The White House was unaware that the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, held a meeting with Jonathan Pollard, a former American Navy analyst who was jailed for 30 years for spying for Israel, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday. Mr Huckabee hosted Pollard at the US embassy in Jerusalem in July, The New York Times reported. The meeting was kept off the ambassador’s official schedule and surprised American officials, the report added. Ms Leavitt said that, while US President Donald Trump’s administration was unaware of the encounter, the President “stands by our ambassador … and all that he is doing for the United States and Israel”.
