Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, should probably resign.
The New York Times reported that Jonathan J. Pollard, a traitor to America who was convicted of espionage in 1987, said he had a clandestine and “friendly” meeting in July with Huckabee. The U.S. ambassador confirmed the meeting Thursday.
The meeting seems to be unprecedented. U.S. ambassadors have participated in spy swamps. Some, during the Cold War, became entangled in Soviet espionage operations. But there is no recorded meeting or public evidence to suggest that a U.S. ambassador has ever met in secret with a traitor who spied on America. (Subscribe to MR. RIGHT, a free weekly newsletter about modern masculinity)
Pollard was convicted of trading top-secret U.S. documents to Israel for money. In turn, Israel allegedly traded some of that classified information to the Soviet Union, according to reporter Seymour Hersh.
NEW YORK, NY – NOVEMBER 20: Jonathan Pollard, the American convicted of spying for Israel, leaves a New York court house following his release from prison early on Friday after 30 years on November 20, 2015 in New York, New York. Pollard, who was convicted as a Navy intelligence analyst of passing suitcases filled with classified documents to Israeli agents in the mid-1980s, won’t be allowed by the Obama administration to leave the country and move to Israel at this time. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Caspar Weinberger, the U.S. secretary of defense at the time of Pollard’s arrest in 1985, said Pollard had “substantially harmed the United States” by handing Israel enough classified documents to fit in a space 6 feet by 6 feet by 10 feet.
Israel acknowledged its role in the conspiracy and issued a formal apology to the U.S. in 1987. It wasn’t until 1998 that Israel admitted to paying him.
After serving 30 years in prison, Pollard was released on parole in 2015. While his parole conditions were still in effect, Pollard gained Israeli citizenship. Five years post-release, he relocated to Israel after President Donald Trump’s first Justice Department declined to extend his parole. Pollard is the only American on record ever to be sentenced to prison for life for spying for an ally.
Not only is Huckabee’s secret meeting a national embarrassment, it raises questions over how it even came about in the first place.
Considering the sensitive nature of the meeting and the fact that Pollard was a spy, why didn’t Huckabee ever inform or seek permission from the president and White House? (Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday that the White House had no knowledge of the meeting but that they stand by Huckabee.) Did he inform or seek permission from the office of the secretary of state?
What was the point of trying to rehabilitate an American traitor? How does the meeting promote or advance American foreign policy in any way? How does it help the president of the United States?
(L to R) US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, his wife Jeanette Dousdebes, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his wife Sara Netanyahu, US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, and his wife (outside frame) pose for a group picture together during a visit to the Western Wall Tunnels, underneath the Jewish holy site, in the old city of Jerusalem on September 14, 2025. Top US diplomat Marco Rubio began a visit to Israel on September 14, after expressing the Trump administration’s unwavering support for its ally in the war with Hamas despite a strike in Qatar that drew broad criticism of Israel. (Photo by NATHAN HOWARD/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
The answer is, it probably doesn’t. And even if it did, why should the U.S. try to advance its interests via a traitor who undermined and sold out his country?
Pollard claimed the meeting was personal, and it was only arranged for him to “thank” Huckabee for previously advocating for his release. Even if that is true, why would Huckabee give this man the time of day in the embassy on U.S. soil?
Notably, Pollard has shown no compunction for his espionage. In fact, he told The New York Times that he never regretted betraying America or spying for Israel. He also called President Donald Trump a “madman who has literally sold us down the drain, for Saudi gold.”
In a separate interview with The Jerusalem Post, Pollard declared that he was always loyal to “the land of Israel and the people of Israel, without exception.”
“Just as certain members of the Trump administration profess an ‘America first’ doctrine, I wholeheartedly embrace an ‘Israel first’ doctrine,” he said. “And I went to jail for that for 30 years.”
Pollard is a traitor. He prioritized another country over his own. And Huckabee had no business secretly meeting with him, even if it was only for Pollard to say thanks.
It’s embarrassing enough that Huckabee met with a foreigner who thinks Trump is a madman, let alone with a traitor who sold out America for cash.
