Jonathan Pollard charges Netanyahu doesn’t care about returning him to Israel

Israeli former spy Jonathan Pollard, who spent 30 years in jail in the United States, strongly criticizes the Israeli leadership and says it doesn’t care about his return, in one of his first media interviews after his release almost four years ago.

“If I didn’t believe in God I’d be very depressed right now,” he tells Channel 12 news. Asked if he is disappointed by Israel, he says: “To be disappointed you need to expect more, my expectation level is so low that I’m not surprised of the indifference toward getting us home.”

Pollard says no Israeli official has been in contact with him.

He accuses Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of missing “several opportunities” to raise the issue of bringing him to Israel with US president Barack Obama and Donald Trump.

“It’s a question of priorities, there’s always seems to be something else. To make it a priority would mean that the government actually cared and said this is what we want, we want him to come home. That simply hasn’t been done,” he says.

“What this means as for the political establishment’s commitment is that if you don’t care about someone like myself, who spent 30 years in prison on behalf of the land and people of Israel, then how much concern can you actually show or exhibit or feel towards anybody in the country, from our soldiers to our civilians?” he charges.

“If you don’t show commitment it suggests you don’t really have a commitment to the rest of the people in the country. That’s where the test is.

“We’re still fighting to get home, and with the help of God we will get home,” Pollard concludes.

The Prime Minister’s Office responds, saying: “Israel remains committed to returning Jonathan Pollard to Israel. Prime Minister Netanyahu has raised the matter many times with the US president and will continue doing so until he is returned.”