on 22 September 1979 in the Indian Ocean. Pollard delivered to his
Israeli handlers not only the information of what the United States
knew but also how it obtained the information.
Within a short period, Eitan in Tel Aviv received so much infor-
mation that it exceeded even his wildest expectations. Even after
Pollard was asked by his Israeli handlers to stop delivering so many
documents, he continued to do it on his own initiative purely for the
money. There were rumors, apparently well founded, that Pollard
was to be moved to a job in the White House. If he were caught
stealing documents from the White House and delivering them to Is-
rael, the damage to relations between the two countries would be far
more serious.
In 1985 Pollard’s superiors at the Naval Antiterrorist Alert Cen-
ter grew suspicious of his behavior at work. Stacks of classified
documents unrelated to his job were repeatedly found in his office.
The FBI was called in to investigate, and its agents arrested Pol-
lard in November of that year. Any hopes of keeping the scandal
secret were dashed when Pollard attempted to escape arrest by re-
questing asylum at the Israeli embassy. When he arrived at the em-
bassy gate, no one inside had any knowledge of the identity of the
driver of the red Mustang that sped in, with his wife, directly in the
wake of a blue Caprice driven by an Israeli diplomat, Elyakim Ru-
binstein. The latter had been sent by Defense Minister Moshe
Arens to the United States for talks and had no idea of what was
taking place at the embassy gate. An administrative officer was
summoned to prevent entry into the embassy parking lot of the un-
known vehicle; he might have been a car bomber intending to at-
tack. Thus Pollard was apprehended by the FBI. Paradoxically, no
one in the Israeli high echelons regretted Pollard’s arrest; some
even sensed a kind of relief.
At his trial, on 4 June 1986 Pollard pleaded guilty to espionage. In
1987 he was sentenced to life imprisonment, a sentence he is still
serving. The Pollard affair caused considerable damage to relations
between Israel and the United States. Pollard’s wife, Anne, was also
sentenced to five years in prison.POLLARD AFFAIR.See POLLARD, JONATHAN JAY.POLLARD AFFAIR• 23506-102 (03) H-P.qxd 3/24/06 7:25 AM Page 235