JONATHAN POLLARD FLIES TO ISRAEL, TO WHICH HE SOLD U.S. SECRETS

Former Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Pollard, who stole and sold top secret US documents to Israel in the 1980s, arrived to a warm welcome in Israel on Wednesday, weeks after parole restrictions that barred him from traveling abroad were lifted by the Trump administration, United Press International (UPI) reported.

Pollard, 66, was greeted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top officials after a private jet carrying he and wife Esther touched down at Ben-Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv.

"Welcome home," Netanyahu said after Pollard, who is Jewish, knelt to kiss the ground.

"Now you can start life anew, with freedom and happiness. Now you are at home." In response, Pollard said: “We are excited to be home at last. There is no one who is prouder of this country or its leader than we are. We hope to become productive citizens as soon as possible."

Pollard spent 30 years in U.S. prisons after he pleaded guilty in 1986 on charges of spying for Israel.

He was freed on parole five years ago but had been subject to conditions like the travel ban.

Those restrictions were allowed to expire last month by the US Justice Department -- a move seen by some as a political gift from the departing Trump administration to close ally Netanyahu, who is embroiled in a corruption scandal and a tough re-election campaign.

University of Haifa political science professor Israel Waismel-Manor said in a tweet that Pollard "is not a Zionist hero," but rather someone driven "by ego and money" who "caused severe damage to Israeli-U.S. relations.

He hit a devastating blow to American Jewry by raising a dual loyalty suspicion. It would have been better if he had stayed in the US," he said. Prosecutors said Pollard delivered suitcases full of US secrets to Israeli agents in 1984 and 1985 in exchange for gifts and cash payments worth tens of thousands of dollars.

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