Jonathan Pollard, American Who Spied for Israel, Released After 30 Years
Others said he deserved to be punished, but believe the fervor in the American intelligence community was exacerbated by bias. Reuel Marc Gerecht, a former C.I.A. officer, said he would have kept Mr. Pollard behind bars for life. But he added: “With some folks, the emotional intensity of the Pollard issue unquestionably springs from a fairly serious anti-Israeli sentiment. Some of those are anchored in anti-Semitism.”
In 1998, President Bill Clinton considered releasing him to seal an Israeli-Palestinian, peace agreement, only to back off after George J. Tenet, the C.I.A. director,threatened to resign. President Obama’s secretary of state, John Kerry, last yearproposed more or less the same thing, but it went nowhere.