Forgotten justice

Image Source: Amos Ben Gershom/GPO 

Israel just hosted "heavyweight" Trump administration official Jared Kushner, with PM Netanyahu lavishing fulsome praise on him: 

President Trump's Abraham peace initiative has already created a whole series of breakthroughs. Jared you've successfully reinforced American leadership in the Middle East and in Middle East peacemaking. I think you've greatly enhanced American standing in the region... I thank you Jared and I want to thank all of you for assisting this great effort. We will never forget it. Thank you all. [Link]

At this point I believe we can safely conclude that the "peace initiative", "the whole series of breakthroughs" and the "groundbreaking visit" of which our PM raved will certainly not lead to justice for our murdered child, Malki, during the Trump era.

Justice is not a "breakthrough" on the Trump Middle East team's agenda. And, make no mistake, it was a team comprised of individuals armed with the power, influence and, we would have presumed, the moral compass to propel them easily toward that goal. 

We certainly did our utmost during the past four years to galvanize them in that direction. We pleaded with them - via emails, personal messages, tweets and a front page newspaper ad - to demand that Jordan extradite mass murderer, Ahlam Tamimi.

Jordan has steadfastly refused to comply with the US Department of Justice's demand for her extradition. A determined Hamas operative, she murdered two US citizens in the 2001 Jerusalem Sbarro bombing in which a total of 15 men, women and children perished. She openly boasts of that achievement to this day. 

But neither the existence of a valid extradition treaty signed in 1995 by the US and Jordan, nor the formal US demand for her have moved King Abdullah II.

Trump administration officials could not care less. To wit, this week, David Schenker, the Assistant Secretary for Near East Affairs, U.S. Department of State, marked 20 years since the Free Trade Agreement between Jordan and the US in a commemorative ceremony.

He subsequently gushed this tweet

I have developed a deep appreciation for the friendship between our two countries and Jordan’s role as one of the United States government’s most important partners.” #FTA20Strong

Is this the sort of treatment that the US tolerates from its other "most important partners"? Defiance, rejection of an extradition treaty, the harboring of a murderer who is one of the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists? 

Undoubtedly not.

Jordan has enjoyed undeserved kid-gloves treatment from the US government for long enough. It is high time that justice and enforcement of lawful treaties were given the respect that is due them.