[1][14][15] At an early age, Pollard became aware of the horrific toll the Holocaust had taken on his mother's family,[16] the Kleins (Kahns) from Vilna in Lithuania,[17] and shortly before his bar mitzvah, he asked his parents to visit the Nazi death camps.

He was assigned to temporary duty at another NIC Department, the Naval Intelligence Support Center (NISC) Surface Ships Division, where he could work on tasks that did not require SCI clearance.

A subsequent polygraph test was inconclusive, although it did prompt Pollard to admit to making false statements to his superiors, prior drug use, and having unauthorized contacts with representatives of foreign governments.

He said that he had later told his controller, Rafi Eitan, a long-time spy who at the time headed Lekem, a scientific-intelligence unit in Israel, that, "I not only intended to repay all the money I'd received, but, also, was going to establish a chair at the Israeli General Staff's Intelligence Training Center outside Tel Aviv".

[42] They were provided to the judge by Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, who described Pollard's spying as including, among other things, obtaining and copying the latest version of Radio-Signal Notations (RASIN), a 10-volume manual comprehensively detailing America's global electronic surveillance network.

A brief time later, Pollard's neighbor, a naval officer, became concerned about safeguarding the 70-pound (32 kg) suitcase full of highly classified material that Anne had given him, and began telephoning around the military intelligence community asking for advice.

[60] Pollard told Blitzer about some of the information he provided the Israelis: reconnaissance satellite photography of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) headquarters in Tunisia, which was used for Operation Wooden Leg;[61] specific capabilities of Libya's air defenses; and "the pick of U.S. intelligence about Arab and Islamic conventional and unconventional military activity, from Morocco to Pakistan and every country in between.

Prior to sentencing, speaking on his own behalf, Pollard stated that while his motives "may have been well meaning, they cannot, under any stretch of the imagination, excuse or justify the violation of the law, particularly one that involves the trust of government ...

Noting that Pollard had violated multiple conditions of the plea agreement, he imposed a life sentence on the basis of a classified damage-assessment memorandum submitted by Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger.

[70][71] In 1996, she initiated a public hunger strike,[72] but ended it 19 days later after meeting with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who pledged to increase his efforts to secure Pollard's release.

The brief claimed that the Court of Appeals violated this principle in asserting sua sponte that the judiciary has no jurisdiction over the classified documents due to the fact that access was for the ultimate purpose of clemency, an executive function.

[81] In 1990, Israel reportedly considered offering to release Yosef Amit, an Israeli military intelligence officer serving a 12-year sentence for spying for the United States and another NATO power, in exchange for Pollard.

[92] In November 2014, Rafi Eitan, who directed Lekem from 1981 until its dissolution in 1986, admitted that he knew in advance of Pollard's impending arrest in 1985 and alerted then-Premier Shimon Peres and Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

[112] In 2013, Rabbi Pesach Lerner, executive vice president of the National Council of Young Israel, cited hypocrisy of Pollard's imprisonment in America after revelations of spying against U.S. allies by the United States intelligence agencies.

According to Pollard, this included data on Soviet arms shipments to Syria, Iraqi and Syrian chemical weapons, the Pakistani atomic bomb project, and Libyan air defense systems.

He stated, "I am impressed that the people who are best informed about the classified material he passed to Israel, former CIA Director James Woolsey and former Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee Dennis DeConcini, favor his release".

On March 3, 2011, Kissinger wrote a letter to President Obama stating, "Having talked with George Shultz and read the statements of former CIA Director Woolsey, former Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman DeConcini, former Defense Secretary Weinberger, former Attorney General Mukasey and others whose judgement and first-hand knowledge of the case I respect, I find their unanimous support for clemency compelling.

[144] Congressman Allen West from Florida, wrote a letter to President Obama on June 2, 2011, stating, "After serving 26 years behind bars, Jonathan Pollard's health is deteriorating, as is his wife's.

If we can consent to the release by the British of the Lockerbie bomber back to Libya due to health concern, how can we justify keeping Mr. Pollard behind bars when his crimes were clearly not as serious as a terrorist who murdered hundreds of Americans?

"[147][148] In a letter to the editor of The Wall Street Journal, published on July 5, 2012, James Woolsey wrote that he now endorses release of the convicted spy for Israel, citing the passage of time: "When I recommended against clemency, Pollard had been in prison less than a decade.

[159] Seven former Secretaries of Defense—Donald Rumsfeld, Melvin R. Laird, Frank C. Carlucci, Richard B. Cheney, Caspar W. Weinberger, James R. Schlesinger and Elliot L. Richardson—along with several senior congressional leaders, publicly voiced their vigorous opposition to any form of clemency.

[164] The New York Times reported on September 21, 2010, that the Israeli government (again under Netanyahu) proposed informally that Pollard be released as a reward to Israel for extending by three months a halt to new settlements in occupied territories.

"[170] In a November 2014 letter to President Obama, a group of American officials, including former CIA director James Woolsey, former Assistant U.S. Defense Secretary Lawrence Korb, and former U.S. National Security Advisor Robert McFarlane, criticized the "unjust denial of parole" for Pollard whose "grossly disproportionate sentence continues".

[175] Olive wrote that Pollard also stole classified documents related to China that his wife used to advance her personal business interests[37] and attempted to broker arms deals with South Africa, Argentina, Taiwan, Pakistan, and Iran.

[191] His attorneys immediately filed a motion challenging the terms of his parole, arguing that the Internet restrictions rendered him unemployable as an analyst, and the GPS-equipped ankle bracelet was unnecessary, as he was not a flight risk.

[192] On August 12, 2016, a federal judge denied the motion on the basis of a statement from James Clapper, the director of U.S. National Intelligence, asserting that contrary to the MacFarlane and DeConcini affidavits, much of the information stolen by Pollard during the 1980s remained secret.

[193] A bill introduced in the Knesset in November 2015 would, if passed, authorize the Israeli government to fund Pollard's housing and medical expenses, and pay him a monthly stipend, for the remainder of his life.

[195] During March 2017, Pollard's attorneys petitioned the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to reverse the August 2016 lower-court decision denying his request for more lenient parole restrictions.

[198] Although Pollard expressed a desire to relocate to Israel, he did not immediately do so after his parole expired due to his wife's health issues, and remained in the US for over a month while she underwent chemotherapy for breast cancer.

Pollard gave the main address to the gala, in which he accused the U.S. government of anti-Semitism, termed the U.S State Department and the United Nations enemies of Israel, and referred to the Biden administration as "Amalek".