JERUSALEM (JTA) — Jonathan Pollard said he has asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to convince President Donald Trump to commute his parole so he can take care of his cancer-stricken wife.
“I can’t take care of my wife, I’m not mobile. If my wife needs something in the middle of the night, I can’t help her,” Pollard said in an interview Monday night with Israel’s Channel 12.
Pollard, a U.S. Navy civilian analyst who spied for Israel, said he cannot accompany his wife to chemotherapy. He called the request “a very human issue, that is a crisis for my wife and myself.”
Pollard said he received a message from Netanyahu’s office through Israeli Ambassador to Washington Ron Dermer that the prime minister would “get involved.”
“For the past 30 years almost my wife Esther has been fighting for my life. Now I’m fighting for hers … but I need help,” he said.
Pollard was released from federal prison in 2015 after serving 30 years of a life sentence. Under the terms of his parole, Pollard must stay in his New York home from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., submit any computer he uses for inspection and wear a GPS-monitoring device at all times. The parole is due to end in 2020.
In 2018, the U.S. Justice Department rejected a formal request from Israel to allow Pollard to immigrate to the Jewish state.
In May, Pollard in an interview with Channel 12 said that Israel has not done enough to help him since his release.
