Today, Pollard reversed again, announcing that he has joined a political party and will be running for Knesset.

I guess the death threats stopped after he cancelled his initial bid. I wonder if they will start up again now that he is back to running...

Surprisingly, to me, the party Pollard is joining for his Knesset bid is the new party recently formed by Sharren Haskel. Haskel was a member of Gideon Saar's party. Saar went back to the Likud with a gauranteed slot for himself. Zeev Elkin ran in the Likud primaries and acheived what is considered  an unrealistic slot (though rumors are swirlign he might get a designated slot from Benjamin Netanyahu as a counterbalance to Avigor Lieberman for the Russian and Olim vote. Haskel was the third main personality of that party and she left the Likud and formed her own new party (Yisrael Techilla - Israel First). I happen to like Sharren Haskel and find her to be a responsible, well intentioned, good positioned, even measured, politician. 

So what is surprising to me about Pollard joining Haskel's new party is that I am surprised he considers her extreme enough for his positions. And I ams urprised she does not consider him too extreme for her party. If you heard any of his interviews in recent years you would likely consider him more extreme right than Itamar Ben Gvir, at least that's what it seems to me. He did say that he joined her party because of her loyalty to him throughout his years in American prison and that she is a responsible politician...

From Haskel's perspective she says this gives her a big boost and I am sure she appreciates the name recognition he brings to the party, and perhaps some hero celebrity power to some. Still, it does not seem like a good fit to me.

Good luck to them. I don't care much for Pollard but if he is her ticket to getting back into the Knesset, it will have been a good move.

Will I vote for this party? I consider myself undecided still and am waiting to see how thigns play out closer to the elections with several parties under consideration. Haskel's party was oen fo the parties I was considering. This partnership pushes it down the list a bit for me at this time, but we'll see what happens.