Nothing, not even justice, trumps politics

Israel's Defense Minister Gantz meets in Amman with Jordan's king 

on Jan. 5, 2022 [Image Source: The Royal Hashemite Court, Jordan]

An Israeli military court this week handed down two life sentences to a Palestinian Arab with US citizenship who carried out a drive-by shooting attack at Tapuah Junction on May 2, 2021.

Firing on three students standing at a bus stop, he killed 19-year-old Yehuda Guetta and injured two others. 

He was convicted by the Ofer Military Court last August on charges of intentional manslaughter, several counts of attempted intentional manslaughter, and possession of a weapon and obstruction of justice ["Palestinian-American gets two life sentences for deadly West Bank terror attack", Times of Israel, January 5, 2022]. 

The court called the gunman's actions premeditated, “cruel and coldblooded”, found that he had been training for it for at least a month and that it stemmed from a “burning hatred and a desire to murder Jews”. 

The panel of judges ruled that he serve one life sentence for the killing Guetta, and another for the attempted murder of the companions standing with him at the bus stop and injured in the attack.

But hold off rejoicing over justice achieved. Just remember what our government has done to other murderers serving multiple life sentences. 

Take for instance Ahlam Tamimi whose victims were 15 innocent Jewish men, women and children, most of them Israeli and including my 15 year old daughter Malki. 

Tamimi, who admitted to all the charges stemming from the massacre at Jerusalem's Sbarro pizzeria on August 9, 2001, was freed in the Shalit Deal of 2011. Since then she has lived the charmed life of a self-confessed, proud mass-murderer and media celebrity. She has travelled the Arab world inciting her fans to terrorism.

Tamimi speaks via video link to an Islamist symposium

for girls in Turkey, October 2021

Tamimi had also been sentenced in the very same military court - Ofer - to multiple life terms: sixteen of them, no less! In dramatic language, the panel of judges added their advice to the government of Israel that Tamimi never be freed in any future deal. 

That sentence and the judicial recommendation - along with the desperate pleas of my husband and me not to include our child's murderer in the swap - were disregarded by Israel's prime minister at the time, Binyamin Netanyahu.  

To add insult to injury, the absolute ruler who is protecting Tamimi from extradition to the US - Jordan's King Abdullah II - has now made it onto Israel's list of best buddies. Tamimi faces federal terrorism charges in Washington under US law ["Why is Ahlam Tamimi still free, 19 years after the Sbarro bombing?", Jerusalem Post, Aug. 12, 2020]. 

On Wednesday of this week, our Minister of Defense, Benny Gantz, met with him for  

a rare public sit-down with the monarch, discussing shared security and diplomatic concerns, Gantz’s office said. This was the second meeting between Abdullah and Gantz in the past year, with the first happening secretly last February... [Times of Israel, January 5, 2022]

Terror charges against Tamimi were unsealed

in Washington on March 14, 2017 [Source: DOJ/FBI]

Secretly, of course, at the king's insistence because so many of his constituents hate Israel so much that news of these meetings would rile them. As an Israeli news report put it,

The secrecy around these meetings typically comes at the request of the Jordanian government, with much of the population opposing the country maintaining close ties with Israel.

We can be certain that the defense minister did not mention the king's unwavering refusal to comply with the US Department of Justice's demand for Tamimi's extradition. And that Jordan's refusal contravenes a valid extradition treaty the US and the Hashemite Kingdom signed and ratified in 1995.

In fact, according to unnamed sources, Israel has urged American-Jewish leaders to refrain from pressuring either side to bring Tamimi to justice in the US. 

Instead, we were subjected today to the praise our defense minister reportedly lavished on Jordan's dictator: 

Gantz highlighted “the strategic importance of strong and enduring relations between Israel and Jordan, which contribute to the security and prosperity of both nations” according to a statement released by his office.

And to hell with justice for murderers of Jewish children.