President Donald Trump should summon U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee to the White House and require him to explain why he has been feting an American traitor.
As the New York Times reports, Huckabee hosted Jonathan Pollard for a friendly meeting at the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem back in July. The meeting understandably upset the CIA station. After all, as a U.S. intelligence officer clandestinely recruited by Israel, Pollard betrayed a treasure trove of secrets. This included the names of U.S. intelligence sources and other information judged by successive U.S. administrations to remain so classified that it cannot be publicly revealed. Multiple former intelligence community officials have told me that there is no doubt that Pollard’s espionage was far more damaging to U.S. interests than his defenders present. As with the names “Ames” and “Hansen,” just mentioning “Pollard” continues to evoke rage among employees of the CIA and FBI. After strong Israeli lobbying, Pollard was released on parole in 2015 after serving 30 years in prison. He then returned to Israel in 2020.
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Some might say, ‘Who cares that Huckabee hosted Pollard? What does it really matter?’
It matters for two reasons: prestige and political import. Most people do not get to sit down with a U.S. ambassador. Extending that courtesy to Pollard, Huckabee has lent the traitor the sense that his crimes against America are forgiven and that his person deserves some special deference. Second, for the political import of this meeting. By hosting a traitor for tea and crumpets, Huckabee sends the message that the Trump administration isn’t terribly concerned with the crime of treason.
The casually friendly nature of this strange meeting speaks to a broader concern. Put simply, too many Americans have too long celebrated Pollard as some kind of hero for the U.S.-Israeli alliance. There was a significant lobbying campaign to see Pollard pardoned, for example, and the late billionaire Sheldon Adelson even flew Pollard home on his private jet. The truth is that Pollard was and is a modern-day Benedict Arnold, a man who sacrificed American interests in the service of a foreign power. A man who capriciously betrayed his oath to faithfully serve the American people.
As with relations between all nations, U.S. and Israeli interests are not always aligned. Yes, both countries share key interests in terms of cultural links, shared values, commerce, counterterrorism cooperation (Israel recently killed a number of key Hezbollah terrorists with a lot of U.S. blood on their hands), and in restraining Iran’s nuclear program.
But so also has Israel has cooperated too closely with China, particularly under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to significant detriment to U.S. national security. So also is Israel skeptical of Trump’s efforts to stabilize a new Syrian government. Israeli settlement activities in the West Bank also undermine U.S. alliances with Jordan and Saudi Arabia while also feeding jihadist recruitment propaganda. This bears additional reference in relation to Pollard, who supports many of the more extreme and U.S.-detrimental Israeli policies via his alignment with far-right minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
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Today, while Mossad and its military intelligence partners are very close and valuable U.S. partners much of the time, they also continue to operate a significant adversarial signals and human intelligence operation on U.S. soil. They do so with far more ambition than other U.S. allies, such as France, which also maintains robust espionage campaigns targeting the United States. Again, however, Israel does not deserve criticism for doing this. After all, it is only acting in its own self-interest. But the U.S. government and Congress deserve heavy criticism for tolerating it.
This needn’t mean that Pollard be invited to the embassy for polonium tea, but he certainly doesn’t deserve the hospitality of the nation he betrayed. Huckabee needs to explain what on Earth he was thinking.
