Jonathan Pollard says it would 'take a miracle' to live in Israel

In impromptu street interview with Israeli TV, convicted spy says his health is better since release, wishes viewers ‘Shana Tova’

Jonathan Pollard, the American Jew who spent three decades behind bars for spying on the US for Israel, said it would “take a miracle” for him to be able to live in the Jewish state.

Talking to reporter Amir Bar Shalom of Israel’s Channel 1 television on the street in New York in an impromptu interview aired Friday, Pollard said he feels the people of Israel are supporting him, but sounded less certain about the government in Jerusalem.

“Do you still feel like Israel is behind you?” Bar Shalom asked.

“I feel that the ‘am’ [Hebrew for nation] is clearly behind me,” Pollard replied.

“And the government, no?” Bar Shalom pressed.

“Well, the government will do whatever it wants to do, I don’t know,” the former spy said, in a conversation punctuated by repeated statements of “I don’t know.”

“Yesterday we were in the meeting of [US President Barack] Obama and [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu. I don’t think he mentioned you,” Bar Shalom said, indicating that the encounter itself took place on Thursday.

“That’s why I said it’s going to take a miracle to bring me home,” Pollard replied.

Jonathan Pollard, the American convicted of spying for Israel, leaves a New York courthouse following his release from prison after 30 years, on November 20, 2015 in New York. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images/AFP)

The parole terms issued upon 62-year-old Pollard’s release from a federal prison last November after serving 30 years of a life sentence require him to stay in his New York home from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., to submit any computer he uses for inspection, and to wear a GPS-monitoring device at all times. He also must remain in the United States for five years, despite his desire to move to Israel.

Pollard said his health has much improved since his release, and wished his supporters in Israel “Shana Tova” (Happy New Year), ahead of the upcoming Jewish festival.

Pollard pleaded guilty in June 1986 to conspiring to deliver national defense information to a foreign government, giving secrets to Israel. Prosecutors said he gave secrets to Israeli agents from June 1984 through November 1985.

Jonathan Pollard, pictured December 17, 1997, at the Federal Correctional Institution in Butner, North Carolina. (AP Photo/Ayala Bar)

The prime minister, who has been lobbying for Pollard’s release, has previously requested that Pollard be allowed to serve out his five-year parole in Israel. Netanyahu also convinced Pollard’s wife Esther to end her hunger strike in 1996, during his first term as premier.

An August 2016 bid by Pollard to overturn his restrictive probation requirements was denied by US District Judge Katherine Forrest. Assistant US Attorney Rebecca Sol Tinio said restrictions were necessary because national security could be affected if Pollard shares knowledge from classified documents.

Pollard’s lawyer Eliot Lauer had argued that any information he had 30 years ago was “ridiculously stale” and couldn’t be remembered anyway.

The judge said a 12-hour curfew imposed on Pollard most days was not “irrational, arbitrary or otherwise an abuse of discretion.”

Forrest said computer and travel monitoring conditions were not unconstitutional, and that the computer restrictions were “reasonably related to the characteristics of Pollard and his crime.”

She noted that Pollard remains in the custody of the US attorney general for the rest of his life sentence and any effort to leave the country would violate his parole.

“It would also, if successful, all but erase the United States’ ability to ensure that Pollard complied with the terms of his plea agreement and committed no further crimes,” the judge said.