Ex-US Navy analyst who sold secrets to Israel wants Gaza cleansed by force

Jonathan Polard, a former Israeli spy who had served as an analyst in US naval intelligence before spending thirty years in a US prison for selling military secrets to Israel for money, along with his wife, has expressed his wish to be elected to the Knesset this year, while advocating the annexation of Gaza alongside the forcible removal of its current residents.

Articulating his position in a Channel 13 interview, Pollard advanced an uncompromising doctrine, asserting that Gaza’s residents must be removed and the territory repopulated by Israelis, The Guardian reported.

Positioning his political awakening in the aftermath of the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack, which killed nearly 1,200 people and triggered the Gaza war, Pollard castigated the Israeli establishment for systemic failure, arguing that it neither prevented the assault nor responded with sufficient speed, thereby exposing structural vulnerabilities in the state’s security apparatus.

Pollard, who had been arrested in 1985 alongside his then-wife Anne Henderson after transmitting extensive classified material to Israeli intelligence in exchange for financial remuneration and valuables, had pleaded guilty in 1986 in an attempt to avert a life sentence.

Yet he was ultimately sentenced to life imprisonment before being released on parole in 2015, and later relocated to Israel in 2020 following the expiration of travel restrictions.

Although once championed by Benjamin Netanyahu, who had facilitated his symbolic elevation to Israeli citizenship during imprisonment, Pollard has since emerged as a trenchant critic of the prime minister’s wartime leadership, while simultaneously conceding that political expediency may necessitate continued support should Netanyahu retain power after the forthcoming elections anticipated later this year.