Huckabee Defends Private Visit with Notorious Israeli Spy
Convicted Israeli spy Jonathan J. Pollard is downplaying the controversy surrounding his private meeting with U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, telling NBC News that the July visit was “personal” and “wasn’t done surreptitiously.”
Pollard said the “main point” of the meeting, which took place at the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, was simply to thank Huckabee for “his efforts on my behalf during my incarceration.” Pollard, a former U.S. intelligence analyst, spent three decades in federal prison after passing classified materials to Israel in the 1980s. Israel granted him citizenship during his imprisonment, and he moved there in 2020 after completing five years of probation.
During Pollard’s imprisonment, Huckabee was among several pro-Israel political figures who urged U.S. administrations to release him, arguing that his punishment was excessive for someone spying on behalf of an American ally.
Pollard insisted the recent encounter was a social call, not a political discussion, and said they did not talk about Gaza or diplomacy. Still, news of the meeting comes as Huckabee, a vocal supporter of Israel, faces mounting scrutiny for comments and actions that appear to diverge from official White House positions as the Trump administration expands its diplomatic push in the region.
The New York Times first reported the meeting. In response, a spokesperson for the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem criticized the article as “filled with inaccuracies,” adding that Huckabee “has meetings each day with numerous people and as a matter of general policy we don’t comment as to the content of conversations.” The spokesperson declined to provide further details or a statement from the ambassador.
“The White House was not aware of that meeting but the president stands by our ambassador,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday.
Pollard told NBC News that the episode “got far more complicated than it deserved,” saying he simply called the ambassador’s office to arrange the visit. “He had nothing to hide and I had nothing to hide,” he said.
The meeting has drawn criticism across the political spectrum. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said Huckabee should not have met with “a convicted traitor,” while former Fox News host Tucker Carlson called the encounter “shocking behavior from a United States ambassador.” Pollard’s espionage case was long a point of friction between Washington and Jerusalem.
This is not the first time Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor, two-time presidential candidate, and outspoken Christian Zionist, has stirred controversy while serving as ambassador. In early September, he told Israeli media that the U.S. would not oppose Israeli annexation of the occupied West Bank — a statement the White House later contradicted. He also told Bloomberg that the U.S. was no longer committed to Palestinian statehood, even as a recent U.S.-backed U.N. plan for Gaza reaffirmed support for a future Palestinian state.
Huckabee frequently uses the biblical term “Judea and Samaria” to describe the West Bank, and has long questioned the legitimacy of Palestinian nationhood. In 2008, he declared, “There is no such thing as a Palestinian,” calling Palestinian identity a “political tool to try and force land away from Israel.”
In an interview with NBC News on Sunday, conducted before the Pollard meeting became public, Huckabee downplayed talk of tensions with the White House and presented himself as a disciplined envoy. “I don’t get to make the policy. I simply carry it out as an ambassador,” he said. “I’ve had some very strong opinions on it, but my job here is not to be the chemist making the medicine. My job is simply to be the pharmacist and dispense it.”
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