Jonathan Pollard always felt a connection to Israel. He traveled there for the first time in 1970 when he was just 16 years old. From then on, he always dreamed of becoming a spy for the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence unit. That dream became a reality in 1984. But that dream was short-lived and actually turned into what most would be consider a nightmare. Pollard was caught giving top-secret information to Israel in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars, and was sentenced to a life in prison for violating the Espionage Act. He is the only American to ever receive a life sentence for passing classified information to an ally of the United States.
In 1984, after graduating from Stanford University, Pollard joined the Intelligence analyst for the United States Army. A year later he made a deal with Israel: he would provide the country with information in exchange for money. When he was caught, he pleaded guilty and said that the American government was endangering Israel’s security by keeping crucial information from the country.
Since his imprisonment, there have been many attempts to get Pollard released; there have been countless protests and online petitions. The Israeli government has paid for his attorneys and has tried to make deals with America to help him gain his freedom. In 2007, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu pledged that if he were re-elected he would make sure that Pollard was released. Pollard was granted Israeli citizenship in 1995 even though he never actually immigrated.
Many people have been against Pollard’s imprisonment. They say that it was not treason because Israel and America were allies at the time, meaning that the information should have been passed to Israel because of the agreement between the countries.
One of the biggest disputes surrounding the Pollard case is whether the length of his imprisonment was fair or not. The punishment for selling classified information to enemy nations is a life sentence, while selling the same information to a nation’s ally always receives a lesser sentence. For example, Navy Lieutenant commander Michael Schwartz, a non-Jew, passed classified document to Saudi Arabia, an ally of the United States, from 1992 – 1994. Unlike Pollard, his punishment was simply being discharged from the military. Others who sold or released information to ally countries received sentences for 2 – 4 years, and were generally released early.
Yes, the information that Pollard gave to Israel was a lot greater in size and importance than the information that these other people gave, but was the information enough to warrant the same sentence that a person would have gotten if they had given the information to an enemy nation?
Consider, for example, Robert Hanssen. In 2001, FBI agent Hanssen was found guilty of selling information to the Soviet Union and Russia’s Intelligent Services for 22 years. Hanssen was given a life sentence.
At the time, America and Russia were not allies. How is it that Hanssen and Pollard got the same sentence, while Schwartz received nothing more than a navy discharge? Isn’t what Pollard did more similar to Schwartz’s crime than Hanssen’s?
On November 20, 2015, Jonathan Pollard was released from prison after 30 years. He is now 61 years old. Pollard may be out of prison, but he is still paying for his actions. Not only does he have to pay a large sum of bail money, he is also not allowed to leave the United States, do any interviews or even use the Internet.
And importantly, the question still remains: is what Pollard did an act of heroism or an act of treason?