Convicted Israeli agent who spied on the US met with American envoy

Jonathan Pollard, a former US Navy intelligence analyst who was convicted of spying on the United States for Israel, held a private meeting in July with American ambassador Mike Huckabee at the US Embassy in Jerusalem, Pollard confirmed in an interview.

The meeting, which was not included on Huckabee’s public schedule, marked the first time Pollard had been hosted inside a US diplomatic facility since his release in 2015. Pollard described the meeting as “friendly,” noting it included Huckabee’s senior adviser David Milstein.

Pollard, now 71, was arrested in 1985 and sentenced to life in prison for one of the most damaging espionage operations in US history. At the time, then-Secretary of Defence Caspar Weinberger said Pollard had delivered enough classified material to fill a room and seriously compromised US intelligence operations. Pollard was released on parole in 2015 and moved to Israel in 2020 after the Trump administration lifted his travel restrictions.

He was welcomed in Israel as a national hero, personally greeted by then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the tarmac at Ben Gurion Airport. Since then, Pollard has been a vocal supporter of the Israeli right and recently announced plans to run for the Knesset, calling for the annexation of Gaza and advocating the settlement of Israeli civilians in the territory.

Pollard has not expressed remorse for his actions. In a separate interview with The Jerusalem Post, he said: “I wholeheartedly embrace an ‘Israel first’ doctrine. And I went to jail for that for 30 years.”

Ambassador Huckabee has long expressed support for Pollard’s release. However, the decision to meet him in an official capacity has drawn criticism from former US diplomats. Daniel Kurtzer, who served as US ambassador to Israel under President George W Bush, is reported saying: “Why would the American representative in the State of Israel want to meet with Jonathan Pollard? It just defies any kind of logic.”

The US State Department and Embassy declined to comment on the substance of the meeting. A brief statement from the Embassy said Huckabee “meets with numerous people” and dismissed the report as “filled with inaccuracies.”

Pollard’s espionage case remains a sensitive chapter in US-Israel relations. Though widely celebrated in Israel, his legacy continues to raise serious questions in Washington over trust, intelligence sharing, and the political embrace of convicted spies.

READ: Free in Israel, convicted spy Jonathan Pollard calls for more Americans to betray their country