Israel promotes military handler of agent who spied on U.S. – Trump granted a full pardon to Sella on the president’s final day in office earlier this year.

JERUSALEM — Israel is granting a promotion to the handler of an agent who spied on the United States, more than 30 years after the episode strained U.S.-Israel ties and less than a year after the handler was pardoned by former President Donald Trump.

Ex-air force officer Aviem Sella, who handled former spy Jonathan Pollard, will be promoted to the rank of brigadier general, the army said in a statement Wednesday. The army chief of staff and Defense Minister Benny Gantz approved the move.

Trump granted a full pardon to Sella on the president’s final day in office earlier this year. Sella was the Israeli military’s U.S.-based handler for Pollard, a former Navy intelligence analyst who sold military secrets to Israel while working at the Pentagon in the 1980s. The Pollard case severely strained relations between Israel and the U.S.