A heckler who interrupted President Obama’s address in Jerusalem Thursday was shouting about Jonathan Pollard, a spy for Israel who has been in prison in the United States since the 1980s, according to a White House pool report.
“This is part of the lively debate that we talked about,” Obama said after pausing for the interruption. The crowd seemed to boo the heckler then began applauding. Eventually most in the audience rose to their feet, giving the president a standing ovation. The friendly response seemed to be unanimous or nearly so.
That warm response seemed to prompted POTUS to laugh a bit and say: “I have to say we actually arranged for that because it made me feel at home. I wouldn’t feel comfortable if I didn’t have at least one heckler.”