Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard appealed directly to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to personally request that US President Donald Trump commute his parole conditions so he could help his wife Esther who is suffering from cancer, Pollard said in an interview with Channel 12 on Monday.
The conditions were imposed on Pollard by his parole commission when he was released from prison in November 2015 after he served 30 years of a life sentence for passing classified information to Israel.
They require him to stay home between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m., to be monitored by a GPS device that forces him to violate Shabbat and holidays and for his computers to be monitored, which has prevented him from being employed.
Pollard said he contacted Netanyahu through Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer and asked for help and that Netanyahu, who has met with Esther many times, expressed concern and agreed to take action.
“Given the good relations between the two men, I am hopeful that the president will cut my parole so I can take care of my wife and she can return home,” he said. “I can’t imagine the prime minister not making an effective call, and I can’t imagine this particular president refusing him.”
Esther Pollard was recently diagnosed with breast cancer for the third time. Pollard said the cancer was particularly aggressive.
“It’s a matter of life and death,” he said. “It’s a human issue.”
Pollard said he was more “shaken” by what his wife is enduring than when he had his ankles broken and back smashed in interrogations.
“I can't take care of my wife effectively,” he said. “If my wife needs something in the middle of the night, I am not mobile. I can’t leave the apartment. I can’t help.”
Pollard said Esther had fought for his life for many years, and now it was time for him to fight for hers.
The Prime Minister’s Office responded to the report that Netanyahu was committed to helping Pollard.