Chairman Uri Ariel of the Knesset lobby for Jonathan Pollard called Tuesday for the censure of Michael Oren, Israel's ambassador to the United States, following an interview with a Washington, DC radio station on Monday in which he said that Pollard worked for a "rogue organization in the Israeli intelligence community." Oren also said Israel would certainly welcome Pollard's release.
The National Union lawmaker said that the ambassador's statements were serious because they were serious and contradict the position of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and the government. Ariel added that it was more serious that Oren did not admit he was wrong. In 1998, the government issued a statment that "Jonathan Pollard was an Israeli agent handled by high ranking Israeli officials in an authorized Israeli bureau, LAKAM."