Spy Jonathan Pollard's legend grew in Israel during US jail term

The new synagogue's sanctuary in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem is not named for a Jewish patriarch or major donor, but instead for a shaggy, bespectacled man who has spent 30 years in a US prison.

"Someone who tries to help Israel, and suffers because of it, is a combination between a hero and a martyr," said Daniel Luria, head of the Jewish settler organisation building the synagogue.

He was speaking of Jonathan Pollard, the former US navy intelligence officer turned spy for Israel. The 61-year-old is to be released Friday to wide approval in the Jewish state, but he was not always so lauded in the country.

The synagogue, located where five Palestinian families were evicted from their homes three weeks ago, is but one example of how perception of Pollard has evolved in Israel and how rightwing activists have sought to turn him into an icon.
Any hero's welcome in Israel will however likely have to be put on hold since Pollard is barred from leaving the United States for five years unless granted permission by US President Barack Obama.

Pollard's spy odyssey began in 1984, when he offered classified information to an Israeli colonel. The extent of what he later provided to Israel has never been made clear.

He claimed only to have passed information vital to Israel's security that had been withheld by the Americans, including satellite images of the Palestine Liberation Organisation's headquarters in Tunis.

Declarations of concern over Israel's security aside, some argued the spy was motivated at least as much by money as national pride.

Pollard is alleged to have also passed classified information to South Africa and to have given his then wife Anne documents on China for use in her personal business.

In the years after he was sentenced in 1987, the Israeli government's position was one of denial while the Israeli public was largely ambivalent, a former senior Israeli diplomat told AFP.

The government had not recognised he was working for them and, as Pollard had only US citizenship at the time, advocating for his release could put American Jews under suspicion, he said.

"The official line was we should ignore him," said the diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

At the time, there was no serious pressure from Israelis advocating for that to change, he said.

- National pride or money? -

During the 1990s, however, some Israeli rightwingers started to portray Pollard as a national and Jewish hero paying an unjustly heavy price.
ollard began wearing a yarmulke in jail and, the diplomat said, would grandstand when given rare opportunities to make public claims.

"He spoke from jail in a very nationalistic way -- always talking about his desire to help Israel," the diplomat said.

His wife Esther, whom he married while in prison, has also been a public advocate for him.

Mark Shaw, author of a book on the case, thinks such statements made it harder for US presidents to release him. When Bill Clinton nearly took the leap, the head of the CIA threatened to resign.

"Esther Pollard fanned the flames that kept this in the headlines when it could have been on the back pages and a deal would have been made," Shaw said.

In Israel, though, the public stance strengthened the right's support. In 1995, Pollard was given Israeli citizenship.

"Definitely for the centre-right and the rightwing he is a hero," the diplomat said.

- Victim, hero, spy -

Other efforts to free him played down hero portrayals, enlisting leftwing Israelis and even US politicians such as Henry Kissinger to argue his life sentence was unfairly long.
Successive Israeli governments said the same, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has tried to leverage his freedom in peace talks.

When Obama made his first visit to Israel as president in 2013, 100,000 Israelis signed a petition calling for Pollard's release.

There was speculation that the announcement in July that Pollard would be released on parole was meant to assuage Israel over the nuclear deal between Iran and major powers. US officials dismissed such claims.

Ofer Zalsberg, senior analyst with the International Crisis Group think-tank, said the vast majority of Israeli Jews now support his release, but for different reasons.

"Some because they think what he did is right -- those on the right -- and some saying he has served his term and calling for mercy -- those tend to be on the left."
Source: AFP