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?

Forgetting justice: On Jordan and my child's killer

September 15, 2021 in a NYC hotel: Jordan's king hosts some of America's

most prominent Jewish leaders in an off-the-record gathering - again [Image Source]

It is hard to select only one major recent headline that dovetailed with our ongoing pursuit of justice for our child, Malki. 

Specifically, we seek the extradition from Jordan of the confessed female bomber charged by the US Department of Justice as the terrorist behind the massacre. 

There have been just so many. While I was consumed with recent holiday cooking, doting on grandchildren and coping with the challenges of my daughter Haya, those incredible news breaks just piled up.

First came the annual "King-Worship Gala". This is when the presidents of major US Jewish organizations are invited to an event centering on a speech by King Abdullah II of Jordan in a New York City hotel banquet room. And which they never fail to attend. As is traditional in these encounters, the sycophantic participants were instructed by the host and the officials who run his Washington embassy to hold secret every word uttered at the event. And to keep the event itself confidential.

They dictate that the meeting is "off the record" but that's a royal euphemism. This year's gathering, held as usual during September in the week of the annual United Nations General Assembly opening, was promptly reported via a Royal Jordanian media release.

And reported in a very specific way. The Jordanian media promptly publicized his version of the conversations illustrated with photos of those leaders assiduously scribbling notes of his precious words.

The Jewish attendees, as always, were obedient guests, divulging (as my husband and know from experience) nothing. Not even a public acknowledgement of having been there. A sorry bunch of self deluding king worshippers they are.

Second, there was the extradition to the US of a terrorist from Syria - a Saudi-born Canadian citizen, Mohammed Khalifa. Now in FBI custody, he is charged with supplying material terrorism support via his English voice-overs of ISIS films and of being a combatant.

Meanwhile Ahlam Tamimi, self-confessed brutal mass-murderer of patrons in a bustling eatery - some of them Americans including our Malki - enjoys a life of celebrity and freedom. 

Tamimi's crimes undoubtedly eclipse those of Khalifa. She orchestrated the horrific terror bombing of Jerusalem's Sbarro pizzeria in 2001 by scouting for and then selecting that family-friendly site, transporting the 10 kg bomb, escorting her accomplice across the city to the entrance of the restaurant and instructing him on how and when to detonate the nail-enhanced device. Khalifa, on the other hand, worked for the media unit that publicized and exploited the killings of hostages.

When will the relevant authorities see to it that our child's murderer follow the same route as Mohammed Khalifa and stand trial as well?

The US State Department has acknowledged - but barely and very quietly - Jordan's refusal to extradite Tamimi in breach of a 1995 treaty that State itself says is valid. Senior officials assured us this past week - and as emphatically as always - that the unresolved extradition of Tamimi from her homeland, Jordan, remains as it has been for years a top priority.

When a matter enjoys that status for a decade with no progress whatever, it is clear either that the claim is bunk or that the "top priority" label just won't cut it.

Yesterday, in the week of the tenth anniversary of her release from Israeli prison in the lopsided Shalit Deal, an Arabic-language Facebook article showed a woman who looks somewhat like Tamimi being a guest of honor at a Jordanian girls school. The text that accompanies it mentions both Tamimi explicitly and the Shalit Deal in an adulatory way.  [I am checking whether it was Tamimi herself who appeared and spoke and will update here when I have a clearer picture.]

Last, but not at all least, was the gift that keeps giving: the headline that remains on center stage even a fortnight after the story broke. The Pandora Papers look primed to harm numerous leaders and celebrities but every article covering them highlights King Abdullah's shenanigans. 

"Jordan’s King Among Leaders Accused of Amassing Secret Property Empire" began the New York Times Pandora piece of October 3, 2021, before launching an account of luxury homes in Malibu, London and Washington.

It was inexpressibly satisfying to read that the darling of the American right and left, of Democrats and Republicans, of conservatives and progressives, of American and Israeli politicians, of liberal and religious Jews was, in fact, just another thief, albeit with a British accent.

 
The question now dogging Arnold and me is this: Will the dictator's embezzlement of his poor constituents' cash tarnish his stellar image? To put numbers on that, within 3 months of the pandemic's outbreak, the poverty rate in Jordan leapt from 15% to 26%. Unemployment rose five points, reaching 24.7% by the end of 2020.

Will the exposé reduce the billions in financial aid his kingdom pockets every year from the United States. Tiny Jordan has for years been one of the world's largest recipients of such funds. It's currently ranked number two.

From Haaretz, October 19, 2011

I find myself hoping at this point that some, at least, of the above penetrates the hearts and minds of the powers that be (they know who they are) who refuse to help us win justice for Malki and in many cases actively block the process. 

As we near the anniversary of her murderer's release, let's remember what a fiasco the Shalit Deal was. For my views at the time, not so different today, see "Shalit Prisoner Swap Marks 'Colossal Failure' for Mother of Israeli Bombing Victim" in Haaretz, October 2011 .

One of the deal's outspoken proponents, Nehemia Shtrassler, who writes on economics at Haaretz, was forced to dredge up ridiculous defenses this past weekend ["Opinion | Israel Must Do Everything to Bring Soldiers Home"]. One is that past leaders who refused to release terrorists with blood on their hands had blood on their own hands - since they had waged wars! And another: that releasing dangerous terrorists isn't all that bad because there's an unlimited supply of them out there. So imprisoning the captured ones won't prevent terror attacks in any case! 

Of course applying that "logic" to its conclusion would mean emptying all our prisons. And just forgetting justice.

How do I love thee?

Jordan, this past Sunday: American officials transfer $745M
to the kingdom

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways:

1. Adulation: As in the Washington Institute's Scholar-Statesman's Award bestowed on Jordan's King Abdullah II in November 2019 [link]
2. Friendship: As in (by my count) 35 meetings since March 2017 with various U.S. dignitaries - in the White House, Capitol Hill and in the King's Jordanian Palace.
3. Preferential treatment: As in ignoring the King's intransigent refusal to extradite mass murderer Ahlam Tamimi despite a valid extradition treaty with the U.S., despite the 2013 US indictment against her, despite the US Department of Justice demanding her extradition
4. Cash Handouts: As in Sunday's $745 million transfer to the kingdom by the United States.

And thus the incomprehensible love-fest between US power brokers and Jordan's king/dictator Abdullah II endures.

Mad about His Majesty

Jordan's king and Washington Institute's Satloff [Source]

[A version of this article appeared in Times of Israel on December 12, 2019]

Along with the other concerned and curious around the world, I've been tuning in frequently to the impeachment hearings.

Many speakers have mentioned rule-by-monarchy as the bogey man looming large. "The United States Constitution is anti-monarchical" is an oft-repeated mantra.

So it was with shock and alarm that I listened to last week's conversation between the Jordanian dictator King Abdullah II and the Washington Institute for Near East Policy's executive director Dr. Robert Satloff, an expert on Arab and Islamic politics as well as on Jordan and on U.S. Middle East policy.

The exchange was video-recorded [here] before an audience, immediately after that esteemed think tank awarded Abdullah its highest honor, the 2019 Scholar-Statesman Award.

Dr. Satloff's admiration for his Jordanian friend was evident throughout. He dubbed it "our very special conversation", never addressing the King without appending "Your Majesty".

He sought advice from him on the most pressing issues challenging world leaders, including ISIS:

"How would you describe the challenge of radicalism and extremism in this era today to Jordan specifically and more generally?"

But what truly blew me away was when Dr. Satloff focused on the Arab Spring and on the current protests gripping the Arab World. First, he invited Abdullah's take on the phenomenon. Abdullah suggested two possible explanations:

"The leaders don't understand, or regional politics is being played by Arab and non-Arab actors."

Satloff responded to that with this shocker:

"One thing you can say looking at both waves. The monarchies seem to have avoided this. Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Morocco. What's the secret recipe?"

The King:

"I think you should answer that." [Laughter]

Abdullah then proceeds:

"Monarchies in the way I was brought up by his late Majesty [King Hussein] and he was brought up by his father and his father is: We're there for all of society. You know, we are fortunately or unfortunately, in many parts of the third world, tribally-based. When you have a small monarchy like we have in Jordan and like you have in Morocco, we're the balance therefore for everyone in society, whether you're Muslim or Christian or Jewish. Whether you're tribal or you're a farmer. We are the ones that make sure that everybody is protected and everybody is supported. And I think that's what's helped the monarchies be stable, doing a very difficult task for our region."

Satloff accepts that and proceeds to plug the King's recently published book.

Tamimi expresses appreciation to Jordan's king, March 2017

Now add to this the fact that the royal object of Dr. Sattloff's fulsome fawning has been defying a U.S. demand for extradition of one its most wanted terrorists for the past six years, Ahlam Tamimi. 

And the fact that there is a signed, sealed and perfectly valid extradition treaty between Jordan and the U.S. (though Jordan now says it’s invalid) - and the above exchange becomes positively mind-boggling.

Yes, the very man whom Dr. Sattloff adores is shielding a confessed mass murderer from facing trial in a U.S. Federal court. Three of her sixteen victims were U.S. citizens. One was my precious child, Malki.

In a widely-viewed video clip, Tamimi smiles on being told that the bomb she set had killed more children – eight – than she had presumed. This is the evil that King Abdullah II of Jordan enables to evade justice.

What gives with all this king worship?

New York City, November 21, 2019: The Washington Institute disturbingly
bestows an award on Jordan's king [Image Source: The king's own website]

Here I was, convinced that one of the basic tenets of American democracy is the rejection of monarchic rule. But it seems I erred.

These days, the Jordanian ruler, King Abdullah II, enjoys the fulsome adulation and praise one would expect for a selfless hero who has rescued a dozen children from a blazing building. 

He is feted repeatedly at the White House. Bi-partisan delegations from the US Congress fly to his Amman palace to honor him. Leaders of major Jewish organizations attend his conferences and breakfasts. Numerous international media outlets extol his virtue and wisdom. 

And last week, the esteemed US think tank the Washington Institute for Near Policy handed him its Scholar Statesman Award.

All of this, in itself, is puzzling. 

But what makes it infuriating is that the recipient of that adulation is a dictator - yes, that's what an unelected ruler is, king or not - who has defied the U.S. Department of Justice. 

He refuses to extradite one of the FBI's Most Wanted terrorists. 

He denies the validity of a treaty of extradition signed and ratified by his father, King Hussein, with the US - a treaty which the US State Department says unequivocally is in force.

Add to that mix the fact that the terrorist whom Abdullah is embracing is the mass murderer and Hamas operative, Ahlam Tamimi, who has boasted numerous times of her evil "achievement" to her admirers on TV broadcasts. 

The terror bombing she orchestrated slaughtered sixteen innocents, including eight  children. One of those, my precious Malki, was 15 years old when this monster took her from us. Malki was a citizen of the United States.

What we have here is a travesty of justice of the first order. 

Nevertheless, last week three of Israel's major news services - Haaretz, Times of Israel and Jerusalem Post - chose to report that award bestowed with great pomp and ceremony by the Washington Institute with not even a whisper about Abdullah's inexcusable conduct.

Instead, all three of them mindlessly followed the lead of all the other King Abdullah worshippers. The Times of Israel did so despite having published our op-ed just one day earlier [see "A tribute unfit for a king who harbors our child’s killer"] .

My husband and I, for whom Malki's murder remains the source of deep pain, are utterly baffled by this sweeping acceptance of King Abdullah's terror-abetting conduct.

But we will never cease our struggle to arouse national leaders and news industry magnates. After all, like every other murder victim, Malki deserves justice.

Has The Washington Institute lost its moral compass?

Source: Washington Institute website

It was difficult not to choke upon reading the announcement of this year's Washington Institute honoree ["17-Nov-19: Jordan's king to be honored for profound commitment to peace and moderation"]

Joining a list of truly distinguished and deserving past recipients of its Statesman-Scholar Award is a dictator and terror-abettor. A man who has given refuge to Ahlam Tamimi, confessed murderer of my precious daughter Malki, and of seven other children and eight adults.

The members of the esteemed Institute have selected as its 2019 recipient a man who has steadfastly refused to extradite Tamimi to stand trial in the US. Two of her victims, including Malki, were Americans. 

In doing so, King Abdullah is defying a 2013 indictment and demand for extradition by the US Department of Justice ["13-Nov-19: Thank you, Mr Foreign Minister"].

As the US State Department reiterated incontrovertably earlier this month in an annual report ["03-Nov-19: In Washington, a step towards bringing the Sbarro bomber to justice"], the US recognizes as valid and binding the extradititon treaty signed and ratified with Jordan in 1995. 

Jordan has in the past extradited several of its citizens to the US in accordance with that treaty. 

But now, Jordan - which as we know is an absolute monarchy - has declared that treaty void ["23-Mar-17: Looking for justice in Jordan, Jerusalem and Washington"]. That's a convenient excuse for protecting this evil woman who has boasted of her "achievement" repeatedly on TV. 

But we are not obliged to buy that excuse. In fact, as moral, rational humans, we are obliged to fight it because it is nothing short of a brazen travesty of justice.

Yet instead the moral, rational humans at the Washington Institute are rewarding that travesty and lauding the king for his "profound commitment to peace and moderation" and for opposing his region's "violence and extremism".

On the right, Malki at the center of my family at a celebration
just weeks before her life was stolen from us by the woman in the
State Department reward poster on the left

I would presume that masterminding a terror bombing in Jerusalem's Sbarro pizzeria when it is filled with mothers and children on a summer's afternoon qualifies as "extremism". And I also presume that refusing to allow the trial of that mastermind would not qualify as a "profound commitment to peace and moderation."

Which leaves me curious as to what rationalization the esteemed members of this institute can offer me for the infuriating decision to "celebrate as outstanding leader" this opponent of the most basic tenets of justice and morality.

My child was a kind, loving, generous talented girl who volunteered with children with disabilitites, played the classical flute, sang beautifully and was a loving daughter. She deserves for her murderer to be behind bars. Nothing more, nothing less.

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!

Deal with the devil

Image Source: Haaretz October 19, 2011

On the eighth anniversary (today - October 18, 2019) of the infamous Shalit Deal, remember its painful and outrageous repercussions.

That deal between Israel and Hamas freed 1,027 (1) terrorists including hundreds of convicted murderers, some of whom promptly resumed their evil ways and murdered yet more Jews.

Releasee Ahlam Tamimi, murderer of eight children (including our precious daughter, Malki) and seven adults - and currently on the run from the FBI and the US Department of Justice - has been brazenly urging her fans to emulate her.

We can only guess how many more innocent children have lost their lives due to her incitement.

On this sad day, help us convince Congress and American Jewish leaders to pressure Tamimi's protector, Jordan's King Abdullah II, to extradite her. 

Defying the request made public two and a half years ago by the US Department of Justice that he do just that - and despite an extradition treaty from 1995 - he continues to provide this confessed terrorist with a safe haven.

Let's see an end to the warm relations everybody fosters with this terror-abetting king until he seats Tamimi on a US-bound plane to face justice.

A secret scandal

My murdered daughter Malki z"l

About thirty leaders of prominent American Jewish organizations gathered last week ["29-Sep-19: As we prepare for the High Holy Day season"] to honor a world leader they clearly esteem.

They accepted the royal invitation to join the ruler in a swank New York City hotel. The leader undoubtedly valued their acceptance of his invitation because his tightly-controlled news services all accorded the event significant coverage.

Conversely, the Jewish organizations involved made no mention whatsoever of the event.

The leader involved is Jordan's King Abdullah II, the same dictator who refuses to accede to the US demand for extradition of mass murderer, Ahlam Tamimi.

She is the bloodthirsty terrorist who has boasted of killing my child, Malki, along with 7 other children and a total of 15 innocent Jews. 

You may wonder what possessed those Jewish leaders when they chose to participate in King Abdullah's performance; how they could greet him without mentioning the protection and respect he has lavished on Tamimi for the past eight years.

From an Arab source, the Jews who breakfasted with the king

You may even be outraged, as my husband and I were, when one of those Jewish leaders told us he could not possibly divulge any details about the encounter because it was "off the record".

Obviously his and his colleagues commitments to King Abdullah outweigh any loyalty he owes the Jewish constituents he purports to serve.

On these days of awe when Jews the world over daily recite the prayer "Avinu Malkeinu" ["Our Father, Our King"], it is distressing to learn that the king these Jewish leaders actually revere is none other than the protector of the nefarious Tamimi, Jordan's King Abdullah II.

Will Sec Pompeo secure justice for the three American victims of Tamimi's evil?

My daughter Malki dressed for Purim as a farmer
when she was about ten

Even on Purim, our most joyous holiday, our murdered daughter Malki is in our thoughts and our hearts ache with longing for her.

Perhaps this photo of her dressed up as a farmer girl for Purim when she was about ten, her gentleness and innocence radiating forth, will reach U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who is only several kilometers away from us as I type this in Jerusalem.

While he is not scheduled to meet with Jordan's King Abdullah on this Middle East tour (as far as we know), he has officially done so already several times, most recently just ten days ago in Washington.

But never once has Pompeo raised the fact that the king refuses to extradite Ahlam Tamimi, the FBI Most Wanted Terrorist who has on her hands the blood of fifteen innocent Jews, including Malki.

Never once has he demanded that King Abdullah cease affording refuge (as he has since 2011) and adulation to that self-confessed Hamas mass murderer.

Never once has he publicly mentioned the US Federal criminal indictment of Tamimi and the demand for her extradition by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2017.

And never once has he made continued U.S. support for the King's precarious regime contingent on Jordan's compliance with its signed 1995 extradition treaty with the U.S.

I implore Secretary Pompeo to secure justice for the three American victims of Tamimi's evil. We have waited far too long for that meager comfort.

#JusticeForMalki

[A version of this post appears on the ThisOngoingWar blog which I co-write with my husband.]

Can Florida's DeSantis help bring us justice?

Image Source

Kudos to Governor-elect of Florida, Ron DeSantis.

In his speech last week at the national conference of the Israeli American Council (IAC), he mentioned our murdered daughter, Malki, by name. She was one of fifteen victims of Hamas terrorist AhlamTamimi in the 2001 bombing of Jerusalem's Sbarro pizzeria. 

Thanks to Jordan's King Abdullah, Tamimi enjoys refuge and adulation in Amman in contravention of Jordan's extradition treaty with the U.S.

DeSantis went on to urge the Department of Justice to prosecute Palestinian terrorists who murder American citizens abroad. "I want justice," DeSantis said, noting that the United States extradites terrorists from other countries who murder American citizens.

DeSantis is the first U.S. politician to publicly recall Malki and the travesty of justice we have been battling since the nefarious Shalit Deal of 2011 released mass murderer Tamimi from Israeli prison.

Here's hoping his words will herald a wave of pressure by the U.S. on its so-called "ally" Jordan. 

The Trump administration's effusive embrace of King Abdullah is no less misguided and immoral than its relationship with Saudi prince, Mohammed bin Salman.

Our daughter's murderer - live on Jordanian TV yesterday

Here they are: Nizar and Ahlam Tamimi, seated so properly and civilly in a Jordanian TV studio yesterday, smiling so congenially, hands primly placed in their laps.

Who would guess that this is one of the most evil, bloodthirsty, terrorist couples alive today? 

If we, the parents of one of their many victims, would not remind the world that the path this pair has chosen is that of mass murder, would anybody know that? Would anybody care? 

Thanks to Prime Minister Netanyahu's misguided Shalit Deal, they have been enjoying a life of comfort and happiness under the paternal protection of Jordan's King Abdullah II. 

He is perpetually lauded as a "trusted ally" of the West in their struggle against global terrorism. Somehow his refusal to heed the US's demand for her extradition - since several of her victims were US citizens - hasn't ruffled anybody's feathers. 

But our determination to see her brought to justice is strong.

My birthday wish is justice

March 14 is my birthday. But since last year the day has gained secondary significance in our home.

On March 14, 2017, my husband and I along with the parents of Shoshana Hayman Greenbaum were invited to meet officials of the US Department of Justice and the FBI at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. 

Several of those representatives had periodically spoken to us, ever since PM Netanyahu decided in 2011 to free 1,027 convicted terrorists including our daughter's murderer. We had pleaded with him to exclude from that list Ahlam Tamimi, the chief orchestrator and a perpetrator of the 2001 Sbarro bombing. 

Tamimi had confessed to,  and been convicted of, the murders of 15 people, eight of them children. She had been sentenced to 16 life terms. But Mr. Netanyahu, in a move far more immoral than any of the offenses of which he is now being accused, ignored us. 

On October 18, 2011, at his instruction, Tamimi was released along with 1,026 other terrorists - more than half of whom were convicted of murder or attempted murder - in order to retrieve Gilad Shalit. 

Last year at that meeting in the King David Hotel, we received what I naively believed would be a wonderful birthday gift: the news that Ahlam Tamimi was being indicted by the US for the murders of two Americans in the Sbarro massacre. Those victims were the pregnant 31 year old only child of the Haymans. And our 15 year old child, Malki.

But within minutes, it emerged that the "gift" was a curse, a source of yet more heartache. We learned then that the US had demanded Tamimi's extradition from Jordan to stand trial on US soil only to be met with a flat refusal by King Abdullah's regime for various bogus reasons.

Jordan had signed an extradition treaty with the US in 1995 and subsequently released several Jordanians to US custody in accordance with that same agreement. In the case of Tamimi, a woman of near-iconic stature in that country, Jordan behaves as if none of that ever happened.

Since March 14, 2017, we have discovered another painful reality: the United States appears unwilling to risk jeopardizing its friendship with Jordan's King Abdullah. It has avoided pressuring the king to buttress with actions his incessant chirping about "fighting terrorism". 

From the FBI Most Wanted
Terrorists website

He is lauded by both the US and Israel for being a staunch enemy of terrorists while harboring Tamimi, a mass-murdering Hamas agent. 

Through her Al QudsTV talk show, which she hosted until shortly before her US indictment, she has been brazenly inciting Muslims to the murder of more Jews. In speeches she has delivered throughout the Arab world she has boasted of her "accomplishments" and urged her fans to emulate them.

So as on every birthday since Mr. Netanyahu's infamous Shalit Deal, I pray and wish for the day that my Malki's murder will receive the just end it demands - Ahlam Tamimi behind US prison bars for life.

[A version of this piece was originally published in Times of Israel on March 14, 2018.]

Hate, hypocrisy, heartache: Marking my daughter's birthday

Malki and her friends celebrate a birthday party of one of the group on 
August 8, 2001. It's the last photo we have of her. She was murdered
the following day.

Today would have been our precious angel's 32nd birthday, but for the hate and bloodthirst of mass murderer Ahlam Tamimi.

Instead, our family lives with relentless pain and longing while that monster thrives in King Abdullah's terrorist-haven, Amman, Jordan.

Ironically, on this same day - November 27 - Abdullah begins a round of meetings with leaders and members of U.S. Congressional committees including military service, foreign relations and appropriations along with Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, and Vice President Mike Pence.

There is no excuse for this embrace of a terrorist protector, King Abdullah, who since March 2017 has stubbornly refused to extradite Tamimi, the self-confessed mastermind of the 2001 Sbarro massacre despite the official demands of the U.S. Department of Justice. A treaty of extradition was signed and ratified by both countries in 1995.

A state harboring the murderer of fifteen men, women, children and babies, a woman who is one of America's FBI Most Wanted Terrorists, must be punished by the Trump administration and not honored and rewarded.

Meanwhile the Trump White House is outraged over the release by Pakistan of another terrorist, the cleric Hafiz Saeed, and warned

it could damage US-Pakistan relations... [and that] it sends a deeply troubling message about its commitment to fighting terrorism. [Independent UK, November 25, 2017]

Saeed is 

allegedly the founder of a banned group linked to the 2008 Mumbai, India, attack that killed 168 people. He has been designated a terrorist by the U.S. Justice Department and the U.S. has a $10 million reward for information leading to his arrest and conviction. He was released before dawn on Friday after a three-judge panel in Pakistan ended his detention in the eastern city of Lahore. The move outraged both U.S. and Indian authorities.  ["White House condemns Pakistan’s release of militant suspect", Associated Press, November 25, 2017]

The White House called Pakistan's move a "step in the wrong direction" and warned it would damage bilateral ties and Pakistan's international reputation around the world. Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders emphasized that Saeed's release "belies Pakistani claims that it will not provide sanctuary for for terrorists on its soil". 

Here, on the other hand, is what Trump had to say of Jordan's King Abdullah a few short weeks ago in a meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly:

"It's a great honor to be with the King of Jordan, who has been our partner and ally for a long time. And I think never has the relationship been better than it is right now... I just want to thank you for everything you've done, in terms of the refugees and taking care of people that -- who knows what would have happened without you. So I want to thank you and I want to thank everybody involved with you, and you have done an amazing job. Thank you." [White House Media Release, September 20, 2017]

On Malki's birthday, please help us publicize this blatant hypocrisy, this infuriating double standard.