Israel to Obama: Let spy attend dad's funeral

JERUSALEM (AP)  An aide says the Israeli prime minister has asked the Obama administration to let a former U.S. navy intelligence analyst convicted of spying for Israel leave prison to attend his father's funeral.

The White House had spurned Israeli requests to let Jonathan Pollard visit his father before he died Saturday.

Pollard has been in prison in the U.S. since 1985 and was sentenced to life in prison two years later.

The aide to Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday "his people are in contact with people in Washington explore the possibility" of Pollard's attending his father's funeral.

The aide did not say what reply Israel may or may not have received. He spoke on condition of anonymity because the Pollard case is a sensitive matter between the two nations.

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