for five years, to give interviews or to go online, amid other conditions that are expected to be revealed Friday.

The official Free Pollard campaign and Pollard’s attorneys have declined to comment on the parole conditions, but they did encourage US congress members to ask the Justice Department to ease them. World renowned criminal lawyer Alan Dershowitz, who represented Pollard in the past, told The Jerusalem Post that although such parole conditions were not unprecedented, they are “totally irrational.”

“He has no classified information, so he should be able to talk to the press, go online and go to Israel, where he’s a citizen,” Dershowitz said. “It’s an abuse of the discretion that parole authorities have in a case like this. Frankly, I think part of the reason they don’t want him to go to Israel is that they don’t want him to be a hero there or influence Israeli politics with his conservative views. It’s a political decision, and with him, it’s been about politics all along.”

“The people of Israel welcome the release of Jonathan A. Pollard,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement. “As someone who raised Jonathan’s case for years with successive American presidents, I had long hoped this day would come,” he said.

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17 Comments

  • appreciated one

    I am gladden and appreciated that he was released please dont get me wrong

    but why is his wife in Black clothing symbolizing mourning

    May he have much happiness and relaxation for many years to come,,

    • Lock him up already.

      Black is a Tznius color. Its the color pic a chosid’s clothing. The color rebbitzen wears. It’s dignified (black tie event) and today only goyim dress in black to symbolize mourning.

  • Andrea Schonberger

    The ingratiude of some people–spies are usually dealt with very harshly and that doesn’t mean a too short prison sentence and probation. That said, his sentence was up so legally he had to be let go but if it was up to me he wouldn’t be doing his probation in a fun place like NYC. I want him monitored in a boring, little hick, hayseed place like Wasco, CA. In a place like that he’ll know what suffering is really like.

    • Milhouse

      1. If you are a Jew you owe your first loyalty to the Jewish people, above any other loyalty. We are Jews before we are anything else. If you don’t acknowledge that then you are a traitor to Am Yisroel and you are worth less than nothing.

      2. Pollard gave Israel information that was necessary to save Jewish lives, information that the USA was obligated to give Israel but was refusing to do so because “Jews are too paranoid about poison gas”.

      3. And the normal thing when one catches an allied spy is to send them home quietly, not to put them in prison for 30 years. When Israel catches a US spy do they throw him in prison?!

    • big red

      A life sentence for releasing classified information to an ally is beyond harsh. It is unprecedented in the modern legal system.

  • אוווווו בה!!!!!!!!!!!

    באמת שהחיינוווווו הגיע הזמןן סופסוףף מה עובר עליהם?? מטורפים !!!!!! אכזרייםם הכלא הזהה!
    ברוך מחיה המתים! בהחלט

  • To Andrea Schonberger

    I am very surprised at you or anyone who wishes he should go back to jail!
    Do you know what prison is? even in the torah there was no such punishment as prison cuz thats the worse punishment ever!
    A jew should never wish upon another jew such things! and what did he do already go agaist american government?! He was a spy and Israel sent him to spy he was doing his job. shame on israel for not fighting much for him. and shame on u for saying such things!

  • Andrea Schonberger

    Dear Milhouse,
    1. Yes I am a Jew but my first loyalty is to my husband–he is my best friend and I would go to the ends of the earth for him. Nowhere in the Torah am I required to defend/support Jews who are bad apples. As my grandmother always said, if you lie with dogs you get fleas.
    2. Pollard was an American spy who was supposed to give his government secret intelligence he gathered from other countries to be used for our benefit and not the other way around. If he felt a conflict of interest he should have resigned his post and joined the Mossad.
    3. I assume that all countries put spies in prison, sentenced to death, or traded–Israel, of course, only has the death penalty for Nazis so they would either imprison or trade.
    4. I still maintain Wasco, CA is good enough for Pollard to live out the remainder of his life.

    • Milhouse

      If you are really a Jew then you OWE your first loyalty to Am Yisroel, and if it is not there then you are a traitor. “Jew” is a nationality, not a religion; we are not Americans of the Mosaic faith, we are Jews who live in America. Any loyalty to America must come only after loyalty to our nation.

      2. Pollard was first of all a Jew, and had a duty to his fellow Jews before anything else. Just as you do, but he obeyed that duty and you evidently don’t.

      3. No, countries do not put allied spies in prison, they send them home. Do you think Israel has not caught American spies?! Why have you never heard about them? It’s because they are not tried, they’re put on a plane home.

      4. You are violating the commandment in the Torah of ahavas Yisroel, a commandment which is the basis of the whole Torah.

  • Andrea Schonberger

    Dear Millhouse,
    My first loyalty, which is different from love, is not to an entire people without any reservations whatsoever; believe me I’ve met many a Jew that I wouldn’t let in through my back door. By me only decent, humane Jews need apply–the others can take a hike.
    I don’t owe loyalty to Israel–I’ve never even been there. I was born in California and have an American passport–my family has been here since before the Revolutionary War–I even qualify for the DAR. So what country should I owe loyalty to?
    You border on the dangerous side when you write that we are “Jews who live in America”. The Nazis took away the German Jews citizenship with that kind of reasoning.
    Pollard was not an allied spy, he was an American spy, and not even a double agent at that. If he had been a double agent I might have gone a lot easier on him. Of course Israel has caught American spies and it’s their business what they do to them but it would be too lame to just hand them a ticket and send them back to the US–no interrogation or offers to be a double agent for big money?
    As for ahavas Yisroel, didn’t Hillel say the basis of the Torah was “that which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole Torah.”? We are in this together and need to stop being nasty and hateful towards one another (OK, Pollard can live in NYC) and clean up our act here on earth then maybe one day we will merit Moshiach

    • Milhouse

      You owe loyalty not to the state of Israel, but to the Jewish nation. You have a duty to it, that comes before every other duty you have, including to your husband and children. This is not up to you; it doesn’t matter what you think about it, it is your DUTY, and if you fail it you are a traitor.

      And you also have a duty to love EVERY Jew, not just the ones you approve of. That is what the Torah says, so again you have no choice in the matter.

      And yes, we must remember that we are Jews who live in America, not Americans who have a funny religion. Jews are not a religion, we are a nation. And you know what? The Nazis were RIGHT to remind the Jews in Germany that they were not Germans and would never be Germans, because Germany is not a Jew’s home, it’s just a place to stay for a while. And the same is true of America; it can never be a Jew’s true home. The Torah tells us that one who regards chutz lo’oretz as his home is as if he served avoda zara. Is that what you want?

      I am not being hateful to you, I am merely reminding you of your duty, which you seem to be failing.