02-Jul-23: A festival, a funeral and failed leaders

Tamimi is a featured interviewee on Al-Aqsa TV (and Facebook) June 30, 2023

America's most wanted female fugitive made a featured appearance on global TV again this past Friday. 

Ahlam Tamimi, a designated FBI Most Wanted terrorist since March 2017, looked jubilant as the centerpiece of a 25 minute interview on the Al-Aqsa TV network. It's been beaming programs daily from Gaza to Arabic-speaking audiences in every part of the world since 2006. 

The background is worth knowing. In 2010, the US Department of the Treasury, calling it "a television station financed and controlled by Hamas", designated Al-Aqsa TV as 

a primary Hamas media outlet [that] airs programs and music videos designed to recruit children to become Hamas armed fighters and suicide bombers upon reaching adulthood. Treasury will not distinguish between a business financed and controlled by a terrorist group, such as Al-Aqsa Television, and the terrorist group itself... [link]

Treasury designations like this one are intended to freeze assets held by the station and to

prohibit U.S. persons from engaging in any transactions with these parties. Executive Order 13224 targets terrorists, terrorist organizations, persons owned or controlled by or acting for or on behalf of designated terrorists or terrorist organizations, and those providing financial, material, or technological support to designated terrorists or terrorist organizations, or for acts of terrorism [Source]

Sounds fearsome. 

But for years, video programming that originates with Al-Aqsa TV has gotten a considerable part of its global distribution and exposure from Facebook. Could this amount to giving "financial, material, or technological support to designated terrorists"? It's a question that was posed in the past.

Ahlam Tamimi, who has long called her central role in the massacre of Jewish children in Jerusalem's Sbarro pizzeria in 2001 "a crown on my head", was interviewed live on Friday June 30, 2023 in a program marking the festival of Eid al Adha. 

The adulatory interview, entirely devoid of criticism and long on compliments and adulation, ran for 25 minutes on Al-Aqsa TV that day. It remains viewable now on Facebook [here].

Rambling and unfocused, with lengthy elements of theology, it calls for understanding of the greatness of what jihadists like Tamimi see themselves personifying. When Tamimi has the media's attention, it's generally about her dedication, her determination, her victimhood. And sometimes about her skillful cooking:

...I mean, I am a professional in making Jordanian mansaf [lamb cooked in fermented dried yogurt, served with rice or bulgur - considered the national dish of Jordan]... I mean, I make mansaf and feed everyone, God willing. I want to talk. Mansaf is also one of the dishes that Nizar and I love. Most Palestinian prisoners and editors also love this dish. On the other hand, I mean, if I want to compare to you, we used to make Mansaf in prison. No one asked me this question honestly. The method of making it in prison is completely different from the way it is made in. In freedom, God willing, in future episodes. If you want to talk about this talk, it is necessary, we would love it very much.

This, remember, is an interview with a confessed mass murderer.

* * *

Until a month ago, the death toll that resulted from Tamimi's August 9, 2001 execution of an act of violent savagery on behalf of Hamas was 15. 

Two of those killed were Americans. Our daughter Malka Chana Roth, 15, was one. And a young American Jewish tourist (and her parents' only child) visiting Jerusalem briefly while pregnant for the first time, was the other. Sveeral American nationals were injured.  

The number of murdered rose to 16 on May 30, 2023. Chana Tova Nachenberg had been profoundly injured in the Sbarro bombing when a splinter of shrapnel penetrated her skull, rendering her comatose - but sparing her toddler daughter. A month ago, she died in a Tel Aviv hospice, having never recovered consciousness throughout the nearly twenty-two years that ensued. 

Chana Finer Nachenberg's grave

Her closest family - parents, husband, only child - visited her for years, praying, hoping, weaping, wishing for a miracle that never came. 

Then the vigil came to an end.

We hope none of them ever hears Tamimi wail, as she did on Al-Aqsa this past Friday, about how

I am trying to be happy and get joy. But I mean, the family entity has been shaken because of this forced distance, because of constant demands, constant pursuit. However there is no listening ear to our cause as if [it were we who] committed the massacres of the whole world. They want to put the blame on my back and Nizar's back. [Source]

Her family entity has been shaken, says Tamimi, the proud murderer? It's a reference to how Nizar Tamimi, her husband and cousin, an unrepentant convicted murderer imprisoned for life and freed, like Ahlam Tamimi, in the notorious Shalit Deal in 2011, now lives free in Qatar after Jordan declared him persona non grata in 2020 ["Jordan deports Sbarro bomber’s husband, also a convicted terrorist, to Qatar", Times of Israel, October 13, 2020]

But the presenter, like every presenter of every interview Tamimi has done in all her years of obscene celebrity, doesn't once mention the children this barbarian blew to pieces. 

In the Arabic-language media, there is zero interest in addressing the humanity of Tamimi's murdered victims. Tamimi herself has said repeatedly she has no regrets. She would do it again if she could. 

In a startlingly large number of Arab media outlets, our beautiful fifteen year old daughter is repeatedly called "zionist rapist". So are all the other Sbarro pizzeria victims, some of whom never reached their teens. 

The horror is not limited to Tamimi.

* * *

The dedication ceremony at the fresh graveside of Chana Tova Nachenberg this past Friday included no references to more violence. No calls for revenge. No bitterness or anger. But much heartbreaking wistfulness, deep longing, love.

The FBI issued a Most Wanted Terrorist poster for Ahlam Tamimi in March 2017. It says she's dangerous and likely armed. You can see the English and Arabic versions here.

In the past week, evidently triggered by the increase after so many years of the number of dead, and of the Americans among them, the FBI with no fanfare has just issued an updated version which shows Tamimi looking 43 years old. It also updates the death toll.

King Hussein and President Clinton

What it doesn't say, at least not in the way we think should be said, is that Ahlam Tamimi remains free, a celebrity, safe under the illicit protection of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. 

Why illicit? 

Because a 1995 extradition treaty made between the William J. Clinton administration and the late King Hussein of Jordan, the father of today's Jordanian ruler, gives Jordan no discretion in the matter. 

If pursuant to the treaty America asks for the handover of a fugitive wanted by the US justice system which Tamimi certainly is, Jordan can really only ask "Which flight?" 

Jordan has issued a host of alibis and made-up rationales to conceal the truth of why it refuses to extradite Tamim to Washington where she began facing terror charges under seal in July 2013. (The charges were made public only on March 14, 2017 after years of unproiductive efforts by the United States to induce Jordanian compliance with its undoubted treaty obligation.)

From speaking with a wide selection of authorities, it's clear to us that Jordan's self-excusing acrobatics aren't taken seriously by anyone. 

It's also worth noting that in the formal ratification document signed back in 1995 (we obtained the documents by personally suing the State Department), King Hussein expressing himself in formalized language (and understandably using the Royal "We") says that Jordan pledges

to carry out its provisions and abide by its articles and... shall not allow its violation. Accordingly We have ordered that Our Seal be affixed to it and We have signed it properly 

Jordan did in fact observe the provisions and articles of the treaty appropriately and conscientiously every time the US requested an extradition, as a treaty partner of course must. That however came to an end with the Tamimi case, years after King Hussein's death.

* * *

It's hard to ignore how Tamimi's continued freedom, her encouragement of more terror, her glorification of the murders she carried out, her inciting of others to do the same, all get buried again and again by those who ought to have taken action years ago. 

Since this is about justice, there's plenty of disgrace to go around.

* * *

This post, like many others before it, has been translated into the Polish language ("Święto, pogrzeb i nieudane przywództwo") by Malgorzata Koraszewska over on the Listy z naszego sadu website. Our sincere thanks to her, and great appreciation to readers of this blog in Poland.

13-Mar-23: The Sbarro bomber says she has rights and she's demanding them

In Amman on March 10, 2023, a crowd of Tamimi supporters calls on
King Abdullah II to return the pizzeria bomber's husband to her [Image Source]

The Sbarro bomber, FBI Most Wanted fugitive terrorist Ahlam Tamimi, has embarked on a pre-Ramadan campaign to get her husband back.

Where did he go? To Qatar, as we wrote at the time ["04-Oct-20: The Sbarro bomber's husband has been forced to leave Jordan: A snapshot of developments"].

He appears - that's what reports are saying - to be taking up residence in Qatar. But note that the government of Jordan has said precisely not one word. And no reports of him actually being in Qatar have emerged yet. There's room to be cautious in interpreting what's happened. [Source]

We noted back then, some two and a half years ago, that the abandoned wife had issued this "special statement":

The expulsion of her husband from the Hashemite Kingdom came "suddenly and without prior coordination" [the special statement of Ahlam Tamimi said] and "at a very sensitive time... in light of increasing American demands to extradite me to there... The deportation of my husband Nizar was met with much joy and pleasure in the Zionist newspapers."  The husband's deportation is, she fears, "a prelude to handing her over to the American authorities." This is very wrong since, as she puts it, "it is my right for my husband to live with me on Jordanian lands with dignity just like all other Jordanian women married to non-Jordanians." 

Ahlam Tamimi is a stunningly cold killer who boasts of her central role in two bombing atrocities in Jerusalem, one of which actually happened. 

She has never expressed a single word of remorse for the massive loss of innocent lives including that of our precious fifteen year-old daughter Malki. Those murdered by her bomb get no mention in this latest of her publicity campaigns.

For someone described in law enforcement posters as a person who "should be considered armed and dangerous", it's worth noting Tamimi's uncommon fixation with asserting her rights. She has been doing that again these past few days:

The human life of any Jordanian woman married to a non-Jordanian is a right and a natural requirement for Jordanian women on Jordanian soil... I mean, I am asking for a reunion with my husband. At this moment, it has been two and a half years since I was removed from my husband, but I cannot go to him because there are many security agreements that govern other countries with America. Leaving Jordan puts me in danger if I leave Jordan and go to any other country. Therefore, the best solution is the return of my husband... This is our right as Jordanians and an entitlement because I am a fighter who has suffered in Zionist prisons for ten and a half years. Therefore, through you [a news interviewer], I appeal to the Jordanian tribes... I appeal to the hearts of Jordanian tribes, mothers and fathers, wives and husbands, to support and stand by me in this darkness. We are at the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan, a month characterized by mercy and compassion. I hope you will sympathize with me and my cause, especially since at the end of 2022 in November, my father died. We asked the concerned authorities to allow Nizar [Ahlam Tamimi's cousin and hasband] to come - my father is Nizar's uncle - in order to attend his uncle's funeral and stand by me. This request was absolutely rejected. If such humanitarian situations arise, Nizar will not be allowed to come to Jordan. When will the family be reunited? Before Ramadan, I ask you for mercy. I ask you for sympathy. I ask you for sympathy. [Source: Video interview of Ahlam Tamimi published by Facebook]

Tamimi's appeal via Gaza's Shehab Agency

She made a push for those same rights a day earlier in another video interview, this time with a Gaza-based, Hamas-aligned news platform called Shehab Agency whose Facebook presence was shut down by Facebook in 2021:

I am exposed to great darkness [an Arabic-speaking friend who saw this says "injustice" is a better translation] in Jordanian territory... This darkness [injustice] hurts me every time because it has shaken the entity of family stability. In 2020, the decision was made to remove my husband from Jordan without knowing the reason. We received verbal reasons that he was an unwanted person on Jordanian territory and was removed from Jordanian territory... During the two and a half years, I have tried to claim my rights as Jordanians married to a Palestinian man. These are the rights of Jordanian women in Jordan. I have asked my husband more than once to return to Jordan in order to be reunited with the family, in light of the fact that I am being subjected to an American attack by [the threat of them] rearresting me in America and I cannot leave Jordan. In addition, in 2017, I obtained a Jordanian judicial decision from the highest Jordanian discrimination body to reject the American request for my arrest. Therefore, my presence in Jordan is a legal right by judicial decision... When I got out of prison... I was hosted and welcomed by the King of Jordan [but] all these privileges were systematically taken from me - and my husband was expelled. Therefore, I am not honored as a Palestinian-Jordanian activist on Jordanian soil. On the contrary, I was separated from my husband and my family life was disrupted. They do not want to return my husband to me. I do not work in the media... and have been subjected to unjustified persecution for which there is no convincing reason. Therefore, through the Shehab Agency, I want to speak and send a message and appeal to the King of Jordan to look into my grievances. So the King of Jordan: in history, when a woman appealed to the Caliph al-Mutasim... he answered her call and got her out of prison. Therefore, King of Jordan... Respond to my call to return my husband to reunite my family by directing your decision to the concerned authorities... As a helpless Jordanian woman, return my husband to me as we enter the holy month of Ramadan. I hope to receive an appeal through Al-Shehab Agency to listen and that this family will be reunited. May God bless you to send my message through this platform on International Women's Day, when I am exposed to great darkness on Jordanian soil... [Source: Video interview of Ahlam Tamimi with Shehab Agency via Twitter]

There's much Arabic social media coverage of Tamimi's cries from the "darkness" of Jordan these past few days. And of her efforts to attract synpathy for what she calls the loss of "family stability".

Not so much in English. Middle East Monitor, a news platform that uses the revealing motto "Creating New Perspectives", offers a version ["Activist: Jordan is putting pressure on freed prisoner, Ahlam Tamimi", Macrh 10, 2023] that's notable for its distortions, deletions and sloppiness with the facts.

Here's how it describes Tamimi and what got her famous:

On 9 August 2001, a Palestinian man broke into a pizza restaurant in occupied Jerusalem and blew himself up, killing 15 people including two American citizens, one of whom was Malki Roth, an Israeli-American woman. 

Tamimi was arrested for her alleged involvement in the operation weeks later and was sentenced to 16 life sentences. She was released in 2011 as part of a prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Palestinian factions. She currently lives in Jordan.

Last year, a document issued by the Interpol revealed that Tamimi's name had been removed from its wanted list.

In 1995, the United States and Jordan signed an extradition treaty, but in 2017, Jordan's high court blocked Tamimi's extradition, since the treaty was never ratified.

In 2013, the Justice Department included Tamimi on the FBI's most wanted list and charged her with "conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction against Americans outside the United States". [Source]

About their "New Perspectives" it's worth noting that:

• the unnamed "Palestinian man" didn't break into a pizza restaurant but walked in through the unguarded front entrance. 
• His name was Al-Masri and he was carrying an explosives-filled guitar-case on his back. He was decapitated by the explosion which killed 15 innocent patrons inside the pizzeria and left a sixteenth, a young mother, unconscious until today. About 130 other people were injured, many of them horribly. Among the victims were several US citizens. 
• Tamimi accompanied the human bomb to the doomed pizzeria by bus and taxi from Ramallah and then fled to safety before he and the building exploded. The pizzeria was chosen as her target by Tamimi because of the large number of Jewish children it attracted at lunch-times. The children were in no sense caught up in the crossfire; their murders were the reason for the atrocity.  
• Most of those murdered were children. The Middle East Monitor people seem not to regard that as worth reporting. Given their outlook, we understand why they would fail to mention it. A small point, really. 
• Alleged involvement? Tamimi admitted every aspect of her "alleged involvement" to the Israeli court that heard the charges against her in 2003. She pleaded guilty. In the years since then Tamimi has repeatedly recounted - with undisguised enthusiasm and often in front of cameras - the details of the massacre she spearheaded and painstakingly plotted. 
• This doesn't stop the editors of this not-so-classy piece of journalism from referring to Tamimi as "freed prisoner" as if that's why she's in the news. 
• Jordan's Court of Cassation ruled on March 20, 2017, almost exactly six years ago, that the Jordan/US treaty was void because of an alleged technical flaw created exclusively by Jordan (and, assuming it exists, curable by Jordan). That court ruling is contradicted by documnts we received via a Freedom of Information Act suit we filed against the US State Department in a US federal district court. It's also challenged by the official position of the US which is that Jordan remains bound by the treaty. 
• Tamimi was added to the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list in 2017, not in 2013. She is still there. 
• That's because the United States indicted her (or to be more precise - issued a criminal complaint against her) six years ago. The Middle East Monitor report somehow overlooks that element. Their report makes no sense at all without mentioning it. 
• Tamimi's name was never removed from Interpol's wanted list. Interpol doesn't have a wanted list. The Middle East Monitor people have made the same erroneous and misleading claim in the past. Interpol provides information to police forces. It doesn't pursue criminals or issue warrants for their arrest or prosecute them.

Tamimi's crusade for sympathy and the exercise of her rights as a Jordanian woman is getting wide and noisy support in Jordan where the Royal Hashemite Court and much of the population are engaged this weekend in a wedding celebration. 

We're tracking this as it continues to unfold.

[UPDATE March 21, 2023: Something's moving. Tamimi has made at least six public appearances in the past 12 day, up to and including yesterday. They have been either in person before live audiences or via media, or in some cases both. After a lengthy period of relative silence, she is now speaking publicly in strongly critical tones that veer into open disrespect for Jordan's ruler and the Hashemite Court. Her rhetoric focuses on the disrespect to her rights. Yes, the fugitive murderer wants her rights to be better respected and she is making sure public audiences know this. More details as we assemble them.]  

29-Nov-20: After years of embracing terror against Israelis, what will it take for Jordan to extradite the Sbarro bomber to Washington?

"Ahlam Tamimi, your voice is loud": The viral Jordanian
response to the confessed bomber of a Jerusalem pizzeria
being silenced on a radio talk-show [Image Source]

A slightly modified version of the article below, authored by Gregg Mashberg and Arnold Roth, originally appeared on the Times of Israel website on November 8, 2020. 

Could Jordan’s celebrity terrorist finally face justice in the US?

King Abdullah II has tolerated, and even capitalized, on the hatred and extreme violence that Ahlam Tamimi personifies; is he finally leading his people away from all that?

BY GREGG M. MASHBERG AND ARNOLD ROTH

Are we perhaps — just perhaps — seeing the beginning of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan finally purging itself of FBI Most Wanted Terrorist Ahlam Tamimi?

You may remember the massive terrorist bombing of a Sbarro pizzeria in central Jerusalem during the deadly summer of 2001. The attack killed 15 people, including eight children, and approximately 130 were wounded, many grievously.

Tamimi, the Hamas operative who selected the busy restaurant for unspeakable carnage, went on record afterwards saying it was all about the children. Her goal was to kill as many of them as possible.

Tamimi delivered the human bomb, a young Islamist zealot with a guitar case slung across his shoulder filled with explosives encased in nails to magnify the flesh-ripping effect, to the target site. She chose Sbarro precisely because she knew it would be filled with kids having lunch.

The spearhead of the massacre, Tamimi was 21 at the time, Jordanian by birth and upbringing, and a student at a Palestinian Authority university with a night job reading the news on camera at a Palestinian Authority TV station. As police and rescuers thronged the smoking remains of the pizzeria, helping survivors and tending to the maimed and murdered, she made it back to the Ramallah studio in time to present that evening’s bulletin. For perhaps the first time in the annals of journalism, the horrific crime that opened the program was the work of the person icily delivering the news report.

What’s extraordinary about the events that followed is how Jordan has kept the Sbarro mastermind safe, famous, comfortable and influential in the most toxic sense of the word for the past nine years. 

The presenters of the Jordanian talk-radio show
on Melody-FM cut off Tamimi in mid-sentence, sparking
a nation-wide tumult 

This goes on despite a formal US demand that the Hashemite Kingdom arrest the fugitive who has a $5M reward on her head and extradite her to Washington where she faces terror charges. Two of her Sbarro victims were American nationals. David Horovitz’s epic May 2020 account gives the context: “Failed by Israel, Malki Roth’s parents hope US can extradite her gloating killer” [Times of Israel].

Under a treaty between the two countries signed in 1995, Jordan has handed over a string of fugitive terrorists who are now incarcerated in American prisons. But not Tamimi.

Little reported in the US media, Jordanians — with no apparent sign of dissent — have embraced Tamimi as a hero and inspiration. But now there are signs that Jordan’s King Abdullah II, whose government has spent most of the past decade shielding Tamimi from American justice, may finally be looking to bring her nine-year Jordanian honeymoon to an end.

Upon her release from an Israeli prison in 2011 as part of a prisoner deal, Tamimi received a tumultuous welcome back in her native Jordan. Within weeks, she was hosting a TV program of her own. With its dreamy title, “Breezes of the Free” was a Hamas/Muslim Brotherhood production, beamed by satellite from Jordan every week to Arabic-speaking audiences the world over, promoting the cause of Palestinian Arab terror.

Wanted: The US Department of Justice unsealed terrorism

charges against Ahlam Tamimi in March 2017. Jordan

refuses to hand her over despite the extradition treaty

by which it has been bound since 1995.

In the summer of 2012, Tamimi married a cousin from her Tamimi clan, Nizar Tamimi — himself a convicted murder whom, like her, Israel released, despite having sentenced him to life. Their festive wedding was covered live by several Arab TV stations.

She has gone on to develop a high profile in Jordan and, via a series of speaking tours in the region, beyond its borders and in the Arabic media. Despite numerous take-down actions on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, she has continued to advance her social media brand.

Ahlam Tamimi’s triumphant career in the public eye has sent a profound message. The Tamimi juggernaut tells Jordanians and her fans everywhere that terror is not terror when its victims are Israelis. Israeli children, infants included, are fair targets for atrocities. Imprisoned terrorists are not prisoners but mere detainees and captives, victims of injustice who await the breezes that freed her from 16 life terms in an Israeli cell.

On March 14, 2017, the US Department of Justice unsealed a criminal complaint charging Tamimi with murdering two American nationals by means of a weapon of mass destruction. DOJ had kept the complaint under seal since 2013, as it attempted to extradite her to the US. The Jordanians refused and American diplomats apparently viewed themselves as helpless in the face of Jordanian intransigence.

Late last year, however, Congress provided authority, if not a mandate, to stop bankrolling Jordan to the tune of approximately $1.5 billion per year if it continues to dishonor its extradition obligation.

And just this past June, the State Department seemed to take heed. The new US Ambassador to Jordan, Henry Wooster, said during his confirmation process that “all options were on the table” to pressure Jordan to extradite Tamimi, presumably including a US funding cutoff. Confirmed by the Senate, Wooster arrived in Amman to take up his post in September 2020.

Then something startling happened.

Just days later, and with no media coverage, Jordan notified Nizar Tamimi that his residence visa was ending and would not be extended. On October 1, Nizar Tamimi, who unlike his wife is not a Jordanian citizen, left for Qatar, declaring he had been deported.

Ahlam Tamimi, outraged, promptly launched a public relations campaign claiming Jordan had violated her human rights by depriving her of the company of her husband.

Emphatically playing the victim card, she publicly beseeched the king to reunite the loving couple, proclaiming that no matter how distraught, she will not move to Qatar for fear of being arrested there or en route by Interpol. (Qatar and the US do not have an extradition treaty.)

Cashing in on years of Jordanian protection, coddling and celebration, she is now at the heart of a campaign urging Jordanians to declare “We Are All Ahlam Tamimi.”

During October, Tamimi phoned in to several Jordanian radio stations delivering appeals to the public to stand by her and press King Abdullah II to restore the husband to his rightful place in Jordan.

One of those calls was to Melody FM, a high-profile talk-radio station in Amman. Live video from the studio captured how the hosts quietly signaled to the control booth to cut her off as soon as they realized who was calling and that she had just invoked the name of King Abdullah II. The call ended as Tamimi was in mid-stream.

Ahlam Tamimi has never made a secret of how much she wanted

to murder Jewish children

Jordanians were enraged. The video went viral and on October 10 the interrupted call drove the highest trending hashtag on Jordanian Twitter. Melody FM has become the target of a commercial boycott. The talk show (“You and We”) is canceled and its two hosts are publicly at each other’s throats over which of them was more disrespectful to Tamimi.

It is too soon to understand fully what we’re seeing. Is Jordan merely throwing a bone to the US by shooing Nizar out of the country, expecting that will be enough to placate the Americans? Is the US finally saying, “enough is enough,” and pressing Jordan to begin getting rid of Tamimi?

Or — perhaps, in the wake of the Abraham Accords — does King Abdullah see normalization with Israelis as the wave of the future and Tamimi as an impediment?

Yet despite the hopeful signs, is the Sbarro monster right when she proclaims that Jordanians “are all Ahlam Tamimi”? Will Jordanians rally to protect her? If so, is King Abdullah II finally prepared to show leadership and lead his people away from the hatred and extreme violence that Tamimi personifies, rather than tolerating and even capitalizing on it?

There’s only one decent next step which is to load her on to a non-stop flight to Washington, DC where US justice awaits her. That is the way Jordan and its ruler can begin living up to the ideals they otherwise espouse as an ally of America and a force for moderation. King Abdullah II, Jordan, and the region would be the better for it.

—

Gregg M. Mashberg, a lawyer in New York, has represented the Roths pro bono since 2012, in connection with the effort to extradite Tamimi to the US. Arnold Roth produces the blogs on this site together with his wife Frimet.

04-Oct-20: The Sbarro bomber's husband has been forced to leave Jordan: A snapshot of developments

Nizar Tamimi giving an interview in his Amman home

This past Thursday, reports emanating initially from Tamimi clan sources and then later via the Arabic media in Jordan said the husband of Ahlam Tamimi, the admitted bomber of the Jerusalem Sbarro pizzeria in 2001, has suddenly been expelled from Jordan. 

He appears - that's what reports are saying - to be taking up residence in Qatar. But note that the government of Jordan has said precisely not one word. And no reports of him actually being in Qatar have emerged yet. There's room to be cautious in interpreting what's happened.

Where things appear to stand

Middle East Eye reported Friday (October 2, 2020) that 

Jordanian authorities on Thursday declared the liberated Palestinian prisoner Nizar Al-Tamimi persona non grata and asked him to leave the country, according to sources who spoke to Arabi21 news site. Nizar al-Tamimi is the husband of Ahlam al-Tamimi, who served time in Israeli prisons. Ahlam, who holds Jordanian citizenship, is wanted in the United States. Washington had previously requested her extradition, but Amman refused due to the absence of a law allowing the extradition of Jordanian citizens abroad. Her husband only has Palestinian citizenship, and is not on any wanted list by any country. A Jordanian source told Arabi21 that Nizar al-Tamimi had been renewing his residence permit every three months, but this time Jordanian authorities refused to extend his stay, and asked him to leave the country, even though his wife is a Jordanian national. The source said that Nizar left on Thursday to Doha [Qatar] despite attempts to mediate and solve the issue without having him deported. The source confirmed that “the decision to deport Nizar al-Tamimi is linked to his wife's involvement in a suicide attack against Israelis during the Second Palestinian Intifada, which prompted the US authorities to pursue her ever since”. The source also considered that “deporting Nizar al-Tamimi would cause major problems for the family, especially since his wife's departure from Jordan might threaten her safety and expose her to arrest”. The Trump administration indicated a few months ago its intention to cut off aid to Jordan as a way to pressure the kingdom’s authorities to hand over Ahlam to Washington, Arabi21 reported. In 2013, the US Department of Justice put Ahlam al-Tamimi on the FBI's most wanted terrorists list, and charged her with "conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction against US nationals outside the United States". 

Nizar Tamimi, at the time a member of the Fatah terror organization and a resident of the Palestinian Arab village of Nabi Saleh ["17-Mar-13 A Little Village in the Hills and the Monsters it Spawns"] was charged in 1993 with his involvement in the murder of an Israeli student of Jewish religion, Chaim Mizrachi ["The murder of a West Bank student highlights the plight of the Jewish religious communities confronting Palestinian rule", Sarah Helm, The Independent UK, November 7, 1993]. The young Mizrachi had made the fatal mistake of buying eggs from a Palestinian Arab farmer. It's an appalling story. 

Tamimi was subsequently convicted for his part in the cruel and gruesome homicide and sentenced to life imprisonment. Two other Tamimi cousins were convicted at the same time. 

The extremely unlovely Tamimi clan

Nizar Tamimi's uncle, the prominent agitator Bassem Tamimi who was Nizar's mother's brother was initially thought, according to reports we have seen, to have been involved. (Worth noting that there is a huge degree of consanguinity - marrying within the clan - among Nabi Saleh's many Tamimis. Almost every resident of the village was born with that name, and Nabi Saleh's Tamimis routinely marry Tamimis.) 

Then after Bassem Tamimi suffered head injuries while in Israeli police custody, those homicide charges seem to have been dropped with no public explanation. They are almost never mentioned in media reports about Bassem Tamimi's otherwise quite public life. 

Bassem Tamim is also a cousin of Ahlam Tamimi, Nizar's wife. 

And he is the father of Ahed Tamimi, the previously very-high-profile young woman, often referred to as Shirley Temper in news reports ["24-Dec-17: Nabi Saleh, the media and a Tamimi child's journey"] for her availability, from early childhood onwards, to perform on demand when the media cameras were rolling. 

Nizar Tamimi walked free in the extortionate deal Israel did with the terrorists of Hamas in 2011 to secure the freedom of a young hostage, Gilad Shalit. So did his cousin Ahlam Tamimi. And so did 1,025 additional convicted terrorists. Those two Tamimis - Nizar and Ahlam - were married in Jordan less than a year later ["22-Jun-12: A wedding and what came before it"]. 

Bassem Tamimi and his family traveled to Jordan to take part in the celebrations and appear in many of the published photos of the celebrations.

This past week

The London-based Arabic Al Araby news site (October 3, 2020) - which is the source for most of what Middle East Eye published above - under the headline "Ahlam Al-Tamimi appeals to the Jordanian monarch to allow her husband to return to Amman", reports from Amman, Jordan's capital, that Ahlam Tamimi has just sent a message to Jordan's ruler, King Abdullah II. 

She asks him to allow her husband Nizar Al-Tamimi to return to Jordan and go on residing there.

Addressing the king in traditional fashion as "the father of all Jordanians", she praises him fulsomely as one who extends "hospitality for everyone who sought asylum in this country and who took refuge in it, bearing all the economic, political and social consequences... Jordan has been a pioneer in embracing me and giving a safe haven for me and my husband after we were released from the occupation prisons". 

Tamimi, regarded in some parts of the news industry as the most wanted female fugitive alive, describes the nearly eight years she has lived in Jordan after being released by Israel in the Gilad Shalit Deal as "the most beautiful days of my life". 

Then referring to the events of the past week, she declares that "we were surprised by the request that my husband leave [Jordan] quickly" causing them "the pain of separation".

The Al Araby report goes on to say by way of background that the Palestinian Prisoners and Executives Affairs Authority issued a statement on Thursday October 1, 2020, saying Jordan had refused to renew the residency of Nizar Al-Tamimi, husband of Ahlam Al-Tamimi, demanding that he leave Jordan. It says the Jordanian government and its Ministry of Foreign Affairs had failed to issue any comment on the matter. 

It mentions how "Jordan rejected the request of the American authorities to hand over the freed captive Ahlam Al-Tamimi, and the Court of Cassation at that time, the highest judicial body in Jordan, approved a decision issued by the Amman Court of Appeal, ruling not to hand Ahlam Tamimi over to US authorities."

Note: None of this includes anything from any official Jordanian source. 

Al Araby connects the expulsion of Nizar Tamimi to the statements made by newly-installed US ambassador to Jordan, Henry Wooster, who stated in May 2020, before he had been confirmed by Congress to the long vacant position of ambassador to Amman, that the United States, in the paper's words, "might suspend foreign aid to Jordan if Ahlam al-Tamimi were not handed over". 

Then it shifts into full-blown conspiracy mode:

The Tamimi case has become one of the pressure points used by Tel Aviv [sic] and Zionist lobbies [sic] pressing in the United States towards forcing Jordan not to object to Israel's plan to annex about a third of the West Bank to it and to implement the American dictation plan to liquidate the Palestinian issue known as the "Deal of the Century"...

Nizar Tamimi (r) with his mother's brother Bassem Tamimi
in October 2011 shortly after his release from an Israeli
prison cell as part of the Shalit Deal 

Quds Press International News Agency (October 3, 2020) [archived] publishes a "special statement" given to it by Ahlam Tamimi that day. The expulsion of her husband from the Hashemite Kingdom came "suddenly and without prior coordination" and "at a very sensitive time... in light of increasing American demands to extradite me to there... The deportation of my husband Nizar was met with much joy and pleasure in the Zionist newspapers." 

The husband's deportation is, she fears, "a prelude to handing her over to the American authorities." This is very wrong since, as she puts it, "it is my right for my husband to live with me on Jordanian lands with dignity just like all other Jordanian women married to non-Jordanians." 

Good luck with that.

Why now? 

Quds quotes her saying "it seems the Jordanian side is betting I will join my husband in Qatar but this is not at all possible since there is an Interpol request distributed at airports around the world for my extradition to Washington." 

The world's most sought female fugitive ["31-Jan-20: Fox News break ranks with the mainstream media on Tamimi and Jordan"] now thinks staying in Jordan is the safest option for her since "the highest Jordanian court (the Court of Appeal) made the decision not to extradite me to Washington - a strong and destined position and therefore my exit would be like someone who places himself in the lion’s mouth, exposing myself to the American danger, and therefore I will not leave Jordan ever... " 

Getting her husband back, according to Tamimi "is a right guaranteed by the constitution". 

Quds quotes the husband saying that last week "the [Jordanian] security authorities asked me to leave Jordan immediately and that their decision is final and irrevocable and would not be withdrawn under any circumstances."

Nizar and Ahlam Tamimi in their Amman apartment

Shehab News Agency (October 3, 2020) [archived] writes under the headline "MP Al-Shanti: Ahlam Al-Tamimi is an icon of the Palestinian woman revolting against the occupation", that a Gazan Palestinian Arab "parliamentarian" has denounced "the arbitrary measures" directed against the female "fighter against the Zionist occupation", calling them illegal "by all laws".

Jamila Al-Shanti, a key figure in Hamas and (according to this Wikipedia source - but there may have been another woman who had that role) the widow of arch-terrorist Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi, the political head of Hamas until eliminated in 2004 by Israeli fire, says "Zionist American terrorism targets the released prisoners through assassination, re-arrest or deportation. Ahlam spent ten years in detention before her release in 2011 under the Wafaa Al-Ahrar prisoner exchange deal", a reference to the Shalit Deal.

She calls Ahlam Tamimi "a candle for the world’s women who aspire to freedom, an icon in the heart of every Palestinian and Arab woman fighter defending her right - Ahlam knows the path of resistance and will continue."

Next moves

But rhetoric doesn't have much impact on fast-moving developments and the reality is that Ahlam Tamimi's options have suddenly gotten a good deal narrower. 

It's obviously an ongoing and complicated story which, given our interest in seeing her sent to Washington to face trial there for spearheading the Sbarro pizzeria massacre, we will be following closely. And to those trying to learn something from all the moving parts and surprise twists: we follow the Arabic media fairly closely and have not yet seen a single article there which mentions the people Ahlam Tamimi killed. This is actually stunning, not in a good way. 

It's the real story here.

[UPDATE Sunday October 11, 2020: There have been many developments worth reporting in the past 72 hours. We've been flat out dealing with them behind the scenes. However we do hope to update readers of this blog in the coming 24 hours.]

01-Oct-20: Remembering the launch of a war twenty years ago

Arnold Roth was interviewed last night on the English-language TV channel operated by i24NEWS. 

Presenter Calev Ben David had a string of guests in the station's Jerusalem studio; their shows are normally produced in Jaffa. The occasion was the 20th anniversary of the terror war launched by the Palestinian Arabs.

The ten minute segment served as a brief, but welcome, opportunity to touch on what's been learned: the struggle for peace, the Shalit Deal, Ahlam Tamimi, the duplicity of Hashemite Jordan and the work of the Malki Foundation.

[We're preparing some more commentary to come]

16-Dec-19: Like talking to the wall

Congressman Adam Smith in Amman (Source: Jordan Times)

Back on November 7, 2019, we noticed a Jordanian news report that described an official visit to the sumptuous Al Husseiniya Palace of Jordan's ruler, King Abdullah II, by a senior US Congressman, Rep. Adam Smith and an accompanying delegation.

What follows is about our interaction with him and his staff. Read on and you might agree this does the law-maker little credit. 

The same can be said of other members of the US Congress we name below.

Smith, a Democrat, represents Washington state's 9th Congressional district. Before that, he served in the Washington State Senate. He has been a member of the House Armed Services Committee since 1997. A figure of some influence, he currently serves as its chairman.

The details of his formal visit to the royal palace appeared on the website of Jordan's embassy in Washington DC (archived here in case it gets removed). They also appeared on the website of Jordan's Royal Hashemite Court. And a little later in the government-controlled Jordan Times. If it got any US media coverage at all, we haven't seen it. Very likely, there was none.

We noted and commented on the visit here.

(And if you're looking for the names of the US law-makers who have ignored our pleas to raise the Tamimi scandal or to tell us why they avoided mentioning it in their meetings with King Abdullah II in his palace, we have listed eleven of them at the bottom of this piece.)

Smith's was one of three Congressional Delegation visits to the royal place in Amman that we know of between the first week of October and the first week of November. There may have been others we didn't spot. We're new to the business of tracking the activities of US Congress people when they're outside the US. The US media seem to pay them little to no attention.

So why is this an issue for us?

Arabic and English reward posters issued in 2018

by the US State Department

If you know anything about this blog, you may be aware of how Jordan refuses to extradite the Islamist savage who bombed the Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem. 

And that this flies in the face of years of Jordan complying with the bilateral extradition treaty with the US that has been in effect since 1995 during the Clinton/Hussein era.

Also: we're not objective and have never claimed to be. Our 15 year old daughter Malki, an American citizen, was one of the many children inside that pizzeria who were blown to pieces.

Ahlam Tamimi, whom we consider a monster, has taken credit for years: on television, in the print media, on multiple social media platforms, and in live appearances before appreciative audiences. She says she selected the site and that the large number of Jewish children inside at that hour was the key factor. She takes credit for personally bringing the bomb (a human, enwrapped in explosives and ugly little human-flesh-ripping nails) to the door of the pizzeria just before fleeing from the site to save her own skin. She calls this "my operation". 

She has never denied the charges and has publicly and repeatedly confessed.

Our disappointment at the repeated failure to act of a long and bipartisan string of US politicians and officials to whom we have turned is exacerbated by our fury at the brazenness of the Jordanians whose bad faith in this matter is, as we see it, beyond all doubt.

It's highly unlikely that the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan will ever voluntarily extradite this woman. If the mainstream media paid attention - but they do not - more people would understand how much of a national hero she is for Jordanians. On the other hand, no one seriously doubts, given the history and the realpolitik, that the US can ensure Jordan hands her over to face trial in Washington.

But it does not.

Meanwhile we're pained by how US/Jordan relations roll right along with most of the players blithely choosing to ignore the grotesque elephant in the room. That Jordan's king is a frequent honored visitor inside the US Congress (including some of its most important committees) and the White House, and that his palace in Amman is a remarkably popular destination for a stream of elected US officials are all matters that deeply embitter us.

So here's what's triggering this post.

On Friday November 8, 2019, Arnold Roth emailed this letter to Representative Adam Smith's staff:

Caitlyn Cole
Office Manager
District Office of Rep Adam Smith
101 Evergreen Building
15 S. Grady Way
Renton, WA 98057

Dear Ms Cole,

I am writing on a matter of justice in the personal and literal sense. 

In 2017, the Department of Justice unveiled terrorism charges against a Jordanian woman, Ahlam Tamimi. She is the confessed murderer of my daughter Malki. My child was 15 and a US citizen when her life ended in a Jerusalem Sbarro pizzeria.

Jordan immediately rebuffed the US request to extradite her even though there has been a valid and active extradition treaty between the two countries since it was signed during the Clinton Administration's days. 

Jordan's highest court ruled, just days after the US charges were announced against Tamimi, that the treaty is invalid and unconstitutional. Not only that, but it has always been invalid and unconstitutional siince the day it was signed. 

An announcement made less than a week ago by the State Department [described at https://thisongoingwar.blogspot.com/2019/11/03-nov-19-in-washington-step-towards.html] makes plain that the US rejects Jordan's interpretation. 

In the meantime, Tamimi lives free in Jordan's capital, not in hiding, a celebrity whose constant acts of incitement to further Islamist terror atrocities are amplified by her frequent and essentially unfettered access to Jordan's media.

Mr Smith's visit to Jordan, reported today in the Jordanian media (see http://jordantimes.com/news/local/king-receives-us-house-representatives-delegation), comes on the heels of one by Speaker Pelosi in October and one by Rep Jason Crow a few weeks before that.

It prompts me to ask these questions:

• Was Mr Smith briefed by the State Department or the US embassy in Amman prior to meeting the king and Jordan's foreign minister?

• Did the briefing/s touch on US efforts to extradite Tamimi to Washington DC?

• Did Mr Smith urge his hosts to ensure compliance by Jordan with its treaty obligations to the US?

• Is Mr Smith willing to speak with me about this after he returns?

My questions are for the record, and I do plan to publicize them and whatever response your office shares with me.

Sincerely,
Arnold Roth

Separately but at about the same time, we reached out to a contact in the US State Department to find out about briefings given to members of Congress who come calling on Jordan's king in his palace. In effect, what we asked was whether Representative Adam Smith was told ahead of sitting down with the king about Jordan's breach of its extradition treaty obligations with the US. And did he know of the years of US efforts to extradite Ahlam Tamimi to Washington?

The answer we got was cloudy and unhelpful. (We will publish it at the appropriate time. It was not confidential.)

Just after sending the letter, Arnold posted this tweet:

Mr @RepAdamSmith (D-WA09):

Jordan's news media say you are in Amman after meeting @KingAbdullahII and Jordan's foreign minister. I have just emailed some questions to your district office. I would appreciate the courtesy of a reply.
Arnold Roth

B/ground https://t.co/zdAuTB6nrr pic.twitter.com/p68nKdNS8e

— Arnold Roth (@arnoldroth) November 8, 2019

A mildly encouraging reply arrived by email later that day from Representative Smith's staff:

Fri, Nov 8, 8:35 PM
Hi Arnold,

Thank you for reaching out! I’m looping in Monica Matoush and Caleb Randall-Bodman from the HASC communications team who can help answer your questions. I’m also adding Chairman Smith’s Communications Director Justin Weiss for his awareness.

If there’s anything else I can assist with, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Warmly,
Caitlyn Cole
District Scheduler/Office Manager
Congressman Adam Smith (WA-09)

Thanks, Caitlyn. And then another from Caleb Randall-Bodman from the same Smith team:

Nov 8, 2019, 9:12 PM
to Frimet, Arnold, Monica, Caitlyn, Justin

Thanks Caitlyn,

Arnold - thanks for your questions. The Chairman is actually still in transit back from the trip. We’ll make a point to touch base with him about your questions when he is back home, and we will be in touch in the coming days. 

Thanks,
Caleb 

We waited four days for a proper response. Then Arnold emailed this:

November 12, 2019

Dear Mr Randall-Bodman,

I appreciate your acknowledging my email to Rep Smith. 

As you may realize, my wife and I are campaigning to see delayed justice done in the case of our murdered daughter. The questions in my letter are framed as yes/no to encourage a timely response. 

We would appreciate knowing if an answer is on the way.

Sincerely
Arnold Roth

Silence.

Arnold waited two more days and then sent this:

Nov 14, 2019, 11:16 AM
to Caleb, Frimet, Monica, Caitlyn, Justin

Ladies and gentlemen,

If there is a reasonable justification for us to keep waiting for an answer to our straightforward questions, please let us know what it is. 

But if we don't hear it from you today, we plan to press forward on the assumption that we are once again being ignored.

The only reason we are dealing with Members of Congress is because our child's murderer, an FBI Most Wanted fugitive terrorist, is living a dream life instead of being extradited to Washington.

We can deal with excuses and political differences. Being ignored is unacceptable. 

Arnold Roth

Later the same day, this arrived from Monica Matoush on behalf of Representative Smith:

Nov 14, 2019, 5:03 PM
to Caleb, Caitlyn, Justin, Connor, Arnold, Frimet
Good Morning Mr. Roth,

I apologize for the delay.  Chairman Smith returned to DC just yesterday and was immersed in meetings, hampering my ability to engage with him on this sensitive subject.

In speaking with staff who accompanied him on the trip they were not in room, so they are unable to advise if the subject of Ms. Tamimi’s extradition was part of the discussion.

We will make a point today to discuss with Chairman Smith whether he had any prior knowledge to the specifics you’ve mentioned below, what information, if any, our State Dept provided him and what will be his follow on actions, now that he is tracking the issue.

I will get back to you as I have something more.

Best,
Monica Matoush
HASC Comm Director

Arnold waited four days. Then emailed this:

Nov 14, 2019, 5:50 PM
to Monica, Caleb, Frimet, Caitlyn, Justin, Connor

Thank you. Please refer to my four questions. Just four. 

Then five days later, this:

Nov 19, 2019, 12:30 AM
to Monica, Caleb, Frimet, Caitlyn, Justin, Connor 

Eleven days after my first message to his office, it seems safe to assume at this point that no response is going to come from Rep Smith. 

Arnold Roth

Then after nearly three more weeks of no response, Arnold emailed this

Dec 9, 2019, 8:54 AM
to Monica, Caleb, Frimet, Caitlyn, Justin, Connor

Ladies and gentlemen,

A polite reminder to you that, as the parents of a US citizen who was a beautiful and caring 15 year old when she was killed in the bigotry-driven bombing of a pizzeria filled with children, we have tried to extract responses from a string of US political figures who have paid official visits to Jordan's king during the past six weeks. 

There are surprisingly many such Congressional representatives. What's harder for us to understand is that not a single one of them has responded when we have reached out to their offices to ask if they know about King Abdullah II's brazen disregard for his kingdom's treaty obligations to the United States. 

One of those, as you know, is the office and staff of Chairman Smith.

Our only leverage is the little we can achieve as ordinary parents, unaided by political alignment (of which we have none), reaching out to the media. But this does not mean we are powerless. If you take a look at our blog, you will see that we have managed to get the system to issue Federal charges and a $5M State Department reward offer and to have her added to the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list. 

We will keep doing all we can until we see Ahlam Tamimi extradited from Jordan to a Washington court-room, nothwithstanding the totally bilateral cold shoulder we keep encountering. And despite the nauseating protection the bomber gets from Jordan's royal leader.

I am baffled by your indifference to all this.

Sincerely,
Arnold Roth
Jerusalem

Nothing other than the sounds of being ignored.

The following day, Arnold emailed this final note:

Arnold Roth
Tue, Dec 10, 8:26 PM (6 days ago)
to Monica, Caleb, Connor, Justin, Caitlyn 

None of you has responded.

As of now, we regard ourselves as free to publicize what has passed between us and your office.

Sincerely,
Arnold Roth

A week has passed and there has been zero from Representative Adam Smith's busy team.

This is far from the only instance of our reaching out to elected officials or government appointees asking for basic clarifications connected to the dream life being lived in the Arab world by our daughter's killer. 

And being rebuffed.

The list of cat-got-your-tongue US lawmakers who have turned up with shiny faces at the doors of King Abdullah II's palace includes some significant names. During October and November 2019, in addition to Rep Adam Smith, it included these:

• Ranking Member Mac Thornberry, House Armed Services Committee [Source]
• Chairman Eliot Engel, House Foreign Affairs Committee [Source]
• Chairman Bennie Thompson, Homeland Security Committee [Source]
• Chairman Adam Schiff, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence [Source]
• Congressman Ron Kind, House Ways and Means Committee [Source]
• Congresswoman Susan Davis, House Armed Services Committee [Source]
• Congressman Stephen Lynch, Chairman, House Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on National Security [Source]
• Congresswoman Elaine Luria, House Armed Services Committee [Source]
• Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi [Source]
• Congressman Jason Crow [Source]

We documented some of how this works earlier this years - see "14-Mar-19: Two years after Federal charges are unsealed, Ahlam Tamimi remains free. How is this happening?"

And also here: "19-Oct-19: House Speaker Pelosi led an official visit today to the chief protector of our child's killer".

With few exceptions, mainstream editors and reporters in the news industry fail to engage with or report on the battle for justice we are waging as bereaved parents to see our child's killer stand trial in Washington on the US Federal charges she has faced for years.

Are we discouraged? Of course we are but we will keep pressing on. We frankly don't understand how these media figures and the politicians and their staffers view this. But for us, it's a matter of justice.

UPDATE January 12, 2020: They're back from the Congressional winter vacation and there has been not a single additional word from Rep Smith or his staff to us since the correspondence we published here. Nor from any of the other Congressional champions listed above.

UPDATE January 21, 2020: Turns out Congressman Smith is one of the signatories to letters of support given to the troubling hostile-to-Israel organization described in this extract:

More than 120 members of Congress privately issued letters of support to a controversial Islamic-American advocacy group known for its involvement in one of America's most prominent terrorism financing cases, according to a copy of these official communications obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), an advocacy group with deep ties to the anti-Israel movement in America, touted its support among congressional leaders during its 2019 gala conference in November in Washington, D.C. Prominent opponents of the pro-Israel community, including anti-Israel activist Linda Sarsour and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.), headlined the conference. A copy of CAIR's conference agenda, obtained by the Free Beacon and published here for the first time, includes well over 100 letters from Democratic and Republican members of Congress, all of whom expressed their support for the controversial organization. Democrats issued the majority of the letters, with only two coming from Republican members of Congress... ["More Than 120 Members of Congress Issue Letters of Support to Leading Anti-Israel Group", Washington Free Beacon, January 16, 2020]

Perhaps we are a step closer to understanding why he declines to respond to our questions about his Jordan visit. But we're still dumbfounded by the hands-in-pocket-ness of the other lawmakers mentioned above.