Mike Huckabee, during his time as the US Ambassador to Israel, has unsurprisingly been more interested in advancing the interests of his host country than his home country. Back in July, Mike Huckabee hosted a meeting with convicted Jewish spy Jonathan Pollard, and kept it secret until multiple staffers leaked it to the press.
According to the New York Times:
Ambassador Mike Huckabee, President Trump’s envoy to Israel, met at the United States Embassy in Jerusalem in July with Jonathan J. Pollard, an American who spent 30 years in prison for spying for Israel, Mr. Pollard said.
The highly unusual meeting caught some U.S. officials by surprise, and appeared to be a sharp break with years of precedent for American diplomats.
The New York Times learned of the meeting from three U.S. officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information. When The Times asked Mr. Pollard about the meeting, he confirmed it.
Mike Huckabee’s July 2025 meeting with Jonathan Pollard at the America Embassy in Jerusalem was an unusual engagement that surprised officials and broke from standard diplomatic protocols regarding convicted spies. Pollard, a former US Navy analyst who served 30 years in prison for passing classified documents to Israel in the 1980s, some of which were later shared with the Soviet Union, now lives in Israel, where he was greeted as a hero following his relocation in 2020.
On multiple occasions, the Israeli government has lobbied the United States government for a pardon of Pollard. Pollard, himself, believes that his imprisonment was an antisemitic conspiracy. Most Americans would probably feel that 30 years was too lenient a sentence for being a traitor.
This encounter underscores emerging divisions within American conservative politics concerning unwavering support for Israel, as critics argue it places foreign interests above American security, even as the White House stated it was unaware of the meeting. Mike Huckabee has been a figurehead for Christian Zionism, so it’s not as though this incident is him going native.
