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Jonathan Pollard, the American-born Israeli spy who spent three decades in a U.S. federal prison for selling classified secrets to Israel, has publicly declared that Israel must brace for armed conflict with Türkiye and Egypt, warning in a podcast interview with the Israeli nationalist outlet Arutz Sheva that regional war is an approaching certainty.
"We have to be prepared for the next war, which will probably be against Türkiye and Egypt," Pollard said. "The storm is coming."
He added that he was uncertain Israel would find any future confrontation with Ankara as manageable as its recent military campaign against Iran, saying he was "not so sure that we will have as easy a time with the Turks as we've had with the Iranians."
Pollard also cautioned that Israel should not allow Syria's Turkish-backed transitional government to reclaim southern areas currently under Israeli military occupation, arguing that doing so would amount to placing Turkish forces directly on Israel's border.
Pollard, 71, was born in Galveston, Texas, and worked as a civilian intelligence analyst for the U.S. Navy when he began passing vast quantities of classified material to Israeli intelligence in 1984.
He was arrested in 1985 after attempting to seek asylum at the Israeli embassy in Washington, was convicted under the Espionage Act, and in 1987 received a life sentence, becoming the first American ever jailed for life for spying on behalf of a U.S. ally.
He was released on parole in 2015 and immediately relocated to Israel, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu personally greeted him at Ben Gurion Airport. He acquired Israeli citizenship in 1995, while still imprisoned.
Since settling in Israel, Pollard has become a recurring voice on the Israeli far right. He has expressed public support for National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and has backed calls for the forced removal of Palestinians from occupied territories.
In a 2023 interview with Kan News near the graves of two Israeli brothers killed in a West Bank attack, he called for the Palestinian town of Huwara to be "destroyed."
Pollard's most far-reaching controversy beyond the espionage case itself came in a March 2021 interview with the Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom, in which he urged American Jews in intelligence and security roles to follow his example. "Not doing anything is unacceptable," he said, when asked what he would advise a young Jewish intelligence officer approached by the Mossad.
He stated that loyalty to Israel and to fellow Jews was "more important than your life," and embraced the dual-loyalty charge that has long been weaponized against Jewish communities, saying: "We're Jews, and if we're Jews, we will always have dual loyalty."
The remarks drew sharp condemnation from Jewish leaders in the United States, including from commentators who argued that Pollard was handing antisemites ready-made propaganda while actively damaging the U.S.-Israel alliance he claimed to be defending.
In a wide-ranging Arutz Sheva interview published earlier this month, Pollard argued that Israel functions as little more than "an American auxiliary" and called for what he described as an "Israel first doctrine" built on military self-reliance.
He also revealed that he had withdrawn from a planned run for the Knesset after receiving what he described as an overwhelming volume of death threats from across the political spectrum. "When you have this thing called party discipline, you can't speak your mind," he said, offering that remaining outside formal politics gave him greater freedom.
Pollard's remarks about Türkiye land against a backdrop of genuine and deepening diplomatic friction. Türkiye was the first Muslim-majority country to recognize the State of Israel, doing so in 1949, and the two countries maintained close security and trade ties for much of their modern history.
That relationship fractured badly after Israeli commandos raided the Mavi Marmara flotilla in 2010, killing ten people aboard the Turkish humanitarian vessel. A renewed diplomatic effort in September 2023, which had seen President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Netanyahu shake hands for the first time in New York, collapsed within weeks following the Hamas-led attacks on Israel of October 7 and Israel's subsequent military campaign in Gaza. Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett described Türkiye in March as potentially the "next Iran."
Egypt has maintained a formal peace treaty and diplomatic relations with Israel since 1979, though those ties have also come under increasing strain over Israel's conduct in Gaza. Pollard acknowledged during the Arutz Sheva podcast that he "hoped" Israel would not be going to war with either country, before adding that "hope was the last demon out of Pandora's Box."
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