Huckabee visit with spy fuels MAGA's Israel divide

"What they're saying: MAGA activists tore into Huckabee, a devout evangelical and Israel supporter, accusing him of putting support for Israel over U.S. national security. "Completely indefensible," posted activist Mike Cernovich. "Pollard has gone on record since his return to Israel, claiming it's a moral duty to spy on the United States." Huckabee "has been totally out of control," Steve Bannon, a former aide to President Trump and host of the "War Room" podcast said on his show Friday. "You can't sit down with traitors," right-wing podcaster and former Navy intelligence officer Jack Posobiec added on his own show."

"Catch up quick: The New York Times first reported Thursday that Huckabee had met with Pollard at the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem in July. Pollard, a former naval intelligence analyst, spent 30 years in prison in the U.S. for giving Israel classified documents. He was released on parole in 2015 and in 2020 moved to Israel, where the right considers him a hero. "It was a friendly meeting," Pollard told the Times of the meeting. Huckabee told Axios that nothing was requested and nothing was granted.It wasn't immediately clear why the meeting was held in the first place."

"In some of MAGA's darker corners, the Huckabee-Pollard meeting sparked conversations about "dual loyalty," the antisemitic trope that American Jews' allegiance is to Israel and that they're inherently disloyal to the U.S. Pollard's comments on the subject have been cited by conspiracy theorists since 2021, when he said that American Jews "consider themselves more American than they do Jews," and claimed "we will always have dual loyalty.""

MAGA activists criticized Mike Huckabee after reports that he met Jonathan Pollard at the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem, accusing Huckabee of putting support for Israel above U.S. national security. Pollard served 30 years in U.S. prison for passing classified naval intelligence to Israel, was paroled in 2015, and relocated to Israel in 2020, where he is celebrated by the right. Some commentators labeled the meeting indefensible and likened Pollard to a traitor. The encounter reignited antisemitic "dual loyalty" rhetoric, citing Pollard's past statements about American Jews and perpetual divided loyalties.

Read at Axios