Outrage over Huckabee’s Meeting with Israeli Spy who Betrayed America

Last week a firestorm of conservative outrage hit independent and social media platforms when a key member of the Trump cabinet was found to have secretly met with a convicted felon who is widely seen as a traitor to America. US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee had a meeting with Jonathan Pollard, an Israeli-American citizen who spent nearly three decades in prison for conspiring against America.

On November 20, Axios reported that Huckabee confirmed meeting with Pollard at the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem in July this year. The meeting was not public knowledge until last Thursday (November 20) when the New York Times learnt of it and published a story to report it.

The story came as a blow to conservatives to whom Pollard is known as a traitor who stole sensitive national defense documents and handed them to Israel. The documents are reported to have been handed to the Soviet Union by the Israeli government. After his release from prison in 2015, Pollard eventually flew to Israel to live there and it was the first time since then that an American official hosted him at a U.S. government facility.

On his X page, Tucker Carlson expressed shock at the American ambassador’s meeting with Pollard and asked whether Huckabee would explain it.

Independent journalist Max Blumenthal of The Gray Zone posted a fourteen-year-old news clip featuring Huckabee’s sympathy for Pollard and visiting Israel to lobby for releasing the convicted spy.

Conservative commentator and former United States Navy intelligence officer Jack Posobiec condemned Pollard in the strongest words and said that it puts the America First claim of this administration to question.

Former CIA official and whistleblower John Kiriakou commented on the issue in his appearance on Redacted News (November 20) of Clayton and Natalie Morris. Kiriakou said that he was outraged to learn of this meeting and called Pollard lucky to have avoided execution for what he did to America. Citing his sources, Kiriakou confirmed that the CIA station chief in Jerusalem was apoplectic that this happened. Kiriakou called for the resignation or firing of Ambassador Huckabee over meeting with Pollard.

The White House, however, seems not to be bothered much by the whole affair. When White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked about the meeting and Trump’s response to it, she replied that the White House was not aware of the meeting but that the President stands by Huckabee for all he is doing for Israel.