The king's quandary

The news on BBC Arabic devoted more than six minutes
on its October 8, 2020 bulletin to an extraordinarily sympathetic
re-telling of Tamimi's encounter with a Jordanian radio talk-show

The mystery surrounding the deportation of Ahlam Tamimi's husband, Nizar Tamimi, by the Jordanian authorities, remains unsolved.

It was a puzzling move which only made some sense as a tactic to lure Ahlam Tamimi out of Jordan.

She seems to have quickly morphed into a political hot potato in light of the US's intensified pressure on Jordan to extradite her. 

The speculation in the Arabic media has been that newly-appointed US Ambassador to Jordan Henry Wooster was flexing some muscle and threatening heavy monetary sanctions on Jordan for defying the demand of the US Department of Justice for Tamimi's extradition.

Hence, apparently, Nizar's deportation on October 1, 2020 to Qatar.

But since then Jordan's regime appears to have been paralyzed. Last week, a very public display of disdain for Tamimi on the Jordanian talk-radio program "We and You" galvanized public support for her "plight" on social media ["Report: Jordan deported Sbarro terrorist mastermind's husband to force her out", i24News.tv, October 2, 2020]

The host of that popular call-in radio program, who was video-taped mid-conversation signaling for caller Ahlam Tamimi to be disconnected, cited technical difficulties as the cause for the move. But he has now resigned and his show has been suspended indicating that was a fabrication.

Tamimi's fans who adore her for murdering fifteen innocent Jewish men, women and children (8 children!) are irate. The hashtags #WeAreAhlamTamimi and #AhlamTamimiYourVoiceIsHigh were near the top of Jordan's social-media trending lists.

 
Even BBC Arabic invited this monster to be interviewed - minus the "technical difficulties". 

Not once since the Sbarro massacre has the BBC deigned to cover the story. Only now, when Tamimi is pleading for pity, did it do so. And without the slightest reference to the massacre and its victims.

King Abdullah II is clearly caught between a rock and a hard place. Who can he afford to confront: his bloodthirsty constituents or his benefactor, the US?

While he mulls that choice, we sit with bated breath, hoping these latest developments will bring us the justice for which we have long pined.