U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee held a quiet, previously undisclosed meeting in July at the American Embassy in Jerusalem with Jonathan J. Pollard, the former U.S. Navy intelligence analyst who spent 30 years in prison for spying for Israel.
Pollard confirmed the meeting in an interview, calling it “friendly,” but the encounter surprised the White House and the CIA and broke sharply with long-standing diplomatic practice.
The New York Times reported of the meeting from three U.S. officials who spoke anonymously because of the sensitive nature of the information. Two said the meeting did not appear on Huckabee’s official schedule. According to several officials, the CIA station chief in Israel was alarmed when informed. A White House official and two others briefed on the matter said Washington had no prior knowledge that Huckabee planned to meet Pollard.
Pollard, 71, told the Times this was the first time a U.S. official had hosted him inside a U.S. government office since his parole in 2015. The U.S. Embassy declined to discuss the details of the meeting and said the ambassador “meets with numerous people,” while also claiming the Times report contained “inaccuracies.” The State Department did not say whether it approved the meeting in advance.
Pollard was sentenced to life in 1987 in one of the most consequential espionage cases of the Cold War, after providing Israel with a vast amount of classified material. Many Americans regarded him as a traitor, while he became a hero to parts of the Israeli right. When his parole restrictions were lifted in 2020, he moved to Israel, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu greeted him on the airport tarmac.
The reasons Huckabee and his senior adviser, David Milstein, agreed to the meeting remain unclear. Both men have sought to cultivate strong ties with Israel’s right wing, with which Pollard is closely aligned. Pollard said he thanked Huckabee for advocating more than a decade ago for his release from prison. He declined to detail the topics discussed, saying only that “a lot of things” came up.
In the Times interview, Pollard said he did not regret spying for Israel, arguing that Washington had withheld critical intelligence. He also sharply criticized President Donald Trump, calling him “a madman who has literally sold us down the drain for Saudi gold,” referring to Trump’s announcement that the United States would sell F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia despite Israeli concerns.
Pollard has since signaled political ambitions, telling The Jerusalem Post he intends to run for the Knesset and advocating annexation of Gaza and its “repopulation” with Israeli settlers.
The decision to meet Pollard drew criticism from former American officials. “Why would the American representative in the State of Israel want to meet with Jonathan Pollard?” said Daniel Kurtzer, who served as U.S. ambassador to Israel under President George W. Bush. “It just defies any kind of logic.” Kurtzer acknowledged Pollard’s long imprisonment but argued there was “no reason to rehabilitate him.”
The meeting is not Huckabee’s first move to stir controversy. In June, after five Western governments imposed sanctions on far-right Israeli ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir for alleged incitement against Palestinians, Huckabee hosted both men in his office and publicly condemned the sanctions.
Pollard remains the only American ever sentenced to life in prison for spying for a U.S. ally. He has long said his loyalty lies entirely with Israel. “Just as certain members of the Trump administration profess an ‘America first’ doctrine,” he told The Jerusalem Post, “I wholeheartedly embrace an ‘Israel first’ doctrine — and I went to jail for that for 30 years.”