Jonathan Pollard.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Monday with Esther Pollard, wife of Jonathan Pollard, who has been languishing in an American prison since 1987 after being convicted of espionage.

At the start of the meeting, Prime Minister Netanyahu said, “The time has long since come for Jonathan to go free. This issue will come up during President Obama’s visit. It has already been raised countless times by myself and others, and the time has come for him to go free.”

Last week the city of Jerusalem decided to give Pollard the Jerusalem Freedom Award. In a phone conversation with his wife Esther he voiced his appreciation, saying, “Esther, you don’t know how happy this makes me. I haven’t been forgotten. They want me.”

Former US Assistant Secretary of Defense Lawrence Korb and Effie Lahav, head of the Committee to Free Jonathan Pollard, also attended the Monday meeting with Pollard.

Esther Pollard told the trio of Pollard’s imprisonment: “Jonathan can’t anymore. This is a golden opportunity now that the President of the United States is coming. If not now, when?”