Jonathan and Esther Pollard landed in Israel early Wednesday morning a month after the US Parole Commission lifted restrictions on him and 35 years after he was arrested for spying for Israel.
The Pollards emotionally kissed the ground upon disembarking their plane and stepping on Israeli ground.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met the Pollards at the airport and presented Pollard with his Israeli identity card. “This is an extremely emotional moment,” the prime minister said. “Yonatan and Esther are home.”
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה' אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, שֶׁהֶחֱיָנוּ וְקִיְּמָנוּ וְהִגִּיעָנוּ לַזְּמַן הַזֶּה.
התרגשתי לקבל היום את פניהם של יונתן ואסתר פולארד עם הגעתם לישראל ולהעניק ליונתן תעודת זהות ישראלית.
עכשיו הם בבית. pic.twitter.com/qGApNuZq8a
— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) December 30, 2020
“We are ecstatic to be home at last after 35 years,” Pollard responded. “We thank the prime minister and the people of Israel for bringing us home. A profound thank you. No one can be prouder of this country and its leader than we are.”
Due to Esther’s health issues, the Pollards flew to Israel on the private Boeing 737 VIP jet of philanthropist Sheldon Adelson
The Pollards, who are settling in Jerusalem, will quarantine for two weeks, as is required of all travelers arriving in Israel.
https://twitter.com/arutz20/status/1344203629297872897?s=20
Israeli politicians lost no time in welcoming Pollard home:
ברוך הבא הביתה לישראל pic.twitter.com/MNTNJVsxCW
— ישראל כ”ץ Israel Katz (@Israel_katz) December 30, 2020
ברוך הבא הביתה, יונתן! pic.twitter.com/svA6GW73WO
— Gideon Sa'ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) December 30, 2020
ברוך הבא לארץ ישראל, אחינו יונתן.
שהחיינו!🇮🇱 pic.twitter.com/hfxYKexvHF— Naftali Bennett נפתלי בנט (@naftalibennett) December 30, 2020
״ושבו בנים לגבולם״.
ברוכים הבאים אסתר ויונתן פולארד.
"And thy children shall return to their own border".(Jeremiah)
Welcome home Esther and Jonathan Pollard. pic.twitter.com/xbS5Jxk1e8— Danny Danon 🇮🇱 דני דנון (@dannydanon) December 30, 2020
Welcome home to Jonathan and Esther Pollard!
— Reuven Rivlin (@PresidentRuvi) December 30, 2020
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
14 Responses
Does Netanyahu live within 1000 Meters from this tarmac?
a clip of a mere minute & half , speaks volumes , many diff. thoughts …come to mind , what are yours?
Is Casper Weinberger still alive? I’d love to send him these beautiful pictures! Let him rot and agonize over and over again as he sees Pollard a free man!
I wish this chillul hashem crawls back into his hole never to be seen or heard from again. He created so much grief for Jews working for the US government (military and civilian sectors) we are only now recovering.
BTW, I believe in tshuva but he did it for the money.
There is a difference between being a spy for your own country and being a traitor, and he’s no spy!
He got what he deserved and served his sentence, so stop making him out to be some kind of hero!
As an FYI, information he passed to Israel simply confirmed what Israel already knew from other sources. Why else do you think successive Israeli governments didn’t do that much to get him out. He was an embarrassment to them and they never wanted him.
Chasdei H’
Laughing- it’s good that “you believe” in teshuva, because it looks like you need to do it
> Yaapchik
Weinberger died in 2006
> laughing
Strange how even the sentencing judge never made use of the allegation that Pollard did it for the money (there is an extended monetary fine if the judge would have ruled it was done for the money). But the way the stories are told about Pollard begs the question of just what the Navy was really doing, a question way more important than Pollard. As example, when Pollard went for an interview for a new position in the Navy, the story is told (by Seymour M. Hersh published 18 Jan 1999) that:
> One Monday, he arrived disheveled and unshaven for an interview for a new position, claiming that the Irish Republican Army had kidnapped his then-fiancée and he had spent the weekend securing her release.
Can anyone explain why such incidents were ignored by the Navy and they let him just go on? Or are these stories LIES?
He had to quarantine for 2 weeks yet he takes his mask off right in front of the pm!
he has also aged loads, his hair is literally white already
laughing ,its sad someone who reads newspapers and believes everything the news tells them which obviously you do
for you to come out in a public forum against a fellow jew is no less a chilul hashem then what jonathan pollard did which btw saved eretz yisroel many times over
and was information which should should have been shared by the us relevant intelligence agencies as per agreement and when johnathan saw it wasnt being shared he passed it to israel. it wasnt just for money. did he receive money indeed yes but in the history of the USA no one has ever been given such a draconian sentence for spying for a us ally
if you read the history it was pollards superior hardy aimes who actually did the damage attributed to johnathan pollard not Johnathan so a public apology is due from you to the readership of this blog
despite your strong opinion , why are u laughing?
@rt, to your point we all need to do tshuva for aveirot we know of and for those we do not know of. But in this matter you have no clue how this guy hurt countless people for the sake of money. He is no tzaddik. BTW, his Israeli handlers offered to “bring him in from the cold” and he declined. Three days later with investigators in pursuit he showed up at the Israeli embassy in Washington (carrying incriminating evidence). At that point the people in the embassy had no choice but to turn him away and he was arrested.
@meir g – laughing at you,