Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the spiritual leader of Shas, sent a letter to United States President George Bush on Thursday asking him to free Jonathon Pollard. Pollard is serving a life sentence for giving Israel classified US intelligence.
Rabbi Yosef sent Bush “my humble request on behalf of the Jews of Zion that Your Excellency release our brother, the prisoner Jonathon Pollard.” If Bush agrees to release Pollard, Rabbi Yosef wrote, he will be “blessed from the heavens” and granted a long life.
Earlier in the day the heads of several Knesset factions, including Shas, sent a letter to Bush asking him to free Pollard.