TEL AVIV, Israel — Convicted spy Jonathan Pollard, whose espionage for Israel in the 1980s led to a rupture in U.S.-Israel relations, said he is sorry for his crime, in an interview with NPR.
"I made a mistake, I didn't think about the consequences. And 30 years later, here I am trying to leave a better legacy," Pollard told NPR in an interview on Zoom from his home near Jerusalem's walled Old City.
This week, Pollard announced a run for the Israeli parliament in elections later this year as a member of a small new right-wing party.
Pollard's complex feelings about Israel
Pollard moved to Israel in late 2020 after spending 30 years behind bars in the U.S. While serving as a U.S. Navy intelligence analyst, he sold suitcases of top secret documents to Israel, including reconnaissance photos of Israel's enemies.
At the time, he said he had felt a strong connection to Israel because his mother lost relatives in the Holocaust, and he thought the U.S. was withholding intelligence that was crucial for Israel's security.
In 1995, while Pollard was imprisoned in the U.S., Israel granted him citizenship.
After 30 years in U.S. custody, he was required to stay in the U.S. for five more years, then moved to Israel as soon as he could. He landed in Tel Aviv on Dec. 30, 2020, kissing the tarmac as he was greeted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Pollard's turning point after the Oct. 7 attack
When he was exposed as a spy in 1985, he sought refuge in the Israeli Embassy but was denied asylum and immediately arrested by the FBI.
"I also had assumed that my abandonment and betrayal by the Israeli government was the... exception to the rule," Pollard told NPR. "When October 7th happened, I suddenly realized that the entire country had been betrayed and abandoned."
In Jerusalem, Pollard helped dig graves for fallen Israeli soldiers after the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the deadliest attack in Israeli history. Pollard points a finger at Netanyahu.
"He's never taken any share of the blame for the disaster that fell upon us on that day, and he's made a series of horrific blunders, following October 7th, where we have not decisively defeated any of our enemies," Pollard said.
Israel's retaliation in Gaza, the deadliest war in Palestinian history, did not eradicate Hamas, and its wars targeting Iran's leadership and the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon left both standing.
Pollard joined a small right-wing Israeli political party
Pollard says he wants to unify the Israeli right in this year's elections. He also calls for the "involuntary transfer" of Palestinians out of Gaza, repopulating it with Israelis.
"The decision of Jonathan Pollard to join Israeli politics is an amusing anecdote," says Yossi Melman, a journalist covering intelligence affairs for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz and a co-author of "Spies Against Armageddon," a history of Israel's intelligence services. "It won't have any impact on Israeli elections, on Israeli politics. If he decides to run to be the next pope, his chances are similar."
Pollard says he is sorry for his espionage crime
In 2021, after Pollard moved to Israel, he defended his espionage, saying he had no choice. This week, he told NPR he was sorry about his crime.
" I wish I had found a more appropriate and legal way of acting on my concerns for the safety and security of my people in Israel," Pollard told NPR. "I didn't give myself enough time to find that solution, and for that I am deeply remorseful...all of the consequences, political consequences, social consequences, that flowed as a result of my crime would never have occurred. So for that, yes, I'm deeply sorry."
When Pollard was sentenced in the late '80s, then-U.S. Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger said he had "substantially harmed" the U.S.
Last year, however, Pollard was given an audience at the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem with President Trump's ambassador, Mike Huckabee. In the meeting, Pollard said, he thanked Huckabee for calling for his release more than a decade ago.
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