Last month, as some of you may recall, I wrote a lengthy story about Malki Roth, a 15-year-old Israeli girl who was one of the 14 people killed in the 2001 Sbarro bombing in Jerusalem. The article detailed the years-long effort by her bereaved family to have Ahlam Tamimi extradited from Jordan to stand trial in the United States.
Tamimi, the unrepentant terrorist who orchestrated that monstrous attack in the popular pizza parlor, was freed by Israel in the 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner “exchange.”
Roth held dual Israeli-American citizenship, and the US has been focusing increasing attention on the case — filing charges against Tamimi in 2013; announcing those charges in 2017; urging Jordan to honor its extradition treaty in her case; and, in December 2019, passing legislation enabling the withholding of US foreign aid to Jordan if the kingdom continues to refuse to do so.
Roth held dual Israeli-American citizenship, and the US has been focusing increasing attention on the case — filing charges against Tamimi in 2013; announcing those charges in 2017; urging Jordan to honor its extradition treaty in her case; and, in December 2019, passing legislation enabling the withholding of US foreign aid to Jordan if the kingdom continues to refuse to do so.
Now, the Trump Administration’s ambassador-designate to Jordan, Henry Wooster, has promised in written answers to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to “explore all options” to secure Tamimi’s extradition and bring her to justice, noting: “US generosity to Jordan in Foreign Military Financing as well as economic support and other assistance is carefully calibrated to protect and advance the range of US interests in Jordan and in the region.”
No potential US ambassador would comment in this way on so sensitive an issue without careful consultation among his superiors.
A cynical take on the timing of Wooster’s remarks might suggest that the Trump Administration is sending a signal to Jordan’s King Abdullah amid the escalating tension surrounding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s declared intention to start annexing the Jordan Valley and the West Bank settlements two weeks from now — a move bitterly opposed by Amman and deemed “unacceptable” by the king only yesterday.
US pressure on Abdullah to extradite Tamimi is extremely discomfiting for the monarch. The unrepentant killer has become quite the celebrity in her home country, and acquiescence to the US extradition request could cause ructions. Is the US indicating to Abdullah that he might want to dial down his anti-annexation efforts, or risk a dialing up of the US pressure for Tamimi to be handed over?
If that sounds conspiratorial, it is worth noting that the Roth family’s battle for justice has played out through almost a decade of geopolitical maneuverings, betrayals and hypocrisies. As Malki’s father, Arnold Roth, noted yesterday, when the news broke of Wooster’s comments, “the odds tend to be stacked against people who want to see actual justice done in actual cases where they feel personally engaged.”
At the same time, he also called Wooster’s remarks “encouraging” and “a meaningful step forward in exposing and we hope ending a dark chapter.”
No potential US ambassador would comment in this way on so sensitive an issue without careful consultation among his superiors.
A cynical take on the timing of Wooster’s remarks might suggest that the Trump Administration is sending a signal to Jordan’s King Abdullah amid the escalating tension surrounding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s declared intention to start annexing the Jordan Valley and the West Bank settlements two weeks from now — a move bitterly opposed by Amman and deemed “unacceptable” by the king only yesterday.
US pressure on Abdullah to extradite Tamimi is extremely discomfiting for the monarch. The unrepentant killer has become quite the celebrity in her home country, and acquiescence to the US extradition request could cause ructions. Is the US indicating to Abdullah that he might want to dial down his anti-annexation efforts, or risk a dialing up of the US pressure for Tamimi to be handed over?
If that sounds conspiratorial, it is worth noting that the Roth family’s battle for justice has played out through almost a decade of geopolitical maneuverings, betrayals and hypocrisies. As Malki’s father, Arnold Roth, noted yesterday, when the news broke of Wooster’s comments, “the odds tend to be stacked against people who want to see actual justice done in actual cases where they feel personally engaged.”
At the same time, he also called Wooster’s remarks “encouraging” and “a meaningful step forward in exposing and we hope ending a dark chapter.”
Tamimi, “who chose Sbarro as her target and brought the human bomb there because of the children she knew would be murdered,” Arnold Roth noted, “should never have been freed. And once freed and back in Jordan, she should never have been allowed to become an adored celebrity. And once she was famous, Jordan should have jumped at the opportunity to hand over to their most important ally, the US.
“We long for the day she faces justice in a US court,” he concluded.
Maybe, just maybe, that day is now a little nearer.
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