JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel will officially and publicly appeal to President Obama in the coming days for the release of Jonathan Jay Pollard, the American serving a life term in a North Carolina prison for spying for Israel, Mr. Netanyahu’s office announced Tuesday.
A public request, as opposed to Israel’s discreet efforts in the past, would constitute a new approach in the campaign for Mr. Pollard’s release and an additional twist in a long and painful chapter in Israeli-American relations.
Mr. Pollard, a former United States Navy intelligence analyst who pleaded guilty to spying for Israel, a close ally, has already spent 25 years in prison. Many American law enforcement and intelligence officials have opposed granting him clemency.
Mr. Pollard’s supporters argue that his life sentence was disproportionate, that the information he passed to Israel can no longer harm American national security and that his health is failing.
Mr. Netanyahu has tried in the past to trade Mr. Pollard for pliancy in Middle East peace negotiations, in the hope that the release of the spy would appease conservatives in the Israeli government. Mr. Netanyahu made Mr. Pollard’s case a bargaining point with thePalestinians at the Wye Plantation talks in 1998.
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