I agree with you. Pollard suffered a royal bait & switch by Weinberger. Reagan’s administration was full of Israel haters/Pro-Muslims. James Baker comes to mind.
It is really a pity. With Richard Allen and Alexander Haig gone, there were no friendly views toward Israel to steer Pres. Reagan in the proper direction. George Schultz, a Sec. of State and Bechtel owner, was warming up to Israel, but how much influence that relative newcomer to the Reagan Administration had, I am not sure. At least the greatest President of the 20th Century did not personally hate Israel as Jimmy Carter and the Jimmy Carter on steroids, Barack Hussein Obama, do. The Reagan Administration recognized the PLO because George H. W. Bush (Bush 41) asked him to do so.
1. He pleaded guilty to avoid a trial where all of the evidence against him would have been public.
2. This ensured that the most damning evidence came out behind closed doors in the damage assessment Weinberger provided to the judge in the case. This means that the entire debate about Pollard's release over the last 15 ears has been held without any public discussion about this critical information.
3. After all the denials by both Pollard and the Israeli government, they later admit that he was an Israeli agent anyway.
4. Some years after his sentencing, Pollard files an appeal of his original sentencing and tries to get his original guilty plea withdrawn. That appeal was turned down.
5. After that appeal was rejected, Pollard then files another appeal claiming that he was the victim of incompetent counsel. That appeal was turned down, too.
This guy's whole posture from the beginning was aimed at keeping a full, objective assessment of his crimes out of public view. He's been very successful at it, but he's been burned by his own legal strategy because he'll spend 25 years behind bars. This is why what had been a legal issue is being turned into a political one ... because Pollard, his attorneys, and the Israeli government came out on the wrong end of the legal side of it.