Early this morning, a long and strange saga came closer to its end — but that may come as long as five years from now. Convicted spy Jonathan Pollard walked out of prison, to the distant cheers of the Israeli government. There won’t be many cheers from the US intelligence community:

Convicted spy Jonathan Pollard has been released from prison, a U.S. government agency and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday, culminating an extraordinary espionage case that occasionally complicated American-Israeli relations over nearly 30 years.

“The people of Israel welcome the release of Jonathan A. Pollard,” Netanyahu said in a statement. “As someone who raised Jonathan’s case for years with successive American presidents, I had long hoped this day would come,” he said.

Attorneys for Pollard did not immediately respond to messages seeking confirmation of the 61-year-old’s newfound freedom but Bureau of Prisons spokesman Ed Ross told CBS News: “As of this morning, Jonathan Pollard is no longer in BOP custody.”

Pollard will remain in the U.S. for five years, CBS News’ Paula Reid reports. His lawyers have asked the government to lift restrictions but they have not waived the requirement.

Does anyone think that Pollard will be forced to wait five years to go to Israel? It seems needless at this point, and it might suit the US government to let him out after a few months just to get rid of him. On the other hand, one big reason for Pollard’s lengthy stay at Club Fed is Pollard himself and his tendency to alienate allies and make his situation worse. If he comes out of prison shooting off his mouth, there will be plenty of incentive for the government to make sure he stays put in New York for every day of that five years before traveling to a hero’s welcome in Tel Aviv.

In fact, it’s questionable whether that hero’s welcome will fully materialize. Now that he’s out of prison, it’s more likely that Pollard will retreat into oblivion, a relic of an era with very little connection to the present. It was his imprisonment that was a cause célèbre, and now that it’s over, so too may be Pollard’s status — in Israel and in the US.  

Update: Looks like the feds want to keep a close eye on Pollard, or at least make sure he knows he’s being watched:

In new court filing, Jonathan Pollard lawyers say "onerous & oppressive" parole conditions including GPS monitoring & computer inspection.

— Carrie Johnson (@johnson_carrie) November 20, 2015