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‘Extremely hard decision’ – Ex-spy Jonathan Pollard on Gaza hostages

Hamas uses Israel’s “love for the hostages as a weapon,” says Pollard.

By World Israel News Staff

Jonathan Pollard, a former U.S. military intelligence analyst who spied on behalf of Israel and served 30 years in an American prison, shared his thoughts on the ongoing hostage crisis in Gaza during an interview with Hebrew-language radio.

“While I was imprisoned in the U.S., I underwent interrogation that left me disabled, physically unable to function. Why? Because they wanted information from me,” Pollard told Radio 103FM on Monday morning.

“I think about the hostages in Gaza and know that Hamas does not want to [obtain] state secrets from them, but only to poison us, to use our love for them as a weapon against us,” he added.

Pollard proposed that the families of the hostages, some of whom have been vocal in their criticism of the government for not returning their loved ones fast enough, should be more involved in the behind-the-scenes efforts to rescue the captives.

“I think that the government needs to give the families of the hostages a chance to be part of the internal systems of the operation, so that they can understand what is actually happening,” he said.

Pollard said that the “government’s greatest challenge is…finding the balance between recovering the hostages and protecting the security of eight million citizens living in Israel. This is an extremely hard decision.”

In past interviews, Pollard has taken a hard line regarding negotiations between the Hamas terror group and Israeli government for the release of the captives. He called the November truce, which saw several dozen hostages released, a “monstrous blunder.”

He also stated that he believed public protests by the families of hostages were strengthening Hamas, noting that he had been opposed to a deal which would have seen him released from a U.S. prison in exchange for the release of incarcerated Palestinian terrorists from Israeli jails.