Ex-spy Pollard flip-flops on Shaked endorsement

Former American spy Jonathan Pollard has pulled his support for Ayelet Shaked just a few hours after making waves by endorsing her, citing her refusal to cast-off centrist partner Yoaz Hendel or commit to only working with fellow conservatives.

“After the things I said regarding Ayelet Shaked this morning, it became clear to me that she refuses to remove Yoaz Hendel from her list and to commit that she will only join a right-wing government. This raises a real concern that she will once again transfer votes from the right to the left. Therefore, I retract my support for her,” he tells right-wing news outlet Israel National News.

Earlier in the day, Pollard, who now lives in Israel and holds Israeli citizenship,  released a video endorsing Shaked — but pointedly not her Zionist Spirit party — saying he thought that she had learned from her “mistakes” in joining a broad government made up of parties across the political spectrum, or as he put it, “misplaced loyalty.”

The move drew some criticism from other right-wing politicians, who had seemingly sought his support.

Shaked, who is polling poorly, indicates that she is unruffled by the about-face, and says he only flipped due to pressure from other right-wingers who had sought his endorsement and had left him “in an impossible situation”

“I’m happy he has removed himself from the eye of the storm. An Israeli hero like Jonathan deserves to be at the heart of the consensus and not turned into a target for the poisonous dialogue of Israeli politics,” she says in a statement.