Since being named US Ambassador to Israel, former governor of Arkansas Mike Huckabee has become seen as the embodiment of the Israel First policymaking that has sown division within the American right that re-elected President Donald J. Trump to advance an America First agenda. Huckabee’s decision to hold a secret meeting with convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard at the American Embassy in Jerusalem adds fuel to that fire, amplifying doubts as to whether the Trump administration is prioritizing American interests above all else.
Israel made numerous attempts throughout Pollard’s incarceration to secure his release. As early as one year into his prison sentence, Israel proposed a three-way prisoner exchange in which Pollard would be released and deported to Israel. Several other failed attempts to secure his release were proposed by Israel throughout the 1990s. Author Daniel Halper claimed in his 2014 book ‘Clinton, Inc.: Audacious Rebuilding of a Political Machine’ that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went as far as to blackmail President Bill Clinton with tapes of him and Monica Lewinsky in Israeli possession to pressure the US into releasing Pollard. The subject of securing a pardon for Pollard became such a strong political issue in Israel that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak, his main challenger and eventual victor ahead of the 1999 Israeli General Election, fiercely debated over which candidate was more capable of negotiating his release.
Over the course of Pollard’s prison sentence, several notable American politicians joined Israeli figures in advocating for his release. Former Pennsylvania senator Arlen Specter and Vice President Dan Quayle were two of the high-profile US politicians to issue requests to President Barack Obama for Pollard’s release. Over 100 New York State legislators, a bipartisan group of 18 retired senators, and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich echoed the chorus of calls made to Obama to pardon Pollard.
Ultimately, their efforts proved to be to no avail, as Pollard never received a pardon from Obama nor any subsequent presidential administration. However, President Trump issued a pardon to Aviem Sella, the former Israeli Air Force commander who recruited Pollard as a spy for Israel in the 1980s, on the last day in office of his first administration. The pardon issued for Sella by Trump was done at the behest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Miriam Adelson, the largest donor to Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, who he remarked loved Israel more than America during his speech before the Knesset to commemorate the declaration of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in October 2025.
During his incarceration, Pollard was granted Israeli citizenship in 1995. In 2015, he became eligible for parole after serving 30 years in prison, which the US Department of Justice did not contest. The United States Parole Commission subsequently granted Pollard parole, and he was released from prison on November 20th, 2015. Under the terms of his release, Pollard was required to remain in New York City for the duration of his parole over the next 5 years. Though Pollard filed multiple appeals to end the terms of his parole early in order to flee the US to Israel. Each was denied, and he ultimately remained in the US until 2020.
On December 30th, 2020, one month following the conclusion of his parole terms, Pollard and his wife, Esther, emigrated to Israel. The couple was flown to Israel aboard a private jet owned by casino magnate and prominent Trump donor Sheldon Adelson. The Pollard’s arrival was received by Israel with the pomp and circumstance of a state holiday, as they were greeted on arrival by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
After moving to Israel, Pollard and his wife settled in Jerusalem. He was granted a government stipend equivalent to the pensions given to former Mossad and Shin Bet agents. Although Pollard leveraged his political influence as a private citizen, he refused an offer to run for a seat in the Knesset as part of Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Jewish Power Party in 2022 following the death of his wife earlier in the year before remarrying months later in October. Despite rejecting opportunities to run for the Knesset since immigrating to Israel in 2020, Pollard teased his candidacy ahead of the 2026 Israeli General Elections, outlining a 10-point plan for his potential campaign for a seat in the Knesset.
The potential of his forthcoming Knesset campaign emboldened Pollard’s suspicions that the leaked report of his meeting with Ambassador Huckabee was made out of political subterfuge against him. Pollard took to the Israeli media to blame the US intelligence sphere for leaking the news of his meeting with Huckabee to the New York Times to weaponize it against him and the ambassador. “If I could guess, I would say it’s that [the US intelligence] community, particularly the CIA station in the embassy, that probably was the one that initiated this whole effort to discredit the ambassador,” Pollard said.
Pollard claimed that former US Ambassador to Israel Dan Kurtzer, who served in the role from 2001 to 2005 under President George W. Bush, was responsible for the leak. “Dan Kurtzer is someone I characterize as an enemy of the State of Israel. He has made some very intemperate remarks concerning me that I find, frankly, kind of shocking,” Pollard stated. “I understood, the minute I read the article, where this was coming from.” Pollard went on to urge President Trump to purge members of the CIA he deemed to be enemies of the State of Israel from the agency, stating, “These people are not friends of Israel, and frankly, I wouldn’t even consider them friends of the Trump administration either.”
Though he defended Ambassador Huckabee in his interview with Israeli news channel i24, Pollard took aim at other members of the Trump administration. “Steve Witkoff can meet with the people who ordered our people to be butchered on October 7, and nobody seems to think that’s a problem because, ‘Well, he’s working on peace.’ No, he’s working on his bank account.” Pollard exclaimed.
He then directed his ire toward Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, for his role in brokering the 20-point peace plan issued by the Trump administration to bring an end to Israel’s war in Gaza. “They did everything in their power to prevent us from winning in Gaza. They are representatives—not of the United States, but of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and secondarily, Turkey.” Pollard stated, continuing, “But right now, the 20-point peace plan that the president has imposed on us undermines our independence and threatens the security of our country.”
Ambassador Huckabee confirmed his meeting with the convicted spy to Axios on Thursday, following the New York Times report exposing their clandestine gathering. Huckabee echoed Pollard’s claims that nothing pertinent was discussed during their meeting, which was simply arranged as a means of allowing him to offer the ambassador his gratitude for the years he spent advocating on his behalf.
In response to Huckabee’s confirmation, Trump administration officials remarked that they were unaware of the meeting held by the ambassador. Although stating it had no advanced knowledge of the meeting, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt issued a statement reaffirming the administration’s faith in Huckabee amidst the backlash he faced. “The president stands by our ambassador, Mike Huckabee, and all that he is doing for the United States and Israel,” Leavitt told reporters.
Despite the position the Trump administration has taken in support of Huckabee, suspicion over the true motives leading to the meeting and what transpired during it is far more than merited given the espionage operations that Pollard has conducted against the US in the past. Pollard’s inflammatory remarks about senior officials within the Trump administration further highlight how the influence of Israel on the US political landscape continues to fracture the foundation of the America First platform that the re-election of President Trump was supposed to be the culmination of. Although it remains unclear as to whether or not the White House officially sanctioned the meeting between Huckabee and Pollard, their rendezvous shows that the Trump administration has not done enough to insulate itself from the pervasive forces undermining it.