A 35-year cycle finally closes, with the landing of the couple Jonathan and Esther in Israel • From the service in the US Navy intelligence, the failed plea deal and the heavy sentence imposed - to the removal of restrictions on his movement and the moment he kissed the ground on the plane • Review
A 35-year cycle finally closed tonight (Wednesday), when Israeli agent Jonathan Pollard and his wife Esther landed in Israel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented him with an Israeli identity card in a modest and moving ceremony.
Netanyahu, who worked for many years for the Israeli spy and even tried to condition the Y agreement during the time of US President Bill Clinton on Pollard's release from American prison, met the two spouses on the plane and the three said together "May we live."
The reception, tonight
"Welcome back, how good it is that you came home. Now you can start life anew, with freedom and happiness. Now you are at home," Netanyahu said.
Pollard himself said: "We are excited to be home finally after 35 years. We thank the people of Israel and the Prime Minister of Israel for bringing us home. There is no one who is more proud of this country or its leader than we are. We hope to become productive citizens as soon as possible and move on here. "A great country is the future of the Jewish people, and we are not going anywhere."
Pollard landed in Israel this morning with his wife Esther, about a month after restrictions on his movement were lifted and five years after he was released from a federal prison after a lengthy 30-year sentence for his activities for Israel.
Prior to the landing, Pollard, who was excited by the pilots, was invited to the cockpit, where he listened to the Ben Gurion Airport control tower, which greeted him and greeted him in Hebrew on the occasion of his arrival in Israel.
This brings to an end a complicated and long affair, which has clouded US-Israel relations for many years and complicated security and political relations between the two countries. It has also served as a hotbed of controversy both within the American establishment itself and within American Jewry in recent years.
how it all began?
Pollard tried to be accepted into the CIA in 1979 and was rejected, and then began working in the U.S. Navy Intelligence.
He served in the Navy for a long time, and was partially exposed to classified intelligence materials.
In 1984, about five years after starting his job, he was exposed to a particularly sensitive intelligence material, which is related to Israel.
The material came to Pollard because he was staying at the new center set up by the Naval Anti-Terrorism at the time.
On his own initiative, Pollard turned to the Israeli Air Force man, the late Col. Aviam Sela, and offered to transfer the material to Israel.
Sela was then in the United States for studies and made contact between Pollard and the LKM (Bureau of Information Relations) at the Ministry of Defense, which was then headed by Rafi Eitan.
The relationship between the parties lasted about two years, during which time Pollard apparently transferred hundreds of thousands of classified documents to Israel.
Although Israeli policy was clear and prohibited the recruitment of agents from American Jews, the government led by Yitzhak Shamir knew about Yonatan Pollard's ties with Aviam Sela, Rafi Eitan and Mossad official Yossi Yagur. The information that flowed to Israel prevented weapons of mass destruction from Arab countries. Yes, thanks to him, an attack on PLO headquarters in Tunis was carried out in 1985 as part of Operation Wooden Leg.
In 1985, Pollard's commanders in the Navy began to suspect him, as he possessed many documents unrelated to his work.
The FBI came into the picture and investigated Pollard.
He broke down in the investigation and admitted giving information to another country.
Following the raid on his home in November of that year, the then couple Jonathan van Pollard fled to the Israeli embassy.
Aviam Sela himself had fled to Israel before.
The crisis in relations with the United States
At this point, American anger at Israel was so great that Pollard was ordered to extradite himself to the United States with his wife the next day. The extradition and confession were made because Israel acted against the United States to reach a plea deal, in which Pollard would serve 10 years in prison.
However, then-US Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger sent the court a secret memorandum, in which he accused Pollard of huge damages to U.S. security and exposing U.S. intelligence agents to the Soviet Union. Following that memo, the court denied the plea deal and sentenced Pollard to 30 years in prison. , Pollard's espionage operation carried out with the knowledge of Yitzhak Shamir, Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres has created a crisis of confidence with the administration for quite a few years.
In retrospect, by the way, it turned out that the damage to the US was caused by other spies and mainly by the activities of the senior American intelligence man Aldrich Ames, and not because of Pollard. Despite this, the treatment of Pollard in prison over the years was terrible. Most time in jail.
It is important to note that over the years, despite many pleas from Israel, the administration refrained from pardoning Pollard and even prevented him from attending his father's funeral.
His wife Esther, the staff that worked for his release, and Israeli and American officials over the years have called for his sentence to be reduced.
The last opponent to be released was U.S. President-elect Joe Biden, who in 2011 opposed then-President Barack Obama's plan to pardon Pollard. It was only in 2015, after three decades in prison, that Pollard was released under harsh restrictive conditions that ended last night.
Over the years, key activists for Pollard's release have argued that the administration is taking revenge on it to threaten the rest of American Jews and that there is an attitude bordering on anti-Semitism regarding Pollard.
The choice of Jonathan and his wife Esther to immigrate to Israel opens a new page for them, and in fact brings the whole affair to an end.