Remembering Malki's Birthday

My daughter Malki was a talented

classical flautist. This photo is from 2000.

I imagine that few shared our reaction to the Hamas invasion of October 7.

While most were shocked and blind-sided by the horrors and cruelty inflicted on Israelis that day, we were somewhat prepared, having been introduced to Hamas barbarism a little over 22 years ago. 

During the years of the Second Intifada, between 2000 and 2005, Hamas along with Fatah and Islamic Jihad waged a campaign of heinous murders against innocents. Some 1,083 civilian Israelis, among them 124 children, perished.

True, the attacks were often several days apart and the numbers of Hamas invaders never neared the thousands who attacked us at once on last month's Black Shabbat.

But the planning, cunning and bloodthirst were identical.

Our precious Malki, who would have celebrated her 38th birthday today, perished in the Sbarro bombing of August 9, 2001.

Hamas' first female operative, Ahlam Tamimi, orchestrated that attack meticulously. She later boasted of her several preparatory visits to Jerusalem's city center to scout for a suitable target. 

She found that on summer afternoons, the Sbarro pizzeria at the major intersection of Jaffa and King George Streets met those criteria. She chose it as her target because it was frequented by "religious Jews," she told an interviewer from the Center for Near East Policy Research.

Hamas provided her with a "weapon" - another Hamas operative, ‘Izz Al-Din Al-Masri, carrying a guitar case containing a 10 kg. bomb riddled with nails and screws to intensify the injuries.

She escorted him through Jerusalem's streets to that intersection where she parted from him. Her last instructions to Al-Masri were to wait 15 minutes before detonating to allow her ample time to make a safe getaway.

And so, our precious angel - a generous, artistic, musically gifted girl - left this world along with six other children and nine adults.

 
Tamimi boasts of her "success" to this day from her refuge in Amman, Jordan. She has been protected there by King Abdullah II since her release in the now infamous Shalit Deal - the same one that freed Hamas' current chief Yahya Sinwar. 

She says she has never regretted what she did and that if given another chance she would do the same again ["Tamimi: I have never regretted what I have done", Ammon News (Jordan) October 23, 2011]

Malki was a U.S. citizen, as were two other Sbarro victims. Hence Tamimi was indicted under seal by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2013 (and unsealed in 2017). Her extradition has been demanded under a valid 1995 treaty of extradition between Jordan and the United States signed, ratified and lauded by Abdullah's father King Hussein.

 
Abdullah has thumbed his nose at the U.S. demand for extradition. Despite our tireless efforts, no one with power or influence is at all interested in tackling this travesty of justice. In 2022, President Biden reaffirmed the United States’ unwavering support to Jordan as a key ally and a force for peace in the region. In fact Abdullah is still referred to by the U.S. as its partner in the fight against terrorism.

Today, as is our custom, my husband and I intend to visit Malki's grave. With a son-in-law now fighting in Gaza against the very same Hamas that murdered the sister-in-law he never met, our world looks bleak indeed.

CNN, Hamas and the Queen of Jordan

Screen Capture via YouTube

Queen Rania - wife of Jordan's dictator - has become quite a fixture on CNN. Her apologetics for Hamas, while infuriating, ought to be heard by all.

It is important to realize that CNN is directly enabling Hamas in this war by repeatedly providing this woman with a platform. 

Couched in sacchariny words, a soft voice, a winning smile, Rania's hateful message sounds convincing. And it is clearly one that CNN's veteran presenter Becky Anderson and CNN itself welcome. They referred to it hours later and re-aired her choicest morsels. 

Just dismiss the facts as "insulting", "outrageous" and "audacious" and you're a star at CNN.

Here are just a few verbatim quotes I selected from her Hamas promo: "Hear what Queen Rania of Jordan said about Hamas and the 'root cause' of the conflict" [CNN, November 5, 2023]:

• "For the Israelis to claim that they are trying to protect citizens, citizens is, you know, honestly, it's an insult to one's intelligence. When 1.1 million people are asked to leave their homes or risk death, that is not a protection of civilians."
• "Of course, the use of human shields is criminal, but even if one side uses it, puts a civilian in harm's way, that civilian is still entitled to full protection under international humanitarian law... 
• "I find it really outrageous when Israeli officials audaciously dismiss Palestinian casualties as human shields."
• "If we want to make sure that we never have to be in this situation again, we have to ask ourselves how we got there."

How we got there? Needless to say, the barbaric atrocities of October 7 barely get a mention from Rania. For her, Israel alone is the culprit.

• "You know, I think the world is just screaming when how many more people have to die before our global conscience awakes? Or is it forever dormant when it comes to the Palestinians.."

Actually, the world is now screaming about the Palestinians. It's the Israeli victims who leave it unmoved.

So it should not surprise anyone that the kingdom headed by this royal couple is harboring an active Hamas operative, Ahlam Tamimi, who, in 2001 murdered 16 innocents in a Jerusalem pizzeria. The US Department of Justice unsealed charges against her in March 2017.

Our child, Malki, was one of the eight children among her victims. 

Jordan's refusal to extradite Tamimi under a valid 1995 extradition treaty with the U.S. is a clear indication of where its sympathies lie. Hamas could not ask for a more effective spokesperson than Rania.

Bear in mind that she, alongside her husband, rules a state that is considered a close ally of the U.S. and enjoys its largesse of more than a billion and a half dollars annually from American taxpayers.

Isn't now the time for the U.S. State Department to end this charade of "shared ideals" with Jordan - a blatant Hamas supporter?

Appeasement: Gaza, Jordan and my child's killer

Ahlam Tamimi has been an FBI Most Wanted Terrorist since March 2017

[A version of this post was published by Times of Israel under the title "Jordan, the Hamas terrorist it harbors – and Gaza" on November 2, 2023]

The red flags were everywhere. 

That is irrefutable. Journalists, starting with the intrepid Zvi Yechekieli and Ohad Chamu, now replay the chilling footage of and by Hamas which they disseminated on Israeli news stations prior to October 7. Sometimes many years before.

They are as stunned as we all are that those red flags were ignored.

The recent expose ["How Years of Israeli Failures on Hamas Led to a Devastating Attack", Ronen Bergman, Mark Mazzetti and Maria Abi-Habib, New York Times, October 29, 2023] cites myriad other unheeded alarm bells sounded for years by experts on Hamas.

Instead a policy of appeasement was pursued by our leaders.

Hamas was deemed both a weak movement and the lesser of any other evils liable to fill a void left by its eradication. 

Image Source: AP

So confident were Israel's leaders in our superior capabilities that one year ago we stopped eavesdropping on Hamas' internal phone  conversations. It was assessed to be a waste of time and resources.

Had that eavesdropping continued, October 7 would not have happened.

Even among Israel's masses, warnings about Hamas were sounded.  

My husband and I were among those who took up the cudgel after suffering from Hamas' blood-thirst two decades ago. [See for instance "In Israel, Swap Touches Old Wounds", Ethan Bronner in the New York Times, October 14, 2011] 

In the Sbarro massacre of August 9, 2001, Hamas robbed us of our child, Malki.

Eight children were among the 16 victims. That was, for Jerusalem, the equivalent of New York suffering 170 victims based on today's population figures. 

The Hamas operative who orchestrated that bombing, Ahlam Tamimi, selected her target after carefully scouting the Jerusalem city center. In her testimony to Israeli law enforcement officials, she explained that she chose a business and hour when the site would be laden with religious Jewish women and children. 

We pleaded with then-prime-minister Netanyahu not to release this particularly evil murderer in the Shalit Deal which he ultimately carried out at the urging of his wife, Sara (as he later revealed in a published interview with a German magazine.) 

The 12th anniversary of that infamous "deal" was marked two weeks ago and prompted a scathing piece by Nadav Shragai in the Hebrew daily Yisrael Hayom on October 19, 2023, summarizing its background and its consequences. See אם כל חטאת (ב'): המחיר הבלתי נסבל של עסקת שליט

Tamimi was freed along with 1,026 other terrorists, hundreds of whom were convicted murderers and most of whom were sent to the West Bank. Tamimi herself went to Jordan, where she was born, raised and educated. Most of her immediate family is from there.

Many of those let loose in the Shalit Deal are today central figures in Hamas' elite, with one, Yahya Sinwar at its helm. Another releasee, Ali Karachi, oversaw the October 7 horrors. Overall, more than half of those freed in the Shalit Deal returned to terrorism shortly afterwards.

Source: Yisrael Hayom

As Shragai details, caving in to the Israeli consensus and ignoring the warnings of experts was a catastrophic move by Netanyahu and his cabinet. (Out of 29, only 3 dissented.) 

It lay the groundwork for numerous subsequent Hamas terror attacks including the October 7 massacres and kidnappings.

Because our Malki, along with another Sbarro victim, was a US citizen, charges against Tamimi were unsealed and announced by the Justice Department of the United States in March 2017. (They had been sealed, meaning kept secret, since being signed off by a federal judge in July 2013.) 

A third American victim died years after the bombing, having never regained consciousness, on May 31, 2023.

King Abdullah II's regime has refused to comply with the US demand to extradite her. It has been intransigent in its non compliance despite a treaty signed and ratified by both countries in 1995 and recognized as valid by the US.

We have been beseeching the State Department to pressure Jordan to comply. But to no avail.

Not even American Jewish leaders have raised their voices to urge her extradition, despite our repeated pleas to them.

And we have learned from unnamed sources, that the Israeli government as well, has been opposed to pressuring Jordan to extradite her.

We are baffled.

Today, when Israel is risking the lives of its precious young soldiers to eradicate the existential threat of Hamas, one active operative, Tamimi, is free and safe in the arms of the US "ally", Jordan.

As a brazen vocal inciter to violence against Israel, Tamimi is as dangerous a terrorist as those Israel is fighting in Gaza. Yet she can be easily silenced without any loss of life. A mere unequivocal demand (threat?) to King Abdullah, and the deed is done.

Why, six years after her indictment, must we still wait?

Remembering a special father and his special daughter

Ruti and her father Arik on the right (Image Source)

Stories of heroism by victims of the October 7th invasion by Hamas abound. 

It is essential that we publicize them - intensively. 

Those precious men, women, children and infants have already been deleted from the minds of far too many politicians, journalists and decision makers around the globe.

Earlier this week, former Israeli PM Naftali Bennett was interviewed by a BBC anchorwoman who focused - as most of her colleagues now do - on Gazan casualties. He called her out for omitting any mention of Israel's massacred innocents.

Her icy response: "I began by talking about the hostages".

Bennett responded: "I'm not talking about the hostages. I'm talking about the babies that were murdered."

And so I will also attempt to counter that outrageous trend by sharing the life story of two Israelis, Arik and Ruti Peretz, whose precious lives were cruelly ended by Hamas at the Re'im music festival.

They were unlike most of the other young, vibrant, attractive attendees. 

Arik was a father in his late fifties. 

Ruti, his 17 year old daughter was profoundly disabled. He was an inspirational father for all of us raising adult children with disabilities.

And his daughter Ruth was so similar to my Haya in the extent of her disabilities.

Arik and Ruth's bodies were found and identified twelve days into this war at the site of the festival.

Her half-sister revealed that Ruth suffered from CP, was Ensure-nourished via a G-tube, had a brain shunt and used a motorized wheelchair.

Despite all those impairments, her father would bring her to countless dance festivals both here in Israel and abroad. With rare determination, he would tackle every obstacle posed by her disabilities to enable her to attend and enjoy those events.

 
Avi Nissim, a trance singer who performed at many of those festivals, recalled: "Arik is a hero of Israel, the most wonderful father in the world. He dedicated his life with total devotion for his beloved daughter Ruth. Ruth proved to everyone that life can be celebrated even with severe disabilities. They did not pass up any party." He added: "Ruth would spin around in circles with the wheelchair and be immersed in the music. I would watch her from the sidelines with astonishment and excitement."

The photos below of the pair at those festivals make that abundantly clear.

Share and remember their story of love, sacrifice and devotion snuffed out by vicious blood - thirst and Jew hatred. [Source of images below]

My husband and I have learned how quickly Hamas victims are forgotten by the rest of the world. Our Malki, whom Hamas stole from us in the Sbarro massacre of 2001, has taught us that painful lesson.

יהי זכרם ברוך - may all their memories be a blessing.

BFF of the United States... and a terrorist's haven

Image source: Quds Press

Think of a place where a boastful mass murderer can galvanize a hall full of fans with no fear of interference from officials, law enforcement or political opponents.

Jordan might come to mind. 

That's where Ahlam Tamimi, who orchestrated the 2001 Sbarro terror atrocity in Jerusalem and who has been an FBI Most Wanted ("Conspiring to Use and Using a Weapon of Mass Destruction Against a United States National Outside the United States Resulting in Death and Aiding and Abetting and Causing an Act to be Done") since March 2017, played a key role as celebrity presenter at an Islamic Movement Festival earlier this month.

The festival is part of Jordan's commemoration of Palestine Cultural Week. 

The event took place in Al-Baqaa, Jordan's largest refugee camp, home to some 100,000 people designated by the UN as Palestinian refugees. The details (in Arabic) are here.

In her incitement-laden speech (not the only one she delivered in the same week of events), Jordan's celebrated bomber reportedly praised the unity of "a large number of young people [who] confront the danger facing the Palestinian cause through the Jenin Brigade and other forms of valiant resistance."

It's hard to think of any other treasured US ally that would allow such a thing to happen. But it's long been the case that in Jordan, the perpetrator of one of most horrific terror bombings in Middle East history gets to mount podiums as guest of honor. 

And the fact that this hideous woman managed to murder three American citizens - and calls the murders "a crown on my head" - doesn't change a thing.

Celeste Wallander, US Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, described the special relations this way in a well publicized speech some months ago:

“Jordan has always been, and remains, a strong partner. Jordanian cooperation is not only with our armed forces but also with many countries, regionally and internationally. Jordan is a partner you can rely on, as it thinks in a way that enables it to move forward. We are proud of this partnership.”

* * *

The updated 2023 edition of

the fugitive's Wanted poster 

Within the framework of that partnership-to-be-proud-of, Jordan's favorite daughter, Tamimi, did again what she has relished doing most since 2011: stoked her admirers' venomous hatred for Israel and Jews.

Her extradition to the US to stand trial for the murder of three US citizens, among them my child Malki, has been demanded by Washington's Department of Justice since 2017. This stems from the extradition treaty signed and ratified by both countries in 1995. 

While King Hussein lauded that treaty after signing it, his country now claims it is invalid for entirely technical reasons that Jordan could and can fix, assuming they are real. The United States view is that it has never stopped being valid, effective and binding and there is no invalidity. 

It continues to be listed in the authoritative State Department Treaties in Force document (at page 245).

Jordan relies on the self-made flaw to refuse the US extradition request in the Tamimi case (it has extradited multiple terrorists under the treaty before Tamimi). 

Despite this intransigence, Jordan's government remains buttressed by the US and generously funded with billions of dollars annually.

Demanding the prescution of this mass murderer has proven over the years since 2012 to be a lonely fight. My husband and I have learned that an evil woman, indicted more than a decade ago and termed the most wanted female fugitive in the world, can evade justice with relative ease.

* * *

But what has most galled and confounded us is the failure of the leadership of the American Jewish community.

With very few exceptions, America's Jewish organizations have either shrugged us off or insisted that they are already tirelessly fighting the good fight "for years". In some cases, they argue that the ways they do that cannot be divulged. Not even to us, the parents of one of the victims. Tamimi meanwhile stays free and very active, protected by the safe arms of Jordan.

Were they to actually act and pressure the State Department to pursue Tamimi's extradition as the law dictates, the goal would likely have been achieved by now.

During these gravest days in the Jewish calendar, the Ten Days of Repentance, my husband and I beseech those in power to finally look into their consciences and act.

My smiling Malki's photo stares at me every evening from a bookshelf in our living room, breaking my heart, prodding me to continue this struggle.

I simply cannot ignore her.

Revering a master of delusion

[Source: Jordan Times, September 18, 2017]

This post is triggered by developments announced a few days ago. See "AJC calls on Justice Department to pursue Ahlam Tamimi extradition" [Jewish Insider, July 13, 2023]. The call by one of America's most important Jewish organizations is a significant event.

The Jordanian dictator - otherwise known as King Abdullah II - is a master of delusion.

His victims include the entire spectrum of American influencers: politicians, journalists, Democrats, Republicans, Jews, non-Jews. All revere and praise him as a progressive leader.

But for me it is the leaders of major American Jewish organizations whose reverence is the most repugnant.

It impedes their interest in fighting for justice for the three Jewish Americans murdered in the 2001 Sbarro terror bombing in Jerusalem spearheaded by Hamas operative and Jordanian citizen, Ahlam Tamimi. 

The charges against her were initially signed off in a US Federal court ten years ago this week. But they were kept sealed and secret at that time. 

They became public much later, on March 14, 2017. Here's the official Department of Justice announcement: "Individual Charged in Connection With 2001 Terrorist Attack in Jerusalem That Resulted in Death of Americans"

Among the sixteen victims was my daughter Malki, 15. She was just one of eight Jewish children targeted by Tamimi and her bomb. Though Tamimi, as the AJC's letter last week explains, faces terror charges in Washington, she is kept safe by the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

[Source: Jordan Times, February 3, 2023]

Despite this, key executives of numerous major American Jewish organizations continue to meet formally with Jordan's ruler. 

Two photos - one at the top of this post and another on the right - are among many my husband and I have found online via Arab sources - showing the meetings they frequently attend (annually and sometimes more often than that) at King Abdullah's invitation.

With one or two exceptions, they do so without ever publicly demanding that Tamimi, whom Abdullah harbors, is extradicted to Washington despite her indictment by the United States. The extradition treaty, signed and ratified by Abdullah's father in 1995, and in effect from then onwards, doesn't move him one iota.

Nor does it move any of those influential Jewish leaders.

They are all under the spell of the "king's" stardust.

Shame on them all.

Is Israel's Minister of Welfare both opposed to institutionalization and in favor of it?

Minister of Welfare and Social Affairs Ya'akov Margi

[Photo Credit: Miriam Alster/FLASH90]

Israel currently has a Minister of Welfare and Social Affairs who is impressively skilled at speaking out of both sides of his mouth. 

When Ya'akov Margi addresses people with disabilities and their activist supporters, he is a passionate champion of their rights to equality. He assures them that he and his staff will endeavor to enable all of them to leave institutions for independent living in the very near future.

He did this in March 2023 at a committee hearing into the report of another committee headed by retired judge Shulamit Dotan. The Dotan Committee's recommendations relate to a new law passed by the Knesset in June 2022: the Welfare Services for People with Disabilities Law, discussed here [in Hebrew].

The committee recommended closing all the institutions for people with disabilities within the next five years and replacing them with solutions within the community. 

It is no surprise that the law's passage was hailed by activists as "dramatic" and "historical" and raised high hopes that Israel would at long last follow the rest of the developed world in shutting down its large, locked, isolated institutions that today house some 18,000 of its citizens with disabilities.

Behind those walls, the basic human rights of these citizens are denied on a daily basis, repeatedly resulting in neglect, abuse and occasionally death.

It is obvious that the new law's achievements will largely depend on the stance of the incoming Minister of Welfare. He will determine the details of the many outstanding regulations that must be established.

One crucial subject, a fraught one, will be budget. Cash will need to be re-channelled away from the institutions to individuals with disabilities.

For years it has baffled many of us who abhor institutionalization that Israel, otherwise such a progressive country, remains in relation to this specific issue mired in the Dark Ages.

It has, however, become increasingly clear that much of the foot-dragging is rooted in the huge profits pocketed by the operators of those institutional facilities. All of the government benefits accruing to the residents of their institutions reach the operators. The Ministry does not trouble itself to demand detailed accounts of the distribution of those funds.

The less those operators spend on staff and care of their residents, the more cash they themselves retain. The many cases of abuse and neglect at those institutions leave little room for doubt about the operators' priorities.

Hence it should not come as a surprise to discover that they exert pressure on politicians to evade the new law and the Dotan Committee recommendations. After all, the status quo is working fine for them.

Usually, though, the public can only imagine the exchanges taking place between those operators of institutions and our politicians.

So it was highly unusual - and shocking - to read of the open assurance made by Minister Margi to one of those operators, less than three months after his address at the committee hearing I mentioned above. 

Image source: The ADI website (Click to enlarge)

Some details:

• According to an early-June 2023 public relations handout, Minister Ya'akov Margi, accompanied by other Ministry officials, visited the ADI Negev-Nahalat Eran rehabilitation village. 
• Alongside its integrated nurseries, rehabilitation center and therapy pool stands a closed institution housing some 163 residents, ranging from children to adults.
• At the conclusion of their tour of the premises which included the institution - or, as it's referred to on the ADI site, the "residential homes" - Minister Margi lavished praise on the enterprise. “I am more than happy to be here today. This place has grown immensely and the entire subject of rehabilitation has blossomed."
• He concluded with these words: “We must copy this village model to other parts of Israel.”

None of this has been reported in the mainstream media yet. Only ADI itself and the B'Hadrei Haredim news site, have publicized it.

But what's abundantly clear is that Minister Margi is eager to spread the curse of institutionalization even further throughout Israel than it currently is.

And the hell with that "historic" new law.

A travesty of justice and Netanyahu's role

March 20, 2017

Responding to this past Tuesday's murder of Meir Tamari, a young husband and father of two, in a terror shooting attack ["Victim of West Bank shooting attack named as 32-year-old father of two Meir Tamari"], Prime Minister Netanyahu, quoted on this Israel government site, offered predictable condolences and assurances. 

He concluded with this promise to arrest and punish the perpetrators:

"Our forces are now pursuing the terrorists in order to settle accounts with them - and they will be settled soon. As we have reached every terrorist and settled accounts with them until now - we will do the same this time."

Most Israelis probably accepted that as, at worst, a hackneyed statement. But certainly not an infuriating one.

But when parsed, as it ought to be, it is clear that Netanyahu was circulating a bald-faced lie. His boast "as we have... settled accounts with them until now - we will do the same this time" flies in the face of his past actions.

 
Here is why.

The sad passing on Wednesday of Chana Nachenberg, the 16th victim of the 2001 Sbarro Pizzeria bombing, should remind everyone of that lie. Yet it is my husband and I and only a handful of others who have noted it. 

Our daughter, Malki, 15 years old, was among the original fifteen Sbarro victims. Her absence relentlessly torments us to this day.

The chief orchestrator of that Hamas bombing, Ahlam Tamimi, was freed by Netanyahu in the 2011 Shalit Deal - at the urging of his wife Sara as he himself explained ["PM says wife convinced him to go ahead with Schalit prisoner deal" Israel Hayom] to the German news magazine BILD in 2012. 

It was Sara, says Bibi, who urged him to execute the Shalit deal and release 1,027 convicted and unrepentant terrorists. They included Tamimi whom Netanyahu handed her to Jordan's King Abdullah II under the guise of "exiling" her as he termed it in his address to his constituents. 

In truth, he was returning her to her family and to the home in which she was raised in Jordan's second-largest city, Zarqa. Some exile.

There - and in Amman where she has resided since 2011 - she has enjoyed a high-profile life replete with TV interviews, hosting gigs, award presentations and all the coverage a proud mass-murderer could wish for.

 
A minor kink in her glorious life has been her indictment by the U.S Department of Justice (at first under seal in 2013 and then unsealed in 2017) and the subsequent public American demand for her extradition by her protector, Jordan's Abdullah.

1995

The demand is based on a valid extradition treaty dating to 1995, signed and ratified by the U.S and by King Abdullah's father, King Hussein. The State Department has asserted numerous times [here for instance] that the treaty continues to be in force, valid and binding.

But not to worry, King Abdullah has navigated his way around all that, has ignored the demand, has declared the treaty "not ratified" and has won a cadre of supporters in the U.S. Congress on both sides of the aisle.

Abdullah's Jewish admirers, who are numerous and include influential individuals and large, prominent organizations,  have also assisted his rejection of the demand. Their continued regular, reverential meetings with him and their silence on the subject signal to him that they are fine with his evasion of justice.

 
Who cares whether the mass murderer whom he is shielding slaughtered Jewish children - eight of them?

Finally, King Abdullah's position regarding the extradition demand has been buttressed by none other than Netanyahu. Informed sources have quietly suggested to my husband and me that our prime minister, off the record, has urged Jewish leaders not to touch the Tamimi matter - and not to pressure the king to comply with the U.S. government's demand.

Is this a man determined to settle scores with terrorists? Actions speak louder than empty condolence messages.

Clearly, justice for murderers of Israelis is not on Netanyahu's list of priorities.

Drugs and hope: An update

Haya in the hydro pool last week

I thought a med update for Haya would be appropriate, so here goes.

She has been entirely off Keppra for nearly one week. She had been receiving 1,500 mg of it twice/day for several years. 

Her neurologist's instructions were to reduce her dosage by 250 mg. every 2 weeks. She admitted the move was a shot in the dark - just "something to try". But since it's known that epileptics can become inured to drugs after taking them for long periods, I embraced it. 

One less med sounded appealing.

I adhered to the weaning regimen, more or less, at times extending the two weeks by a few days. But I weaned her off the last 250 mg much more slowly. 

First I removed the nighttime 250 mg. and then two weeks later, removed the morning 250 mg.

Whew. It was a huge relief to see no repercussions. 

The last med we weaned her off successfully was cannabis But about two years before that we made an attempt at removing Vimpat. It triggered status epilepticus and a hospitalization.

So for now, Haya is only two anti-epileptics: Fycompa and Vimpat. Quite an achievement!

The new med

Here she is (above, right) having her first hydro session minus Keppra:

And while I'm aware of that birthday promise I made to opt for realism over optimism, I can't help hoping that deleting Keppra will bring some minor improvement. Not fussy about that - any shred of heightened functioning would do us.

Alongside the Keppra weaning we've introduced the new drug that the neurologist recommended to treat her kidney stones. It's Urocit-K and she gets one pill 3 times/day.

If those stones were painful, and I understand they tend to be, then I hope Haya is enjoying some relief already.

We can only hope and guess.

Where does Speaker McCarthy stand on US justice?

US Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy
with Jordan's King Abdulla II and Crown Prince Hussein [Image Source]

As U.S. Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, addresses Israel's Knesset today, it would be apt to note whom he visited just prior to that event - King Abdullah of Jordan. 

As is obvious from the photo on the right, to call it a warm encounter is an understatement. It is also very disturbing.

Saturday's get-together came on the heels of a recent meeting the two had in Washington D.C. in January. At that tête-à-tête, McCarty lavished this praise on his buddy:

“From my perspective, our relationship, our friendship and your work to bring peace is just integral to where we go in the Middle East.”

Lest anyone imagine McCarthy challenged Abdullah on either occasion regarding any of his positions, the following press release by Jordan's monarchy left no doubt that did not happen:

McCarthy said, "Jordan is the very first country I chose to visit as Speaker. There’s a reason for that. They are a strategic ally in the Middle East and share America’s commitment to peace, prosperity — and most importantly — stability in the region." [Times of Israel, April 30, 2023]

Apparently McCarthy is not at all troubled by Jordan's harboring of a self-confessed Hamas terrorist who also happens to be a fugitive from the U.S. Dept of Justice. She is none other than Ahlam Tamimi, who murdered 15 men, women and children in the Jerusalem Sbarro bombing of 2001 which she orchestrated. Among the innocent victims was my child, Malki.

McCarthy's "love affair" with Abdullah is unfazed by that ruler's refusal to accede to the U.S. demand for her extradition and for justice to be done. It was made in 2017 under the 1995 treaty which Abdullah's father King Hussein enthusiastically signed, ratified and publicized.

Speaker McCarthy, tell us please: How does that reflect that Abdullah "share[s] America's commitment to peace, prosperity - and most importantly -stability in the region."

It is high time McCarthy made his devotion to Abdullah contingent on handing over Tamimi to the U.S. to stand trial for her murder of two U.S. citizens - one of them, Malki.

Because, really, justice absolutely ought to be "integral to where we go in the Middle East".

Love and realism

Today is my daughter Haya's 28th birthday. 

I found this post (above) on my Facebook feed and was struck by the resemblance of this photo to her. 

Oops, it is her. 

I had momentarily forgotten that I submitted her photo to the Families SCN2A Foundation Facebook group some months ago.

While I am aware that there is no improvement down the road for Haya, I wish her, at the very least, a year of stability free of crises and of hospitalizations. 

I'm opting for realism over optimism these days

We love you Haya.

Silver linings and slippery slopes

My murdered daughter Malki and the ruins of the Sbarro

pizzeria minutes after it was bombed by terrorists

Everyone grieves differently; naturally. Not surprisingly, families of the victims of terror are often alienated from each other by their varied ways of grappling with their tragedies.

But one particular approach to loss has become, I hesitate to brand it thus, trendy among the general public.

Increasingly, the media - whether social or mainstream - spotlights the parents of murdered children who emphasize the "silver lining" message. By that I mean the positives that their loss has provided them.

It might be the not-for-profit that they have founded in their child's memory. Or the new outlook on life they've embraced in the wake of their tragedy. Or the overwhelming support and love of their relatives and friends they've received. Or the conviction that the heavenly goodness in their child's murder exists but simply evades our limited comprehension.

Those are topics deemed acceptable and publishable.

But anger, doubt, confusion or the desire for justice and the imprisonment of the murderers are not. They have become taboo emotions nowadays.

This sentiment is reminiscent of the one that reigned in Israel after Holocaust survivors settled here. The society those victims joined clearly signaled to them - and sometimes even told them explicitly - that mentioning their horrific experiences and unfathomable grief was not welcome.

Another spreading trend is to deny terrorist acts the label "terrorism". More and more global news services refer to them as "events in a cycle of violence" or "responses to the occupation" and so on. It is a phenomenon that both enrages the murdered victims' families and encourages fresh terrorism.

Recently, the global news source CNN crossed a red line in its reporting on the April 7, 2023 Jordan Valley shooting attack that resulted in the murder of the Dee family's wife/mother and two daughters. As reported by CAMERA on April 11, 2023, two CNN correspondents described that terror act with language never before used in that context.

Frederik Pleitgen said:

“But earlier in the West Bank, there was a shooting incident where a car received a bullet shot, or gunshots, with the family in it. It was a mother and her two daughters, and the two daughters were killed in that crash.”

CNN's Isa Soares adopted the same wording. 

Both journalists later reported the shooting of a Palestinian youth, aged 16, by Israeli forces during a military operation. The ages of the Dee daughters were never cited by Soares or Pleitgen, although one was 15 years old.

I shudder to imagine how they would have recounted the Sbarro bombing of August, 2001 which took our angel Malki from us forever. Perhaps

"The Sbarro pizzeria in central Jerusalem received a 10 kg explosive from which 15 men, women and children took shrapnel and died."

For some reason, nobody among Israel's journalists or politicians chose to weigh in on CNN's terrorism denial other than Israel National News which merely reprinted CAMERA's report.

This conduct sets a dangerous precedent that cries out for our protests.

Yet Israel's silence shouldn't surprise us. My husband and I have encountered the same indifference in our quest for justice for our Malki.

Her self confessed murderer, Ahlam Tamimi, sentenced in Israel to sixteen life terms, enjoys utter safety and freedom in Jordan. She is protected by its autocrat, King Abdullah II, who has, since 2013 ignored US demands for her extradition under a treaty signed and ratified in 1995 by his father, King Hussein.

The fact that Tamimi has engaged in public incitement to terrorism from widely-viewed TV and social media platforms does not interest Israel. Consecutive governments have nurtured their intimate friendship with Jordan since her release in the Shalit "Deal" of 2011. 

Meanwhile Israeli journalists - even so called "right wing" and religious ones - have ignored our pleas for their coverage of this travesty of justice.

Yom Hazikaron, Israel's Day of Remembrance, is an appropriate time to call attention to the current status of terrorism and its victims. We are on a slippery slope toward rampant terrorism denial. That will increasingly threaten Israel's security.

Israel's leaders, politicians and journalists must take a stand. Call out those - like CNN - who report about the terror attacks as "car crashes". Stop rewarding those - like Jordan - who shield fugitive terrorists and reject treaty-based demands for extradition.

The consequences of continued silence could be grave.

Kidney confusion

I'm sharing a couple of nice, fresh images of my daughter Haya performing two physical feats: assisted walking and floating on her back. 

This clip show Haya during a very recent hydrotherapy session:

And here she's doing her daily assisted walking;

What's confounding us is that the same week they were recorded, we received the results of her first-ever kidney ultrasound. Neither her neurologist or GP has so far responded to our request for feedback. But to our untrained minds the findings look worrying.

While her right kidney is in great shape, her left one sports the following pathologies:

• a 0.6 cm kidney stone
• several parapelvic cysts
• a compressed pelvis (אגן גדוש).

For now, we're distracted by the hectic preparations for Passover. But it would be nice to know whether any of the above requires intervention. 

Unlike our doctors, Google has been accessible and informed us that a stone of that size is deemed "large" and that those cysts, while probably not life-threatening, may or may not require treatment.

Hoping everyone has a פסח שמח! A truly joyous Passover to all who celebrate it.

On family, flutes and fairness

Some of my murdered daughter's flutes

Perhaps it's our grandchildren's recent interest in her musical instruments - recorder, guitar, flute. 

Or perhaps it is this past Shabbat family reunion and the impending Pesach gatherings - all without her.

Whatever it is, Malki's absence from our lives has been particularly oppressive of late.

And recent news from Jordan has intensified that. 

Ahlam Tamimi, the arrogant, unrepentant and boastful murderer of the fifteen Sbarro innocents - including Malki - has just broken her year-long silence.

With Tamimi's husband exiled in 2020 to Qatar by Jordanian King Abdullah, and with the fear of arrest by US authorities preventing her from joining him there, she has decided that silence has failed her.

Last week, in an interview ["My media silence is at an end, she warns", March 16, 2023 hosted by Facebook] with a Hamas-aligned TV station, Al-Quds News Network, she expressed (in Arabic) her displeasure with the king's handling of her situation. 

She says she is through with "keeping silent" and "staying away from the media" as she has been since her husband's deportation. She complains that her "good faith initiative" has not borne fruit. In response to the question of why she doesn't leave for Qatar she says "I am wanted by the Americans in a case filed in Washington courts since 2013".

She wallows in self-pity:

"We [she and husband] have spent many years in prison. It is our natural right to have family reunification by now... Nizar is a Jordanian husband... [he] did not violate any order or any legal and natural mechanism on Jordanian territory. He would always go and renew his residence every six months... Why is he an unwanted person?"

She even appears to single out Arnold and me as one of the 

"families of the two dead Americans [who] work systematically. They are members of the Zionist lobby in America who went to associations and went to AIPAC... They worked intensively and systematically to rearrest me. They formed pressure to periodically send the [U.S.] ambassador."

She concludes with a direct demand of the King: 

"I only need a decision from His Majesty the king to the concerned authorities in order to live a normal life with my husband, especially since when I was released in the "Wafaa al-Ahrar deal" [meaning the Gilad Shalit Deal]. I entered Jordan with the will and consent of my king."

A promo for last week's Quds interview with the fugitive

 

In another interview in the past few days, again with a Hamas-affiliated TV station - Al Aqsa - headquartered in Gaza [and also hosted by Facebook] her grumbling segues to blatant terrorist incitement.

She references the recent wave of attacks against Israelis:

"In light of the recent success of individual Palestinian heroes in carrying out heroic operations against the Zionist entity..." 

and concludes: 

"There should be a volcano and an earthquake in Palestine that is a popular uprising to confront... the enemy face to face. I call on the Palestinian people not only to hold pickets and not only to establish permanent points in order to support prisoners but to confront the enemy. The general Palestinian atmosphere is now calling for confrontation. The emotional and poetic situation now calls for confrontation."

Arnold and I hope that Tamimi's airing of her displeasure with Jordan's ruler along with her outright incitement to violence will lead to the scenario we have awaited for so long: her extradition by Jordan under its signed, ratified treaty with the US.

And my request to readers. Your forwarding of Tamimi's words will deepen the king's embarrassment. It may also prompt the White House to cease pandering to King Abdullah and to seriously pressure him to abide by the treaty his father signed and praised. 

Please help our cause and publicize Tamimi's messages!

On my birthday, thoughts of justice

Tamimi in Jordan last week: proud and remorseless 

March 14th is my birthday. 

Six years ago to the day, Arnold and I were invited to a meeting in Jerusalem with visiting officials from the United States Department of Justice in Washington - the DOJ. 

They informed us that the charges against Ahlam Tamimi, our child's murderer, would be unsealed in a matter of hours. 

We had no idea that she had been indicted by the US and the news reduced me to tears of joy. I felt I'd been handed a birthday present.

With time, I realized my reaction was utterly inappropriate. 

The DOJ's action would bear no fruit. The Jordanian ruler's refusal to extradite Tamimi to face trial in a US court would block the pursuit of justice. The murderer of our fifteen year old Malki, would evade punishment thanks to "the King's" rejection of the extradition treaty his own father signed and ratified.

Instead of justice, we have witnessed the brazen flouting of justice. 

We have watched the powerful, the influential and the self righteous of the world embrace and honor a ruler who persists in protecting a self-confessed mass murderer. 

Somehow, her public boasting and gloating of murdering fifteen innocent men, women and children does not move any of them.

Mysteriously, King Abdullah has won the hearts and minds of them all, be they Democrats, Republicans, Americans, Israelis, Jews or Gentiles.

It has left us suffering a pain that exacerbates the interminable grief of longing for Malki.

We intend to continue our efforts to convince the US government to stand firm. It is high time that the no-strings-attached friendship and financial aid lavished on Jordan be withheld until this king relinquishes Tamimi. 

We need a clear-headed re-assessment of Jordan's relationship with the U.S. The former is dependent on the latter and hence cannot dictate terms.

A reminder: The treaty that Abdullah is trashing is one which the U.S. officially deems valid to this day. It is also one with which Jordan has complied in the past. But that only happened when the victims of the crime were - no surprise - not Jewish.

 
Jewish American victims - which Malki was - also deserve justice.

February was Jewish Disability, Awareness and Inclusion Month

Source: ADI on Facebook

I know, I know. With disabilities in Israel at the forefront of my mind, I shouldn't be noting that February 2023 is Jewish Disability Awareness, Acceptance & Inclusion Month - on its very last day. 

But, at this point, there's no alternative.

If anyone needs a push to fight for equal rights and true inclusion of those with disabilities, ADI , as usual, provided it. Here is a post on its Facebook page dated February 21, 2023:

OPENING HEARTS & MINDS IN THE O.C.! The celebration of #JDAIM (Jewish Disability Awareness, Acceptance and Inclusion Month) continues throughout February, and ADI's North American Director of Development Elie Klein kicked off the third week of his coast-to-coast tour of Jewish National Fund - USA communities with an incredible home hosted reception in Orange County, California. The venue was exquisite, the food was delicious and the company was exceptional, but ADI Negev-Nahalat Eran still stole the show, capturing hearts and imaginations while highlighting the beauty of true disability inclusion. All in attendance were blown away by the sheer size of the rehabilitation village and the scope of its vision, and they expressed a desire to learn more and support its continued growth and development. City after wonderful city, #JDAIM education is opening the door to year-round empowerment! 

ADI assiduously promulgates the notion that its frameworks constitute inclusion for people with disabilities. That alone elicits a flood of support and cash. 

Of course, as its accounts have shown in the past, the herculean portion of its funding still comes from the government of Israel, i.e. taxpayers'  money. 

But the generosity of Americans, like those in photograph featured prominently on their Facebook entry, should not be underestimated. 

Presumably, nobody in this audience asked Elie Klein how the institutionalization of over 220 babies, children and adults in two large, locked buildings could, by any stretch of the imagination, qualify as "inclusion". 

Regardless of the "sheer size" of the "village", or, rather because of its "sheer size", its continued existence in contemporary Israel is outrageous. For a reminder, "How Israel treats its disabled has been concealed for too long". 

Please remember that in case you too are approached by ADI's well-oiled solicitation machine during the upcoming holiday season.

More on marching back to the Middle Ages

Attention all who are concerned to get a better understanding of the Ministry's March Back to the Middle Ages. I described the process a few days ago.

If you would like to learn about the new legislation which the Ministry of Welfare and Social Justice is proposing, head for this event. Adv. Naama Lerner, CEO of  Hatnuah L'Atzmaut - the Movement for Independence will deliver a zoom lecture. entitled Zero Restraints. 

It's scheduled for February 19, 2023 at 20:30 Israel time.

Adv Lerner will be addressing these topics::

1. What is the Israeli reality today in the field of restraint of people with disabilities in frameworks supervised by the Ministry?
2. What is a non-violent and effective alternative coping approach?
3. A brief background to the ongoing struggle these days against the Ministry's memorandum of law intended to legalize and anchor the use of restraints.

Here is the link you need to register.

The lecture will be in Hebrew and will be recorded for posting on the organization's Facebook page.

The Ministry's march back to the Middle Ages

Restraint bed: Illustration from a Disability Rights California guide 

This month, Israel's Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs (משרד הרווחה והביטחון ההחברתי) announced that it will be enacting a law which will regulate the use of "restrictive protective measures" in institutions for people with disabilities.

The mere phrase sounds alarm bells. 

That is, for anyone concerned about the welfare of our most vulnerable citizens and, of course, for those citizens themselves. 

But, somehow, these words are used acceptingly by most everyone else. That would explain why the infliction of such measures - which include restraint chairs, bed restraints and isolation - has thus far been dealt with only in the Ministry's internal procedures. 

The institutions have enjoyed extremely broad discretion in their use. According to the Ministry's recent memorandum, this practice has "increased the potential for harming the rights of people with disabilities and the staff working in the frameworks".

That new memorandum of the law states that a restrictive protective measure will be defined as one that 

"reduces the movement of a person in space, including the movement of his body, with the aim of maintaining the personal safety of the person or others from actual risk."

Beyond this, it does not specify the restrictive measures that will be regulated. Nor the duration and frequency of their use.

Moreover, once it is enacted, the use of such measures against a person will only be permitted after other options to prevent the danger have been examined and ruled out. The prior approval of professionals as will be stipulated in the regulations will also be required. 

And, finally, the use of these measures will be brought to a re-discussion once every period of time to be determined later.

However - and this creates a huge loophole - the amendment continues:

"In exceptional emergency cases that could not be foreseen in advance, it will be possible to take restrictive protective measures that were allowed to be used in the regulations in emergency cases without prior approval from the authorities, provided that their use is reported as soon as possible to the authority authorized to do so to be determined by the minister."

In other words, whenever the institution's employees deem a situation to be an "emergency" they are free to act as they please. Not surprisingly, advocates for the rights of people with disabilities are outraged by the Ministry's decision. 

Bizchut, The Center for the Human Rights of People with Disabilities, had already submitted a petition to the High Court protesting the use of such measures months prior to the memorandum.

The group's attorney, Vered Bar, now said of the impending amendment that it 

"reflects shocking perceptions regarding people with disabilities. We could not imagine a parallel procedure which allows restrictions regarding any other population."

She added that it 

"will allow the Minister to determine the use of restraints as he sees fit. Those staff members who have been exposed just this past year as having perpetrated violence, abuse and neglect will be the very ones to determine whether a person will be locked up or tied to a chair."

Naama Lerner from Hatnuah L'Atzmaut - the Movement for Independence, an organization working to promote "independent life with personal assistance for every person with a disability in Israel", warned that accepting the memorandum of the law would cast a "terrible stain on the State of Israel".

According to her, the "calming measures" that the Ministry will adopt include

"tying people to a heavy metal chair so that they cannot get up from it and move around or locking people in isolation rooms that have nothing but a thin mattress on the floor."

She explained that "These are means of intimidation, humiliation and abuse.". And noted that after receiving a permit, "it is unlikely that the caregiver in the institutions will comply with the usage restrictions that will be established."

This amendment is propelling us back to the middle ages.

But we may succeed in blocking its enactment by inundating the Ministry with our objections. Here is the link for lodging your complaint. The cutoff date is March 5, 2023

The following (translated by me from the Hebrew original) is an excerpt from the response of a person diagnosed with Autism to the proposed amendment: He is non-verbal and communicates only via his keyboard:

"The thin veil of civility that has covered society since dark times is crumbling. We are a society where there are laws against abuse of the helpless, like in advanced societies in the western world. A person is no longer put in a dungeon just because he looks different and behaves differently... And suddenly, someone in the Welfare Ministry woke up, scratched his scalp and enacted a law that means: the celebration is over. Enough, you've had enough. You are the disease, and we have a cure - punishment for "bad behavior"...  Someone in the Welfare office thinks we are very spoiled and need to be restrained. It was important to him to convey to us the message that life is not therapy but survival. A jungle!" [Source: Shavvim]

Let's not abandon him and others sharing his plight.