Ex-US spy for Israel calls for Gaza ethnic cleansing as he seeks Knesset seat | Israel
Former US Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Pollard, who was sentenced to 30 years in prison for spying for Israel, said he will run for election to the Knesset this year on a platform of ethnic cleansing.
Speaking to Channel 13 television“Personally, I prefer the forced displacement of all residents of Gaza, annexation of Gaza, and repopulation,” Pollard said.
Pollard said he decided to enter politics because of the Hamas attack on communities in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed nearly 1,200 people and triggered the Gaza war. He blamed the Israeli government for failing to prevent the attack or intervene immediately after it began.
“Until then, I thought that the abandonment and betrayal I experienced by the government was the exception, not the rule, but after October 7, I realized that I was not the exception,” he said.
Pollard was released on parole from a US prison in 2015, at the age of 61, after serving 30 years in prison for selling military secrets to Israel for money. He and his wife, Anne Henderson, were arrested in 1985 after Pollard gave Israeli intelligence a large amount of classified documents, enough to fill a room measuring 10 ft x 6 ft x 6 ft, by his calculation. He received cash and jewelry in return.
Assessing the damage Pollard’s espionage caused to US national security, Pentagon lawyer Marion Bowman said: he told NBC News In 2014, the spy was motivated by money as well as loyalty to Israel and claimed to be providing highly classified material to the two countries.
He pleaded guilty in 1986 in hopes of avoiding a life sentence, but in 1987 his plea deal was rejected by a federal judge. During his imprisonment, he was supported by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and was granted Israeli citizenship while in prison.
Pollard’s parole conditions did not allow him to leave the United States for five years, but he immigrated to Israel in 2020 after his parole expired and received a hero’s welcome from Netanyahu.
Despite Netanyahu’s past support for him, Pollard began to harshly criticize the prime minister. In the television interview, he stated that Israel could not win the war it has been waging since 2023 and called for new leadership with a clearer and sharper policy.
According to Channel 13, Pollard will enter politics with the new party founded by Nissim Louk, whose 22-year-old daughter Shani was killed in the attack on October 7 while attending a music festival near the Gaza border.
Despite his harsh criticism of security failures that leave Israel vulnerable to attack, Pollard said that if Netanyahu emerges from elections expected to be held in October this year as commander of the ruling coalition while still commanding the ruling coalition, “then we will have to support him”.
