Manhattan, NY – Israeli agent Jonathan Pollard was released from prison on Friday after 30 years behind bars. He was released from the federal prison in Butner, North Carolina, after serving a life sentence for passing classified information to an ally.
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Greeted by his wife Ester, the couple were en route to Manhattan to enjoy their first Shabbat dinner together outside of a government facility, according to Pollard’s lawyer.
Pollard was not set completely free, so he still 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 menbers 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 head of the Free Pollard campaign, Effi Lahav, said the day is bittersweet, because Pollard suffered through “10,956 black days” in prison. Lahav said Pollard entered prison as a healthy young man and is leaving as a 61-year-old sick man.
“It’s a happy day that he’s getting out of jail and I hope he gets to live a normal life, but I’d be happier if he was released a decade ago,” former US deputy defense secretary Lawrence Korb, who served at the time of Pollard’s sentencing and has actively tried to bring about his release, told Army Radio Thursday.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked US President Barack Obama when he met with him last week to intervene on Pollard’s behalf and let him move to Israel.
The US president did not respond to the request.
Netanyahu has instructed ministers and MKs to remain low-key about the release, apparently to not anger Obama. He asked them not to greet Pollard when he leaves prison.
Israeli officials are concerned that too warm a celebration over his release might hurt efforts to persuade the US government to let him leave for Israel sooner rather than later.
Asked whether Netanyahu had issued his ministers with instructions regarding public statements on Pollard, Diaspora Affairs Minister Naftali Bennett told Army Radio on Thursday: “We were asked not to speak expansively.”
As the Post reported exclusively a year ago, an apartment had been rented for Pollard in the New York area and employment had been obtained for him as an analyst at an investment firm.
Baruch Hashem! שהחינו וקימנו והגיענו לזמן הזה.
ברוך אתה ה, מתיר אסורים.
אמן.
this man was abandoned by EVERY Zionist leader for the past 30 years.
Boruch Shecheyunu V’kimonu Lazmaan Hazeh !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
shabbos will be here in a few hours – i cant imagine the feelings jonathan will have of being free & home with his wife – yet many of us will also be home and free this shabbos lets try to appreciate the shabbos
He’s a hero for the Jewish people, helped save many lives. A tzaddik.
Baruch matir asurim
Bibb told mk’s not to celebrate the release, so as not “To not anger Obama?!” Does Obama get angry when palis celebrate and make heroes out of their murderers of Jews???
His kavanah 30 years ago to help the jewish people is commendable. His sin was trusting in the zionist leaders to save him. When you trust in false gods you suffer.
I rejoice, and am glad that I lived to see this day. I remember when Pollard was arrested, and how he was double crossed by Shimon Peres, Yitzchak Shamir, and even Yitzchak Rabin, who all knew of the existence of the spy cell which their Col. Aviem Sella, was handling, as well as the former head of the Mossad. If Col. Sella had returned to the USA, and returned ALL of the documents which Pollard had stolen, and if the higher ups who were handling Pollard admitted their role, and shown some contrition, then Pollard would have been released decades ago. However, Joseph Digenova, the prosecutor, along with the late Caspar Weinberger (an anti-semite who was ashamed of his Jewish roots), and the late Judge Aubrey Robinson (who hated Israel, because of its ties to South Africa), also double crossed Pollard, when they lied to him, about not seeking a life sentence. Wolf Blitzer cannot escape criticism, as he arranged for an interview with Pollard, even though that was forbidden. He later published “Territory of Lies”, which damned Pollard. The late Mike Wallace also inteviewed Pollard and his first wife on 60 Minutes and doomed him, and her, where she was physically mistreated in jail.