The Jewish press is awash with speculation that Jonathan Pollard, the American who is serving a life sentence for spying for Israel, will be released from prison in November.

Israel has been increasing pressure on the US to free Pollard in recent years , and his detention has become a popular cause among the Israeli public.

Now, the US Department of Justice is “seriously” considering his release, according to a report in the Algemeiner, an American Jewish publication, which quoted a Department source.

A US court found Pollard guilty of passing military secrets to Israel in the 1980s while working as an intelligence analyst for the US Navy. He is incarcerated in a federal jail in North Carolina.

America has been silent on whether Pollard will be freed on his parole date, with believed to be November 21, or whether he will remain behind bars.

The anonymous source quoted in the Algemeiner report stressed that the purported plan to release him was unrelated to the fact that the US has just closed on a deal with Iran that infuriates Israel. But some Israeli experts think that it could actually be a sweetener to help Israel swallow the deal.

Jonathan Rynhold, a Bar Ilan University academic and expert in Israel-US relations, said that Pollard’s freedom is “the kind of thing they [the Americans] throw in” when wanting to calm or reward Israel.

He said: “If the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians had not broken down, one of the things Israel would have to would have been Pollard’s release — it’s definitely seen as a card, so it’s possible it has come up in this context.”