A dream that cries out for justice

My Malki, not long before she was taken from me

Last week my Malki appeared to me in a dream - as she has only done some four times in the past 18 years.

She felt so close and alive. I welcomed her warmly but with deep reservations, sensing that for some unarticulated reason her stay would be limited. But it was a joy to have her in our midst again.

I remarked to her that she probably only had a basic cellphone and assured her I'd get her a smartphone. On the day of the terror bombing in which she perished, I frantically called her phone in vain for many long hours. My husband reassured me that cell phone lines were all down as a result of the ataack; no need for concern.

So it's no wonder I commented about her phone in my dream.

My apparition of Malki told me she was about to leave on a school trip for a while but I urged her to give that a miss and stay home with the family instead.

Then I awoke, sad, bereft, disappointed, cheated afresh - a feeling I can't truly convey since only a bereaved parent would comprehend it.

Nonetheless, I would like to transmit this dream somehow to the three congressional delegations that flew to Jordan in the past month to honor and praise its dictator, King Abdullah II. Each of them praised him fulsomely for, among other achievements, his commitment to fighting terrorism.

None of the US legislators hinted at, let alone expressly referred to, his regime's refusal to comply with the US Department of Justice's 2017 demand for the extradition of one of the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Terrorists, Ahlam Tamimi. 

That mass murderer, a Hamas operative who masterminded the 2001 Jerusalem Sbarro bombing, has enjoyed refuge in Amman since 2011.

Among the eight men and women and eight children Tamimi slaughtered were two Americans, one of them our 15 year old Malki.

The US State Department has just stated unequivocally that the extradition treaty signed by the US and Jordan in 1995 is valid ["03-Nov-19: In Washington, a step towards bringing the Sbarro bomber to justice"]

Jordan's King Abdullah II - via his judiciary - has declared that same treaty null and void.

How many more US congressional delegations will fly to Amman to hand this hypocritical "friend" a free pass for his defiance.

And how many more times will the White House fete him as an honored guest and "partner" in its anti terrorism campaign. It has already done so multiple times.

I urge any Congresspeople or White House officials now contemplating a tete a tete with the terror- abetting Jordanian dictator to remember my child, Malki and the fifteen other victims that Tamimi boasts publicly of murdering.

The United States is the single largest donor of assistance to Jordan [Source: "Jordan: Background and U.S. Relations", Updated October 17, 2018 - Congressional Research Service, at page 13]. 

My suggestion - make King Abdullah this reasonable offer.

Extradite Tamimi in return for continued lavish US financial and political support.

That's an entirely justified quid pro quo!