Huckabee: Obama should pardon Pollard during trip to Israel

Herb Keinon - The Jerusalem Post - February 11, 2013

US President Barack Obama should announce the release of Jonathan Pollard during his upcoming visit to Israel as a way to win over the Israeli people, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee said Monday.

Huckabee, here leading some 200 Christian evangelicals to Israel, said such a move would be "cathartic moment in the relationship between Israel and the US," and signal an extraordinary sense of good will on part of us and the Obama Administration.

"I don't think there is a price to be paid politically for the president in the United States for that, but there would be enormous benefit in terms of relationship with Israelis for him to make that announcement just prior to his coming, or even while he is here," he said

Huckabee, who ran an unsuccessful presidential race in 2008 and is now a popular conservative television and radio host, said he hoped the president "reassures the people of Israel that there is absolutely no way that America will stand by and let Iran develop a nuclear weapon., He needs to say that loudly, clearly and without equivocation."

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