Jonathan Pollard to be Freed — but Not to Israel

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Jonathan J. Pollard in 1998. He was convicted of spying for Israel but received parole on a life sentence and will be released Friday.
Credit Karl DeBlaker/Associated Press

Politics
After 30 Years in Prison, Jonathan Pollard to be Freed — but Not to Israel
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/20/us/politics/after-30-years-in-prison-jonathan-pollard-to-be-freed-but-not-to-israel.html

  "WASHINGTON — Jonathan J. Pollard, the American convicted of spying on
   behalf of Israel, will walk out of prison on Friday after 30 years, but
   the Obama administration has no plans to let him leave the country and
   move to Israel as he has requested.
   
   Mr. Pollard, who as a Navy intelligence analyst passed classified
   documents to Israeli handlers, was due to be released from a federal
   prison in Butner, N.C., 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.
   
   Under federal parole rules, Mr. Pollard cannot leave the country
   without permission for at least five years. But his wife, Esther, lives
   in Israel and he has asked to be reunited with her there. Prime
   Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel personally raised the request in
   a meeting with President Obama earlier this month, but the president
   was unmoved, according to American officials and the Israeli news media.
   
   Two Democratic lawmakers wrote to the Justice Department last week
   urging Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch to grant the request, saying
   that Mr. Pollard would be willing to renounce his American citizenship
   and never return to the United States. They noted that a spy for Cuba
   was allowed to renounce his American citizenship and live in Cuba in
   2013 after serving his sentence.
   
   

   Jonathan J. Pollard, a former Navy intelligence analyst convicted of
   spying for Israel, is the only person in U.S. history to receive a life
   sentence for spying for an American ally.  By Natalia V. Osipova on
   Publish Date
   April 2, 2014.  Photo by Ammar Awad/Reuters. Watch in Times Video »
   
   But the White House has said it would not intervene in the matter.
   Senior administration officials said on Thursday that the Justice
   Department was not considering Mr. Pollard's request and had no plans
   to consider it. Administration officials have been loath to appear to
   grant Mr. Pollard special consideration in the face of strong
   opposition by intelligence agencies that call his actions a grievous
   betrayal of national security.
   
   "They don't want to make it look like they were being too lenient,"
   said Joseph E. diGenova, the former United States attorney who
   prosecuted Mr. Pollard. If Mr. Pollard were allowed to go to Israel,
   where his case has been a cause célèbre for years, Mr. diGenova said
   there would be a "parade" and "events just rubbing it in the United
   States' face."
   
   The Israeli news media reported that Mr. Netanyahu and supporters of
   Mr. Pollard were discouraging public signs of celebration at his
   release to avoid antagonizing Washington. Supporters said it was
   churlish to deny Mr. Pollard the chance to leave the country now that
   he has completed his sentence.
   
   
  Jonathan J. Pollard received parole on a life sentence and was set to
   be released from federal prison in Butner, N.C., on Friday. Credit
    Sara D. Davis/Getty Images
   
   "I don't know why we wouldn't approve that," said Representative Eliot
   L. Engel of New York, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs
   Committee, who wrote last week's letter along with Representative
   Jerrold Nadler, another New York Democrat. "He served his full term. I
   don't know what good it does except to keep the whole show going."
   
   The show has been going for three decades, as multiple governments in
   Jerusalem pressed for Mr. Pollard's release only to be rebuffed by
   successive American presidents. The only American ever given a life
   sentence for spying for an ally, Mr. Pollard was granted Israeli
   citizenship during his imprisonment.
   
   At one point, the Obama administration considered freeing him as part
   of a broader effort to induce Israel to make concessions in a peace
   deal with the Palestinians, but ultimately opted not to. In the end,
   officials said Mr. Pollard served the full amount stipulated by federal
   law, which requires a parole hearing after 30 years of a life sentence.
   
   While the Obama administration did not facilitate his early release, it
   also chose not to object to granting him parole, but it denied that it
   was trying to assuage Israel after a rupture over the president's
   nuclear deal with Iran. The United States Parole Commission announced
   in July that Mr. Pollard had met the legal standards for release.
   
   Assuming he cannot move to Israel, Mr. Pollard plans to live in New
   York. His lawyer, Eliot Lauer, declined to discuss Mr. Pollard's plans
   beyond Friday. "We are not making any further comment at this time
   until after his release," he said.
   
   Jodi Rudoren and Carol Sutherland contributed reporting from Jerusalem.
   
   A version of this article appears in print on November 20, 2015, on
   page A4 of the New York edition with the headline: Prison Time Over for
   American Who Spied for Israel . Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
   "