An escape plan was put in place for Jonathan Pollard after he was convicted for turning over secret Pentagon documents to Israel, but he circumvented it and sought asylum at Israel’s embassy in Washington, his former Mossad handler said.

“I got the call that he is waiting at the entrance of the embassy … and I immediately said ‘throw him out.’ I don’t regret it,” former Mossad handler Rafi Eitan said. “The minute the man decided to come to the embassy …. he decided for himself that he is going to prison.”

Eitan, 88, for the first time gave details of his work with Pollard, a former U.S. Navy analyst who was sentenced to life in prison in the United States in 1987, during an interview on the Israel Channel 2 news magazine “Uvda,” which means Fact.

It seems that the longer Pollard stays in jail, too many people are telling too many tales to get off the hook, and it is questionable if we ever will know all the truth.

Eitan said he believed that if Israel had given Pollard asylum, it would have even more severely damaged its relations with the United States.

Eitan said during the interview that he was not a rogue agent, as he has frequently been depicted, but that both prime ministers Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres were aware of his work with Pollard. He said he took responsibility for the Pollard debacle in order to allow the Israel-U.S. relationship to move forward.

It was recently reported that Pollard was turned down in August for his first parole request. Though he has been eligible to apply for parole for the last 19 years he reportedly has refrained from doing so because he is seeking a presidential commutation, which would release him unconditionally.

The parole commission said it would review Pollard’s case again next year.

Israel and Israelis have been blaming everyone from Shimon Peres to President Barack Obama and even Jonathan Pollard himself for the American government’s refusal to free him from prison, but the real reason is American Pride that sits deep in the gut of the United States .

It is easy, and perhaps partly correct, to cry “anti-Semitism,” but that does not explain why most of the American Jewish establishment has not been campaigning for his release.

Pollard was sentenced to life for handing over secret documents for Israel, a crime that usually is punishable by two to four years in jail.

He has languished in jail, except when he was taken to the hospital for medical emergencies. He was not even allowed to go the funeral of his parents.

Pollard was accused of but never was convicted of “spying,” but American media to this day still report he “spied” on the United States.

Pollard is different from others who have been caught in the act of espionage,

He is an American. He was born in the United States. He is not an immigrant.

That is what hurts Americans.

Whatever damage he did to American security, if any at all, Americans suffered far more pain in its pride, a characteristic that Israel cannot understand because it takes on a different form in the Jewish state.

The United States always has been proud of itself, and it had good reason to be when it was the leader of the world, economically, culturally, morally and financially.

“When willful wickedness comes, then comes disgrace, but with the modest is wisdom.” – Proverbs 11:2.

Israel is proud in the positive sense of the word – affiliation and association with its raison d’tre and the feeling that every Jew belongs to the same tribe.

Israel is known for its divisiveness, but that is the root of its strength. Jewish thought never would have developed and flourished if rabbis had not argued over minute points, discussions that are written in the Talmud.

The deep divisions in Israeli society disappear in the time of need, such as when virtually the entire country recited Psalms for the well-being of Nachshon Waxman, the soldier who was kidnapped by Arab terrorists and eventually killed in a botched rescue effort by the IDF.

Israel, from left to right, was bound together when three yeshiva youth were kidnapped by Hamas murderers last June, and the entire country, from left to right with the exception of a few zanies, walked hand in hand during the Hamas war following the kidnap-murders.

On the other hand, America was supposed to be a melting pot that has turned out to be a collection of different religions, ethnicities and races, like any other country whose only common bind is that they leave in the same country.

Except for eating a turkey on Thanksgiving, the melting pot is more like a strange and totally coincidental mosaic

Mom, flag and apple-pie no longer represent America’s manufactured pride. ”Mom” doesn’t mean much in a society that not only accepts but also encourages homosexuality; “God” has a hard time in a society that goes out of its way to keep religion in the home. As for apple pie, there is only so much that one can eat.

So when an American, a born and bred American, is reported to be a “spy,” it punctures the illusion that the United States is pure, a country of patriots without knowing exactly to what.

The same false pride that keeps the Obama administration acting as if it is the power broker that can make peace in the Middle East, put Russia in its place and turns Africa into a continent of democracies, also keep Pollard behind bars.

Happy Thanksgiving.

And think of Pollard while you are eating turkey.

Arab sources reported on Thursday, that former Hamas spokesman Ayman Taha was executed by Hamas for spying on them, for Egypt.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman slammed a report by U.S.-based Newsweek magazine claiming Israel has been “spying” on America.

The foreign minister told listeners on Israel’s Voice of Israel government radio Wednesday morning, “First of all, these are malicious accusations. . . I would not agree to any spying on the United States, not in any form, directly or indirectly.”

Israeli Embassy spokesperson Aaron Sagui also flatly denied the charges, telling Newsweek, “Israel doesn’t conduct espionage operations in the United States, period. We condemn the fact that such outrageous, false allegations are being directed against Israel.”

The report, published Tuesday by Newsweek, quoted anonymous senior intelligence officials in the United States, and Congressional staffers.

Written by journalist Jeff Stein, the report began with the question, “Whatever happened to honor among thieves? When the National Security Agency was caught eavesdropping on German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cell phone, it was considered a rude way to treat a friend. Now U.S. intelligence officials are saying – albeit very quietly, behind closed doors on Capitol Hill – that our Israeli “friends” have gone too far with their spying operations here.”

Stein wrote the espionage had allegedly been revealed in recent visa waiver briefings, saying the spying came under cover of trade missions and joint defense technology contracts. The alleged primary target: “America’s industrial and technical secrets,” according to his report.

Last month a senior House aide also noted the U.S. intelligence community is concerned that adding Israel to the visa waiver program would make it easier for Israeli spies to enter the country, the CQ Roll Call news site reported.

Counter intelligence agents, wrote Stein, had called Israel’s “espionage activities in America… unrivaled and unseemly,” and said they went “far beyond activities by other close allies, such as Germany, France, the U.K. and Japan.” Unnamed Congressional staffers referred to testimony at the briefings as “very sobering … alarming … even terrifying … damaging.”

Of course, wrote Stein, the United States spies on Israel as well. He quoted a former top CIA operative who told him that Israel was “the last place you wanted to go on vacation” because of ‘heavy-handed Israeli surveillance.’

Israel’s foreign minister, however, said Wednesday morning that he heard no complaints about “spying” during a meeting with members of Congress on a visit to the United States last month. Mr. Liberman told listeners he believes the charges are the work of saboteurs trying to scotch relations between the two countries.

The U.S. visa waiver program enables travelers to the United States to enter the country without first having to obtain a visa. According to a statement by the Department of Homeland Security quoted by Newsweek, requirements for entry to the program include “enhanced law enforcement and security-related data sharing with the United States, timely reporting of lost and stolen passports, and the maintenance of high counter-terrorism, law enforcement, border control, aviation and document security standards.”

Israelis face a high rate of visa refusal by the U.S. due to the problem of young people entering the country and then staying past the expiration date of tourist visas in order to work illegally.

Another obstacle to Israel’s acceptance to the program is the U.S. government’s perception of alleged discrimination against Arab Americans in Israeli security protocols.

Four U.S. lawmakers met in Cuba on Monday with imprisoned American Jewish hostage Alan Gross. The legislators visited the jailed social worker at a prison hospital due to his medical condition, which is precarious.

Gross was arrested in December 2009 while visiting Cuba to provide internet access for the Jewish community there. According to a report posted by the Havana Times he was employed at the time by Development Alternatives, Inc., and contracted by USAID, an American government agency.

Gross was subsequently sentenced to 15 years in prison for “crimes against the integrity of the State.” Cuban authorities said he was caught “carrying sophisticated telecommunications equipment prohibited on the island, working for a well-funded, secret USAID program designed to topple the Cuban government.”

Speaking to reporters in Havana following their visit, delegation leader U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee said in a brief statement, “It is in the interests of both our countries to start negotiations, not just talks. It is time for both countries to make a serious commitment to enter into negotiations without preconditions.”

For years, Cuban leader Raul Castro has been trying to persuade the Obama White House to enter negotiations to free the “Cuban Five” — spies who were caught and jailed for espionage in the United States in 1998. Two have already been released, having served their terms. One is serving a double life sentence. President Barack Obama has reportedly shown no inclination to discuss the matter with Cuban officials, and no apparent interest in a swap deal for Alan Gross.

(Likewise Obama has had no interest in discussing a deal to commute the sentence of American-Israeli agent Jonathan Pollard to time served. After having agreed to a plea bargain, Pollard was nevertheless sent to prison on a life term in 1987 on a single count of passing information to an ally. Often jailed under harsh conditions at the prison where he is held in North Carolina he is presently in extremely frail health. Hundreds of appeals to U.S. presidents through the decades have left all unmoved — including Obama, who has been approached by the current Israeli government.)

U.S. Representatives Gregory Meeks (D-NY), Sam Farr (D-CA) and Emanuel Clever (D-MI) also took part in the delegation to Cuba. They met with Alan Gross for 90 minutes, according to the report. The delegation reportedly then met with Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez.

There have been no diplomatic relations between Washington and Havana in more than half a century. But Gross, age 65, has vowed that by the end of this year, he is determined to return home to the United States, either “dead or alive.”

Prosecutors for Egypt’s state security court have charged three Egyptians and five Israelis with spying on behalf of Israel, Al Ahram reported.

The defendants are accused of “espionage and providing a foreign entity with information concerning national security.” All 8 have been referred to a criminal court by the State Security Emergency Prosecution dealing with cases involving national security and terrorism.

The five Israelis, charged with collaborating with the Egyptian defendants to gain information on Egypt’s national security, are all members of Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, according to Al-Ahram. They will be tried in absentia.

Al-Ahram said that the three Egyptians are residents of the North Sinai city of Rafah, near the Egypt-Israel border, where they passed along information to the Israelis regarding the Egyptian armed forces and Islamic militant groups in the area.

They are also accused of accepting around $45,000 in U.S. and Egyptian currencies from the Israeli agents for the leaked information.

Last June, nine defendants were accused of passing sensitive information to Israel. They were tried in absentia.

Overthrown Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi will be standing trial again.

This time Morsi is being accused of “collaborating with foreign organisations to commit terrorist acts in Egypt, revealing defense secrets to a foreign country, funding terrorists and military training to achieve the purposes of the international organisation of the Brotherhood,” according to a report in the Egyptian online news site Al-Ahram.

Morsi, along with thirty-five co-defendants are being accused of working with Hezbollah, Hamas and other terror groups inside and outside of Egypt to commit terror attacks in Egypt, smuggle weapons, and target army and police in the Sinai.

Morsi is also on trial for killing protesters in 2012.