Charging that Israel abandoned him after his arrest, convicted spy Jonathan Pollard now says he has doubts whether it was wise for him and his wife to risk their freedom when they spied on the United States on behalf of Israel.
In a letter to Amnon Dror, the Israeli representative of the U.S.-based Committee to Free the Pollards, Pollard writes that he no longer is sure whether he wants to live in Israel when he completes his jail sentence.
The former Navy intelligence analyst was convicted of passing classified documents to the Israelis in 1986 and was sentenced to a life sentence at a maximum-security prison in Marion, Ill. He is eligible for parole in 1996.
His wife, Anne, was convicted of being an accessory to her husband’s crime after the fact, and is serving two concurrent five-year sentences in a separate facility.
Pollard said Israeli Embassy officials in Washington had not only refused to grant him and his wife asylum when he faced arrest, but that they even cooperated with U.S. authorities in their capture.
“The government of Israel — in no way do I mean the citizens of Israel — has betrayed Anne and me, and in doing so, I believe, has betrayed the people of Israel,” Pollard writes.
He also blames Israel for doing nothing to help bring to an end what he alleges is daily harassment of his wife, who suffers from a rare gastrointestinal disorder, among other ailments.
He said she is suffering “hellish pain.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
