Even Aldrich Ames wasn't treated as bad as Pollard. Why is there such a difference in punishments?

The Ames Case

The following articles deal with the case of Aldrich Ames, a high-ranking CIA employee - the chief of counter intelligence in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union - who spied for the Soviet Union.

Unlike Pollard, Ames was indicted for treason. He was a traitor who gave critical defense secrets to a U.S. enemy. Ames' actions resulted in the deaths of at least 11 U.S. agents.

By contrast, Pollard gave information to an ally, Israel. This information was being secretly embargoed from Israel despite a signed information-sharing agreement between Israel and the US.

Jonathan Pollard was never accused of, or indicted for treason. Neither was he ever indicted for harming the US. Pollard's only indictment was one count of passing classified information to an ally. The median sentence this charge carries is 2 to 4 years. Despite this, without benefit of trial and as the result of a government-violated plea agreement, Jonathan Pollard received the same sentence as Ames - life imprisonment.

In many ways Ames' treatment has been far more benign than Pollard's. For example, Pollard's conditions of incarceration have consistently been far more harsh. Moreover, unlike Ames who was only briefly held in solitary confinement during his intial debriefing, Jonathan Pollard spent 7 of his 14 years in solitary confinement. He was also unjustly held for a year in a mental asylum for the criminally insane. There, he was routinely deprived of his clothing and his eyeglasses in attempts to humilate and "break" him. Doctors attest that he was NOT a patient.

http://www.jonathanpollard.org/ames.htm

The Schwartz Case

The following articles deal with the 1995 case of (American Navy) Lcdr. Michael Schwartz, a non-Jew who spied for Saudi Arabia.

Schwartz was indicted and confessed, and yet never spent a day in prison.

http://www.jonathanpollard.org/schwartz.htm

The Lee Case

The following articles deal with the 1998 case of Peter Lee, a Taiwanese-born American nuclear physicist who gave critical defense secrets to China and was sentenced to only one year in a halfway house. This stands in stark contrast to the life sentence Jonathan Pollard received for the same indictment as Lee - passing classified information to a friendly nation.

http://www.jonathanpollard.org/lee.htm

How can Israel complain about the treatment of Pollard when they have kept Mordechai Vanunu in jail for the last 16 years, much of it in solitary confinement, for the crime of confirming to a British newspaper the existence of an Israeli nuclear weapons program? Surely what is good for the goose is good for the gander?

The cases between Pollard and Lee are completely different. Pollard was tried, and found GUILTY of passing a ton of information over many years.
Lee was being charged in 1997 with passing a limited set of material in 1985. By 1997 the information had already been declassified. Lee made a plea arrangement, and the prosecutors let him. That normally means their case is pretty weak. If they had a strong case they never would have accepted a plea.