Haaretz: Pro-Pollard demonstrators rally outside U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv
'How is it that the Americans are not willing to make the smallest gesture toward Israel as a confidence building measure?' asks convicted spy's wife.
Haaretz - February 23, 2014 Some 1,000's of people, including several Knesset members and public figures, gathered outside the American embassy in Tel Aviv on Sunday night to call for freedom for jailed Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard.
"This is our first official Pollard demonstration in front of the U.S. Embassy and G-d willing, this will be our last," said Pollard's wife Esther, "Today, after nearly 30 years in prison, there's no one who doesn't know that Jonathan's sentence is grossly disproportionate and absolutely unjust."
Pollard, a civilian intelligence analyst for the U.S. Navy who handed thousands of classified documents over to Israel, has been serving a life sentence in a U.S. prison since 1985.
"The government of Israel is at this time in intense negotiations with the Americans every single day," Esther Pollard added. "The Americans are leaning heavily on Israel, they demand that Israel make painful gestures to our enemies. And Israel keeps on bending over backwards to respond positively to the requests of the Americans. How is it that the Americans are not willing to make the smallest, most minimal gesture toward Israel, as a confidence building measure?"
MK Tzahi Hanegbi (Likud-Beytenu) told Arutz Sheva that it is "a mystery" in his eyes, why the U.S. is displaying "a heart of stone" regarding Pollard. He noted that the United States "is a nation of values, including justice and reason, and even generosity."