27-Nov-19: The Washington Institute has a response. Not to us, but yes: a response.

From today's Jewish Insider mailer

If you have followed the irritating and troubling way the Washington Institute for Near East Policy honored Jordan's king a week ago while simply ignoring the polite and relevant -- and even important -- comments we sent them and published, then you may be interested in their somewhat delayed response.   

No, they didn't respond to us. Neither today nor ever. 

We see that as being self-evidently shabby and counter to their professed values. It really speaks for itself.

But that's not our focus.

Today, a journalist whom we approached at Jewish Insider published a brief summary of what we have been saying about the Washington Institute's choice of honoree and then asked its executive director to react.

Which he did.

Here's the text as published some hours ago in a longer piece under the headline "INTERVIEW | Washington Institute’s Rob Satloff on honoring King Abdullah II" in Jewish Insider's Daily Kickoff mailer to its subscribers:

Pointed criticism: Arnold and Frimet Roth, the parents of U.S.-born [sic] Malki Roth — who was killed in the 2001 terror attack at the Sbarro's pizzeria in Jerusalem — penned an op-ed criticizing The Washington Institute’s decision to honor the Hashemite ruler. The Roths argued that the Jordanian king shouldn’t be feted while he refuses to extradite Ahlam Tamimi — a Jordanian national convicted for her role in the Sbarro bombing and freed in the Gilad Shalit deal — to face U.S. federal charges. 

Satloff’s response: “I am very proud of hosting the King of Jordan, who has steadfastly remained committed to the Jordan-Israel peace treaty throughout the 20 years on the throne and has been an important partner with the U.S. on a broad range of security and strategic matters throughout the Middle East. I have great sympathy for the issue that [the Roths] raised and believe it deserves high-level engagement by the appropriate American authorities with the appropriate Jordanian authorities. It is one important item on a lengthy agenda of bilateral relations.”

He has "great sympathy for the issue" which might mean something sincere and human and (bearing in mind that he hasn't in reality given us so much as the time of day) might not. But really, the head of the Washington Institute seems to be saying, the Roths' concern isn't our concern. It's other people's.

Got it, Dr Satloff.

As parents of a murdered American citizen whose confessed killer is the subject of a years-long effort by the FBI and the Department of Justice to have her extradited to Washington, there's room to wonder how your personal viewpoint as resident Jordan expert at your workplace (and its long-time executive head as well) fits its mission statement

"...to articulate a coherent and realistic view of U.S. national interests..."

One of the last photos we have of Malki, from

a 2001 family celebration

More than that: it's startling to realize that the murder of several US women by a big-mouthed, remarkably upbeat and enthusiastic Islamist Jordanian is so far outside your interpretation of your own raison d'etre that you're fine with lavishly honoring the autocrat who keeps her safe and out of US clutches.

While pointedly ignoring us, the grieving and justice-minded parents of one of her innocent victims.

We will leave the figuring out of all this to others. Bottom line: sometimes it helps just to know how influential and ostensibly thoughtful people actually think.

But it's nonetheless a shame (that's an apt word in this context) that the troubling questions about honor, justice and decency we raised here and about which you are utterly silent remain unanswered. And seem likely to stay that way.

27-Nov-19: Jordanian ruler honored in Washington calls for empowering young people

At the NYC gala (the king is the one wearing the medal)

The Jordan Times is widely regarded to be an English-language mouthpiece for the kingdom's Royal Palace.

Earlier this week, it published a generous account of King Abdullah II's remarks at a glittering New York City event honoring him, hosted by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy on November 21, 2019.

We believe the WINEP recognition is ill-conceived and have said so, and explained why, in several places (see below).

The king makes all of Jordan's important decisions as well as appointing its political leaders and judges. But he also demeans the 1995 extradition treaty entered into by his late father King Hussein and the Bill Clinton Administration - all, it appears, in order to safeguard a popular jihadist with a strong Jordanian following.

That jihadist happens to be the confessed mastermind of the mass-casualty Sbarro pizzeria bombing in which our daughter Malki was killed. The bomber, Ahlam Tamimi, is a fugitive from the FBI who lives openly, never in hiding, in Jordan's capital city Amman.

We have published three related pieces in recent days expressing a viewpoint that is deeply critical not only of the Jordanians but of the Washington Institute whose leadership continues to ignore all our attempts to engage them in discussion.

• "A tribute unfit for a king who harbors our child’s killer" (Featured op-ed in Times of Israel, November 21, 2019]
• "23-Nov-19: We have some unanswered and troubling questions about honor, justice and decency" [This Ongoing War: A Blog, November 23, 2019]
• "Has The Washington Institute lost its moral compass?" [The Good, The Bad, The Ugly - Frimet Roth's Blog, November 18, 2019]

The full text of the Jordan Times article reproduced below (originally published here) provides insight into how the WINEP award is viewed from the Jordanian perspective.

Not surprisingly, even as the king speaks of peace, countering extremism and paying close attention to the future being prepared for young people, the extraordinary enthusiasm his country shows for Ahlam Tamimi's massacre of Jewish children and Jordan's unjustifiable dismissal of its treaty obligations to the United States go unmentioned.

* * *

King, at Scholar-Statesman Award dinner, urges countries to believe in their peoples, give them opportunity
Jordan Times, November 23, 2019

AMMAN — His Majesty King Abdullah participated in a conversation in New York on Thursday evening, held by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy with its executive director, Robert Satloff.

The conversation, held as part of the 2019 Scholar-Statesman Award dinner held in honour of King Abdullah, covered regional developments, the threat of terrorism and efforts to achieve peace in the region, according to a Royal Court statement.

Responding to a question on lessons learned on leadership over the past 20 years, His Majesty said: “With all the challenges that we have in our part of the world, you always have to look to the positive, you always have to reach out and do the right thing.”

“As challenging and as confusing as our part of the world looks, I am optimistic; we will move to the future, and I get that inspiration, not only from my family, but from young men and women in Jordan that have that aspiration to make life better,” the King continued.

“Youth want to move forward, live together and make a better world for themselves, and that’s what gives us, I think, the energy to continue,” His Majesty said.

Commenting on extremism, the King noted that the challenge is global, adding that Daesh has been defeated in Syria and Iraq but not destroyed, according to the statement.

His Majesty pointed to renewed threats from the group, warning that “until politicians understand who the enemy is, it’s two steps forward and one step back”.

The King said the challenge comes from the outlaws of Islam, including takfiri jihadist groups like Daesh that utilise the Internet and social media to create a global reach and recruit around the world.

“So unless we call the enemy and those who support them for what they are, it’s going to take a long time for us to be able to deal with this,” His Majesty added.

Commenting on protests in the Middle East and similar past movements, the King said the Arab Spring was led by youth who were frustrated and wanted opportunities, the statement said.

“We look back at that point in history, and it is obviously a very defining road for us in Islamic and Arabic history, and I think we’ll look back on it and say that was a crossroad that we needed to cross,” His Majesty noted.

Responding to a question on how monarchies have handled protests, the King said: “Monarchies in the way I was brought up by His late Majesty and he was brought up by his father and his father, is we are there for all of society.”

“We are the balancer for everybody in society… We are the ones that make sure that everybody is protected and everybody is supported, and I think that is what has helped the monarchies be stable during a very difficult time for our region,” His Majesty continued.

Discussing efforts to rekindle peace efforts in the region, the King stressed the important role of the United States in bringing both sides together, according to the statement.

“I think there’s quite a few of us in this room that believe that the only way to move forward is a two-state solution, because the alternative is worse for all of us — an Israel looking inwards, which none of us can afford. We then have an immediate challenge of equal rights, which, again, is something that we can’t deal with,” His Majesty stressed.

On the current prospects of the two-state solution, the King said, “Every time we lose a year, it is going to be much more complicated, and much more difficult for the Palestinians and Israelis to get to go forward together”.

Noting that Israel’s future is being part of the Middle East, His Majesty said that cannot happen “unless we solve the Palestinian problem”, which is a sensitive and emotional issue.

“Unless we can solve the Israeli-Palestinian issue, we’ll never have the full integration that all of us deserve in our part of the world,” the King said.

Pointing to the recent elections held in Israel and the current stalemate, His Majesty said, “we are all in pause mode, and we have not been able to get people back around the table talking to each other”.

In January 2018, the US announced a $5M reward

for the capture and conviction of Tamimi

whose home address and movements in 

Jordan's capital are well-known

“The Jordanian-Israeli relationship is at an all-time low. Part of it is because of Israeli domestic issues. We are hoping that Israel would decide its future, whether it is in the next several weeks or in the next three months, and then it is very important for all of us, and I am saying, our friends here in the United States, to refocus our energies on bringing all of us back to the table, and looking at the glass half-full,” His Majesty added.

“The problems that we’ve had with Israel are bilateral. Part of it is internal politics; I understand that, but not at the expense of something that my father and the late prime minister Rabin fought so hard to achieve, as a symbol of hope and opportunity for Israelis, Palestinians, Jordanians and others,” the King continued.

His Majesty pointed out that the Jordanian-Israeli peace was the result of the two sides sitting together “because they had the confidence in each other to create this peace”, voicing hope that the two sides can go back to talking to each other on simple issues “that we have not been able to talk about for the past two years”.

Reacting to calls by US officials to come back from the Middle East, the King expressed understanding for the desire to bring back young men and women out from harm’s way.

“I am absolutely sympathetic with the desire for people to bring their troops back… The United States is in a unique position of being the most powerful, capable country in the world, and with that comes a moral responsibility to help stabilise the world,” His Majesty said.

“From an ex-military point of view, and this is my personal opinion, sometimes when you move out of a campaign before it is over, you are only going to be back tomorrow to try to fix it again, having lost all that ground,” the King underscored.

“Nobody can fault Americans for wanting their loved ones back. But they will be back, unless we solve it, and that is the problem,” His Majesty added.

The King concluded by reiterating the need to empower young people.

“Just know that there is a younger generation of people in our part of the world that just want to get on with their lives,” His Majesty said. Be they Jordanian, Palestinian, Yemeni, Israeli or Iranian, they want to be able to find jobs, settle down with families, and move on, the King explained.

“Believe in your people, because they do want to have the right thing but give them the opportunity. And I am not just talking about our part of the world in the Middle East. This is all over the place. So, give the young people your love and your consideration, because they will make the world better if we give them a chance,” His Majesty concluded.

23-Nov-19: We have some unanswered and troubling questions about honor, justice and decency

From left: WINEP Executive Director Robert Satloff, Chairman of the WINEP
Board of Trustees James Schreiber, Jordan's king, someone else

No one from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy - not their board members, not the executives who run it, not the communications professionals who work hard to keep it in the news - bothered to respond to us or any of our emails, tweets or opinion pieces (one on the home page of the Times of Israel, one on our blog) in relation to their giving an award called "Scholar-Statesman" to Jordan's ruler this past Thursday night.

We think that's extraordinary. Not in a good way.

Our concern focuses on how Jordan, an absolute monarchy, defeats justice by brazenly shielding a mass murderer who happens also to be the killer of our teenage daughter Malki. Malki was a US citizen whose life ended in a massive conflagration before she reached her sixteenth birthday.

In the wake of the glittering event at which the award was presented, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan's embassy in Washington, where Ambassador Dina Kawar blocks us on Twitter, has just published the kind of self-serving report we have learned to expect, emphasizing and re-emphasizing King Abdullah II's wisdom, wise policies and how he "confronts" extremism.

22 November 2019 (Archived)
KING RECEIVES 2019 SCHOLAR-STATESMAN AWARD
His Majesty King Abdullah, in the presence of Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah and His Royal Highness Crown Prince Al Hussein bin Abdullah, received the 2019 Scholar-Statesman Award on Thursday evening.
The award, presented to King Abdullah by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), has been awarded to His Majesty in appreciation for his wise policies and efforts towards peace, stability, harmony, and tolerance in the Middle East.
The award was presented to His Majesty by WINEP Chairman of the Board of Trustees James Schreiber, during a dinner held to mark the occasion.
The award celebrates distinguished leaders who, through their public service and achievements, underscore the importance of research and deep knowledge of history in effective and wise policies to promote peace and security in the Middle East.
In remarks at the ceremony, WINEP Executive Director Robert Satloff noted that when His Majesty talks, people listen, be they leaders around world or the millions of his people, who count on him to provide wisdom and guidance, vision and balance, leadership and security.
For his part, WINEP Chairman of the Board of Trustees James Schreiber addressed the King saying, “you have led your country with strength, compassion, moderation and wisdom.”
He added, “you have been a committed warrior for peace, and a determined leader in the battle to confront extremism. In your faith, and in all faiths, you have been a true partner of our country, the United States.”
During the ceremony, a tribute video was screened, highlighting His Majesty’s achievements and efforts to pursue peace in the region and to promote dialogue and interfaith harmony, as well as his role as the Hashemite Custodian of Islamic and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem.
After receiving the award, His Majesty sat for a conversation with WINEP Executive Director Satloff, during which His Majesty spoke of the latest developments in the Middle East, the threat of terrorism and extremism, and efforts to pursue peace in the region.
Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, Adviser to His Majesty for Communication and Coordination Bisher Khasawneh, Jordan’s Permanent Representative to the UN Sima Bahous, and Jordan’s Ambassador in Washington, D.C., Dina Kawar attended the award dinner.

Plenty of "wisdom" here. But no mention at all of 

• Jordan's egregious and continuing breach of the active and binding 1995 Extradition Treaty made by the awardee's father, King Hussein, and the Clinton Administration
• The State Department confirming just three weeks ago [see "03-Nov-19: In Washington, a step towards bringing the Sbarro bomber to justice"] that although Jordan continues "to cite a court ruling that its constitution forbids the extradition of Jordanian nationals... the United States regards the extradition treaty as valid."
• The fact that Ahlam Tamimi, a Jordanian national, is wanted on US Federal terrorism charges arising from a bombing attack in Jerusalem to which she has openly and repeatedly confessed and that took the lives of 16 innocent people, half of them children, one of them our fifteen-year old daughter Malki. She is one of just 28 terrorists classified as being the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists.
• Jordan's blunt refusal to hand her over to the US Justice Department, a disgraceful stance that has been barely reported in the mainstream news media in the US but which was explicitly confirmed earlier this month by Jordan's foreign minister ["13-Nov-19: Thank you, Mr Foreign Minister"] who was present at the Washington prize-granting event.

The most recent of our tweets asks a question, still unanswered, that we intend to pursue:

The @WashInstitute people give us the silent treatment. If you're one of their donors (and even if not) please ask @AmbDennisRoss, @DavidMakovsky, @RobSatloff if they knew @KingAbdullahII shields an @FBIMostWanted terrorist (our child's killer) when they decided to honor him. https://t.co/TMEQxnWVQA

— Arnold Roth (@arnoldroth) November 22, 2019

Finally a reminder that the Washington Institute's mission is "to advance a balanced and realistic understanding of American interests in the Middle East and to promote the policies that secure them."

Please recall that three of the lives stolen in the Tamimi atrocity were those of citizens of the United States. Does anyone doubt that this counts as an American interest in the Middle East?

We're baffled and pained by every aspect of how the Washington Institute for Near East Policy has conducted itself in this exceedingly shabby affair. We're especially troubled by how its leadership disdains us and our questions and acts as if we, our questions and our murdered child simply don't exist or aren't worth the trouble of acknowledging.

16-Feb-17: When they talk to Arabic-speaking audiences, a different message about terror and a two-state solution

A Nov. 2012 Gaza City rally honoring an Arab military victory over Israel

Shaath, and to his left, Hamas chief Haniyeh, Islamic Jihad arch-terrorist

Mohammed Al-Hindi and Ahmed Bahar of the Palestinian Arab

parliament, Gaza City [Image Source: Reuters]

While impassioned speeches about a "two state solution" to the Arab/Israel conflict remain in the air, we think it's useful to publicize the views of one of the most central figures in the Palestinian Arab political firmament.

We're speaking about Nabil Ali Muhammad Shaath, also known as Abu Rashid, who has been the foreign minister of Palestinian Authority (between April 2003 and February 2005, the first person to occupy that office), a cabinet minister in the Palestinian Authority regime, the Acting Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority, a member of Fatah's Central Committee and currently the Commissioner of the Fatah Department of International Relations (whose website, we see today, has been hacked, evidently by pro-Israel vandals).

Shaath has established himself as an important Palestinian leader with close ties to European and other governments. He maintains a strong relationship with President Abbas but is viewed by a large part of the Palestinian public as corrupt. Still, he has never having spent time in prison, unlike most Fatah Central Committee members. He has developed a substantial fortune and owns an excellent collection of Palestine stamps. [Fatah Central Committee Profiles, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 2015] 

Shaath is a figure of top-level seniority. He's also well-educated, having gotten both a masters degree and a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania. The consulting firm he established in the mid-seventies, TEAM International, is well-known and successful. What he says has significance.

So we're indebted to the good people at Palestinian Media Watch for translating into English the hateful and dangerous Shaath bombast reproduced below. They were recorded when Shaath was interviewed on Awdah TV, which PMW calls a Fatah channel, on January 23, 2017.

Watch it (above) and you will see Shaath manage three times in the course of a very brief interview to justify a claimed Palestinian Arab right to use what he terms "armed struggle", a well-established euphemism for terror.

"Our cause is just. Our right to the armed struggle is an indisputable right. The Israelis didn't come here through negotiations. They did not come at our request. They are usurpers who came with weapons to murder and tried to expel [us]. They succeeded in expelling a large part of our people by force. Therefore, our right to the armed struggle is indisputable... We are humane people. We want to liberate our homeland. After we liberate our homeland, we will have no problem with living in a democratic state in which Jews, Muslims and Christians live - in a Palestinian Arab democratic state... [As a Palestinian] - your cause is just. You are occupied. Your land was stolen. Your rights were taken. Therefore, I've never seen any problem with carrying out the armed struggle while diplomatic and political activity supporting your cause is being carried out." [Awdah TV, January 23, 2017]

Reaching for lethal violence - stabbings, shootings, bombings, truck-rammings - is an "indisputable" right, he asserts. Resorting to it is justified because it enables Arabs to "liberate our homeland". And once that liberation process runs its course, in Shaath's way of looking at things, a "Palestinian Arab democratic state" will then exist within whose borders Muslims, Christians and Jews will party together or something similar.

This is the kind of blather that Arab political figures reserve for their Arabic-speaking audiences. It used to have little traction or credibility outside those circles. But that has changed.

It's worthy of note that Shaath's speech puts the lie to numerous public undertakings given by Fatah and the PLO to stop doing terror at various points in the past three decades. Those commitments were a quid pro quo for things the Palestinian Arabs wanted to achieve in their political campaigning.

PMW refers to several key Palestinian Arab commitments to stop terror:

• "The PLO renounces the use of terrorism and other acts of violence and will assume responsibility over all PLO elements and personnel in order to assure their compliance, prevent violations and discipline violators." [Source: Arafat to Rabin, Letters of Mutual Recognition, Sept. 9, 1993, attached to the Oslo Accords] 
• "1. Both sides shall take all measures necessary in order to prevent acts of terrorism, crime and hostilities directed against each other, against individuals falling under the other's authority and against their property and shall take legal measures against offenders." [Oslo Accords ARTICLE XV]  
• "2. Both sides will, in accordance with this Agreement, act to ensure the immediate, efficient and effective handling of any incident involving a threat or act of terrorism, violence or incitement, whether committed by Palestinians or Israelis... Each side shall immediately and effectively respond to the occurrence or anticipated occurrence of an act of terrorism, violence or incitement and shall take all necessary measures to prevent such an occurrence." [Oslo Accords Annex I, ARTICLE II]

Just how solidly does Shaath support the idea of a two-state solution? You can judge for yourself from this subtly-titled video:

"We Will Never Accept the "Two-States for Two Peoples" Solution to the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict". [ANB TV, Lebanon/London via MEMRI, July 13, 2011

Shaath's exhortations to violence over the years have had little impact on the public relations people at University of Pennsylvania, Shaath's alma mater, who wrote of Shaath that he "has devoted decades his life working toward peace between the Israelis and Palestinians" ["A Palestinian Voice for Peace", Wharton School, 2007].

We're guessing they don't speak Arabic.