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.

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.