Former MK Yehudah Glick was severely beaten on Thursday when he visited the bereaved family of Iyad al-Halak, a Palestinian man who was shot by Border Police last Friday.
Halak was autistic and, according to his family, had the mental capacity of a child.
Glick was beaten when he left the bereaved family, who lives in east Jerusalem, and taken to Shaarei Zedek Medical Center, N12 reported.
The Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem Rabbi Aryeh Stern visited the mourning tent on Tuesday.
The shooting of an autistic man, leading to his death, led to wide condemnation across the country.
Norway’s foreign minister on Thursday announced that funds earmarked for the Palestinian Authority’s education sector would be withheld until changes were made to schoolbooks that promoted antisemitism and terrorist violence against Israelis.
The decision followed a vote last December in the Norwegian parliament to demand such changes after the publication of a report by IMPACT-se — an NGO that analyzes school textbooks around the world for signs of intolerance — that demonstrated systematic insertions of violence, martyrdom and jihad across all grades and subjects in the textbooks used by the PA.
Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Søreide said that when she met with PA Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh in Ramallah in February, she had “communicated the government’s views on the matter, stressing that lack of improvements in the school curriculum could have budgetary implications for future Norwegian aid.”
Søreide expressed optimism that changes to the textbooks would be implemented. “We feel that there is a good and close dialogue with the Palestinian education authorities on the issue,” she said. “Some of the curriculum changes have already been made by Palestine’s own textbook quality control committee.”
A statement from IMPACT-se praised Søreide for her “unprecedented decision.”
“This remarkable pronouncement is a clear message that Norway’s elected leaders will not allow their generosity to be abused, to deliver a daily diet of violence, bigotry and incitement against Jews and Israel in Palestinian schools,” the NGO declared.
The Independent Commission for Human Rights i Gaza called on Hamas to take the necessary measures to prevent suicides in detention centers and prisons.
Recently, Muaz Ahmed Shukri Abu Amra, 19, hanged himself in a Hamas prison. On April 24 he was transferred from th Deir al Balah jail to the Central Governorate Reform and Rehabilitation Center, and he died on May 29 after being refused release.
Mustafa Fayek Abed Rabbo Salman. 17 committed suicide in 2017 at the Beit Lahia police station , and Walid Abdel Aziz Al-Dahini, 30, killed himself in 2018 in the Rafah Police Station.
As far as I can tell, in the 53 years of “occupation,” not a single Palestinian prisoner has committed suicide in those horrendous Israeli prisons we keep hearing about. (Several Jews have killed themselves in Israeli prisons, however.)
Tel Aviv, June 4 - Israeli secret intelligence officials and agents scrambled today to mitigate damage that resulted since late last week when a maintenance worker unintentionally activated a machine that set in motion violent outbreaks in many major American urban centers and several smaller locales, an anonymous spokesman for the agency disclosed Thursday.
According to initial assessments of the incident, the spokesman revealed, a late-night cleaning crew at Mossad headquarters jostled a device that was in the middle of complicated hardware upgrades, and as such had been left in an exposed position. The cleaning crew performed its usual routine, but the device, located in a server room that employees enter on average only once a week, became activated when a cleaner's mop swabbed a sensitive panel. The accident caused a chain reaction in the agency's quantum mind-control matrix that led to the Minneapolis death at the hands of police of an African-American, a death that in turn sparked protests that soon turned violent, even deadly - and in many cases resulted in widespread looting and a breakdown in law and order across the Unites States.
Mossad technicians only realized on Tuesday that the stateside violence came from their machine, when a different maintenance task took them to the same server room thirty stories below ground level. "It was only then that someone noticed the riot device was active," the spokesman stated. "From that point forward, our agents and tech people have been working around the clock to reset things on our end, but much of the damage is already done in New York, Los Angeles, Portland, Washington, and Minneapolis, just to note a few hotspots."
The debacle represents the Mossad's most significant acknowledged foul-up since the election of Donald Trump to the presidency in late 2016. "That was a whopper," recalled independent intelligence analyst Glinn Grenwald. "Afterwards we saw a skilled effort, to some degree successful, to paint Trump's election as a successful operation, but in fact the Mossad was as blindsided by the outcome as Putin was. This one, with the looting and the riots, and the dishonest coverage all around of police activities, well, that's quite a cluster**** in its own right, but doesn't quite rise to the level of Donald Trump assuming the most powerful office in the history of the world."
Observers also drew comparisons to the 1967 sinking of the USS Liberty, 9/11, Hurricane Katina, and several other incidents for which Israel often gets blamed but in fact the CIA orchestrated.
The U.S. peace plan offers a coherent, well-ordered worldview about how Israel can ensure calm regarding security issues, economic stability, and also a shared future and coexistence for Israelis and Palestinians living west of the Jordan River. In contrast to the past, this plan does not come with meaningless bombastic declarations about a historic breakthrough.
What it does is lay down the path for a long, slow, and exhausting journey in the right direction - a journey at the end of which both sides will realize some of their goals and be able to coexist in peace. It appears that this time, the Arab world and some of the Palestinians themselves aren't rushing to join Abbas' war for the umpteenth time.
The real Palestinian tragedy remains their policy of all or nothing. Their lack of ability to correctly read the map of the region, along with their inability to reach a compromise, have been hallmarks of the Palestinian movement. A compromise like this one might not fulfill everyone's dreams, but it could promote their interests much better than the path of violence to which the Palestinians still adhere. The Palestinians have tried violence countless times in the past, and every time, this path has brought disaster down upon their own heads. The writer is a lecturer in the Middle East History Department at Tel Aviv University.
On June 1, 2001, as scores of Israeli teenagers went to the popular Dolphinarium nightclub on the Tel Aviv beach, a Palestinian terrorist blew himself up, murdering 21 kids and injuring over a hundred more. The Palestinian Authority declared the suicide bomber to be a "martyr."
Becoming a "martyr" represents the highest religious achievement that can be attained by a Muslim. His death is celebrated as a "wedding" in which the "martyr" marries 72 dark-eyed virgins in paradise. A video clip often broadcast on official PA TV declares that "Life is insignificant....God, grant us martyrdom."
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is directly responsible for paying monthly cash rewards to the families of dead terrorists and to imprisoned terrorists. In 2010, he approved a salary hike for terrorist prisoners including a 300% rise - from NIS 4,000 per month to NIS 12,000 per month - for prisoners who serve more than 30 years in prison for murder. In 2007, 2009 and 2013, Abbas approved a hike in the monthly allowances paid to the families of dead terrorists, including suicide bombers.
Raed Al-Houtari, who sent the suicide bomber to the Dolphinarium, was arrested in 2003 and sentenced to 22 consecutive life sentences. Al-Houtari has so far received $215,761, and he will continue to receive a monthly salary from the PA for the rest of his life because he is a mass murderer.
The PA leadership sanctifies death, murder and hatred. The Israeli leadership prioritizes life and is even willing to help those who hate us, as it did by granting a NIS 800 million loan to the PA during the coronavirus crisis.
Israel has suspended the order forbidding PA banks through to process salary payments to security prisoners and the families of dead terrorists, Reshet Bet radio reported Thursday morning. The order, issued a month ago by the Commander of the Central Command, Gen. Nadav Padan, resulted in the banks freezing the accounts of terrorists and their families, a move which later exposed them to a wave of lawsuits.
And so a notice of the suspension of the order for 45 days was sent to the Palestinian Authority Wednesday night, following the decision of the Defense Minister and Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz. Defense establishment officials confirmed the news, saying that the decision had been made in light of the recommendation of various components in the defense establishment to re-examine the order and obtain a legal opinion on the significance of the order, in light of the sensitivity and tension on the ground.
Hard to believe? Not if you’re former Defense Minister and now member of the opposition Naftali Bennett, who slammed Gantz on his Facebook page Thursday morning:
Incomprehensible. This morning, Defense Minister Benny Gantz canceled an order preventing the payment of terrorist salaries. From this moment on, Palestinian banks are again allowed to transfer money to the murderers of Jews.
The Palestinian Authority on Wednesday said it will no longer accept tax revenue transfers from Israel as it pushes to end coordination with Israel. In 2019, tax revenues transferred to the PA by Israel accounted for 60% of the Palestinian budget.
The PA lacks an international port of entry, meaning all goods entering and exiting the West Bank must pass through Israel. According to the 1994 Paris Protocol, Israel is responsible for levying taxes on imports and exports before transferring the funds to the PA.
The PA's decision also calls into question a recent NIS 800 million loan by Israel to the PA to help it weather the financial damage of the coronavirus crisis.
A couple of times a month, busloads of haredi Jews travel in the middle of the night to visit the site known as Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus (Shechem.) They are accompanied by IDF troops to keep them safe.
Every time, the Arab youths of Nablus greet the buses and soldiers with stones.
Last night, the busloads came – but no stones.
According to Ma’an, the Palestinian Arab guards of the holy site were surprised by the 2:30 AM visit. They had not been informed ahead of time as they usually are, because the Palestinian Authority has been severing all security cooperation with Israel.
The guards decided to leave the area so as not to inflame the situation with the IDF, knowing that this is a fairly regular occurrence.
The worshipers entered quietly and prayed for several hours, as they always do. Only when they returned to the buses and left did Arab youths throw a few stones at them.
The only difference this time is that the Palestinian security forces did not know about the visit ahead of time. Which means that every other time, someone in PA security told the local hotheads about the visit beforehand so they could be ready to throw stones at the Jews!
This time a few youths were woken up in the middle of the night – again, no one but night owls and the PA security forces knew about this visit at that point – so they could organize a token attack.
If this is what happened, it means that the PA security forces (or at least one of them) is actively working to support throwing potentially deadly stones at Jews who only want to worship at a holy site – as is their right under existing agreements.
And this all happened during the “security cooperation.”
There have been a number of articles by Jews lately saying that this is not the time to worry about the anti-Israel platform of Black Lives Matter because solidarity with blacks over the murder of George Floyd is far more important.
The morning after I saw the video of George Floyd’s death-by-police, I gave a small donation to Black Lives Matter (BLM) and shared a link on social media encouraging friends to do the same. A fellow member of my temple’s Tzedek Council took exception. He declared that while he supports the cause of ending police brutality against African Americans, he couldn’t in good conscience contribute to BLM because of their support of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement (BDS), and condemnation of Israel.
…But Jews need to support black people, BDS or no, because… well, “First they came for the Blacks and I did nothing.”
I believe in equality and equity. I fight against racism. I believe every human being is created in God’s holy image. And yet, I previously grimaced when I heard the rallying cry “Black Lives Matter.” I grimaced really for one reason only: the stance the Movement for Black Lives platform took on Israel back in 2016. The comprehensive document referred to Israel as an “apartheid state” and condemned the United States for its “alliance with Israel and [being] complicit in the genocide taking place against the Palestinian people.” Such rhetoric broke my heart.
For the past four years, every time I saw a “Black Lives Matter” placard, I shuddered at the anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic themes it raised for me.
…In 8 minutes and 46 seconds, the world changed. Now it is on us to make certain that George Floyd’s death will not be in vain. We can argue and joust and cry about Israel another day. Today, we have a categorical moral imperative to hear the pain of our black brothers and sisters. We have to recognize the holiness in their struggle and their plight. And I know in my heart of hearts that I have to stand with them. We have to stand with them. And so now and evermore we must all say Black Lives Matter.
Another article, with a much stronger point for supporting BLM, at Hey Alma:
Far more common than those who denounced Black Lives Matter outright, though, were those who silently took a few steps back from the movement. You know who you are. You know that there’s racism in America; you’re against it, obviously, but you really, really don’t want to get into an internet fight about Israel.
Maybe you’re a college student who feels alienated by the BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions) activism on your campus. Maybe you’re a proud Zionist who deleted Dua Lipa’s new album from your Spotify library after she reposted an anti-Israel screed. Maybe you haven’t thoroughly thought out your position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and you’re just sick of people expecting you to take sides just because you’re Jewish. Whatever the reason, you’re one of those people who just wouldn’t be comfortable rolling up to a Black Lives Matter protest with your Star of David necklace out, knowing that you might run into someone holding a Palestinian flag.
I see where you’re coming from, I really do. And I’m here to tell you that you need to show up anyway.
I am an Israeli citizen and a proud Zionist. I oppose BDS because I believe full civil rights and security for Palestinians will only be achieved through Israeli-Palestinian dialogue and trust-building. By the same token, I cannot refuse to engage with Black Lives Matter. The history of racism and white supremacy in the United States is violent and painful, like that of Israel and Palestine. No American of good conscience can simply opt out of racism in America — no more than Israelis can simply ignore the existence of Palestinians, or vice versa.
All of these articles are conflating genuine fighting for equality and justice with the organization called “Black Lives Matter.” They say that the fight against racism is too important to let the BLM’s anti-Israel platform be an impediment.
Now, imagine if the BLM platform said it was against equality for women. Imagine if it said it was against accommodating disabled people in America. Imagine if it said it was against equal rights for gays. Would anyone say that this should be ignored and we should support Black Lives Matter anyway?
No one would.
But BLM did insert bigotry into its platform. It actively opposes the rights of Jews to exercise self-determination, the right to defend themselves, the right to be treated like other peoples.
Why is the anti-Israel and effectively antisemitic platform of BLM any more acceptable than those other prejudices? Why are Jews – and everyone else – supposed to overlook this discrimination and bigotry in the name of fighting discrimination and bigotry?
In a world where a single unthinking politically incorrect comment can get people to lose their jobs, why is anti-Israel bigotry the exception that we are asked to overlook? Why do Jews have to be the ones who rise above being the objects of hate but no one else is expected to?
Attend the protests. Wear your Star of David necklace. Brandish the signs that say Jews support black lives. There is nothing wrong with marching with those you disagree with on a cause you have in common.
But keep your self-respect. Don’t say that we can ignore the bigotry of BLM or can push that topic off to another day. Bigotry is the topic, and supporting BDS is bigotry. Even if 99% of the BLM platform is wonderful, that 1% poisons the entire thing and should never be accepted or excused.
If the Israel issue does come up, don’t get defensive. Show pride. Point out that it makes sense for blacks to partner with Jews who know a thing or two about rising from slavery and genocide to becoming a proud people living their own lives in their own land, who unapologetically defend themselves against the antisemites and bigots, who know that antisemitism and racism will never disappear but have the most experience in effectively fighting the hate.
Israel is the real life Wakanda. That is the message that needs to be shared.
Jewish pride means that no one should donate to, or write articles supporting, an organization that is bigoted against Jews who support a Jewish state.
Black lives do matter. But Black Lives Matter cannot be condoned as long as it practices the type of bigotry it is ostensibly against.
UPDATE: It appears that the pro-BDS platform has been removed from the webpages of Black Lives Matter and the Movement for Black Lives. I don't know when this happened. They no longer have a full platform published, and their What We Believe page has nothing about Israel or Palestinians. If they no longer support BDS, this argument becomes moot, but we should get clarification.
UPDATE 2: The anti-Israel rhetoric is still there but put under a different policy paper on cutting military expenditures. It refers to Israel as an "apartheid state" and points people to Adalah and BDS resources. My original point stands. (h/t Orgth BC)
There was an amazing article in Haaretz on Tuesday, written by former Palestinian negotiator Bishara Bahbah .
Bahbah gave advice to Palestinian leadership that is obvious and rational. Which is exactly what makes this article amazing – Arabs usually coddle the Palestinian leaders rather than tell them hard truths.
Excerpts:
The Palestinian Refusal to Negotiate With Israel and Trump Is a Cowardly, Fateful Mistake
Besides denunciations and rejection, the Palestinian leadership has nothing else to offer. The Palestinian leadership is in a state of mental paralysis. Depressingly and damagingly, this
Here are eight recommendations for the Palestinian leadership to deliberate – and move forward. Before too much is lost.
You need new blood. The same, failed Palestinian leaders have been leading for the last four decades. Despite their failures, they have either retained their positions or have been promoted.
Do something – or resign. If Fatah’s central committee and the PLO’s executive committee are incapable of making constructive, fateful decisions regarding the future of Palestine, except to say no, then please resign. There are younger Palestinians in their twenties and thirties who are capable of making better calculated and courageous decisions. Those should be the ones in power.
Doing nothing or saying no gives Israel a green light to act. Saying no to the Trump peace plan and/or doing nothing to respond to the proposed plan is tantamount to giving Israel a green light to annex the Jordan Valley come July 2020.
Better deals might not exist. In 2000, 2008, and 2014, the Palestinian Authority refused to accept peace proposals based on a two-state solution formula. There is no perfect peace agreement and there is no just peace agreement. Learn to live with the dictates of life and the realities on the ground. By comparison, those previous peace proposals look very attractive compared to the Trump peace plan. Do not waste the Palestinian people’s lives waiting for a better proposal to present itself. It might never happen!
Reject but provide an alternative, i.e., engage. President Donald Trump, and his ambassador to the United Nations, Kelly Craft, described the Trump peace plan as "a basis for negotiations." They did not say take it or leave it. …
Beware of your own people. The Palestinian political elite are financially comfortable with their monthly stipends, cars, drivers, and, most importantly, their Israeli-issued VIP passes. The rest of the Palestinian people whether in Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the refugee camps do not have those luxuries. They are suffering but they see what you, the leaders, have. Be very, very alert to how capable "hungry" people can be.
When have you ever heard a Palestinian say something this rational – especially in Haaretz?
Of course, two days later there is no coverage of this article in Palestinian media – even though they often eagerly translate articles from Haaretz. The reason why this article is ignored is the reason why peace is impossible – because the Palestinian leadership does not want a state nor do they want peace.
Over the past couple of days the Palestinian foreign minister had to deny rumors that he was willing to negotiate with Israel under Russian sponsorship in Moscow. Whether he really said this or not is not important – the fact that he regarded a rumor like that to be so outrageous that he threatens to sue the newspapers that reported it is really the story. The idea of talking to or negotiating with Israel is anathema to Palestinian leaders, which means that they are not interested in any real peace; instead they hope that one day international pressure will force Israel to surrender its own sovereignty.
Peace can only come when Palestinian leaders are willing to face hard truths that might be uncomfortable to them. But they live in a fantasy world where the unassailable logic shown here is not only not heard, but it is forbidden.
You annex foreign land, not your own country. – Menachem Begin
Right now Israel is facing a momentous decision to do something that is practically nothing. That is to extend Israeli civilian law to some parts of Judea and Samaria, specifically the Jordan Valley and other areas where Jewish communities are located.
Why do I say it is practically nothing? Because the official position of our government, although it often does a rotten job of explaining it, is that those areas are already part of Israel. Nothing is being “annexed” as the EU insists (here is why). And while the areas are currently governed by a military government, little will change in most practical legal matters.
Of course it is a big deal for the Palestinians, for the Europeans, and indeed for anyone who wishes that the Jews did not have a sovereign state. This is because it symbolizes the end of the pretense that was so dear to them, that the “West Bank” (as they prefer to call it) is not part of Israel and ultimately will need to pass into Arab hands. It means that any “two-state solution” that could happen in the future will happen according to a map more like the map found in the Trump Plan – one that is consistent with UNSC 242 that called for “secure and recognized boundaries” – rather than the very insecure boundaries that would result from basing them on the 1949 armistice lines, as previous US administrations wished to do.
It is also a big deal for us, for the same reason. It is a recognition that justice is on our side. It is a repudiation of the idea that we are holding onto something that belongs to someone else. It is an affirmation that Eretz Yisrael is the land of the Jewish people.
Let me dismiss the objection that the Palestinians will react violently. What else is new? The Palestinians will always be as violent as they think they can get away with. If they see that we’re prepared, they will content themselves with verbal complaints.
And King Abdullah of Jordan won’t abrogate his treaty with us. He can’t afford to, and in addition he probably would prefer not to have a border with any future Palestinian entity.
Most Israelis favor this step. But some have objected that the map in the Trump plan would leave numerous Jewish communities cut off, enclaves in the Palestinian entity without the ability to grow and difficult or impossible to secure. It would be, de facto, as much an abandonment of those communities as the withdrawal from Gaza was for Gush Katif. They also point out that any Palestinian state in the center of Israel’s heartland would be dangerous.
The US has said that it would “recognize” Israel’s action only if Israel offered to negotiate with the Palestinians on the basis of the Trump plan, coordinate the map with the US, and agree to freeze construction in parts of Area C that are not included in the area to which Israeli law will be applied. This implies that Israel would actually lose territory as a result.
I don’t want to minimize their concerns. But I think we need to step all the way out of the “peace processing” box and take a different approach. I propose that:
1. We announce that we agree in principle with the Trump plan, although we do not sign onto any specifics. We offer to talk with the Palestinians. 2. We draw a map that meets our security needs and provides for access to and expansion of all the existing Jewish communities. 3. We present it to the Americans and explain that this is our interpretation of the Trump plan, and we hope that they will be able to agree that it is reasonable. 4. We take the needed steps to extend civilian law to the areas indicated in the map.
Note that American “recognition” of Israel’s action is meaningless. We are not declaring a state that needs to be accepted into international organizations. We are making a change that is an internal matter, consistent with the principle that Judea and Samaria are part of Israel in accordance with international law.
I’m confident that the US will accept our action. It is not in its interest to reject it: whether the map is closer to what the American officials who originally drew it envisioned or to what the people who today live in Judea and Samaria prefer, the negative reactions from Europe and the Palestinians, as well as the (disingenuous) complaints of the Arab nations, will be the same. So why make the details a sticking point?
Keep in mind that the US has other concerns. It seems to me that the position of President Trump is precarious. I also believe – though I hope I’m wrong – that the disturbances that we are seeing now in cities across the country are not a short-term phenomenon but mark the beginning of a prolonged state of instability. And the Coronavirus is not going away.
We are an ally, not a vassal of the US. It may be that in the long run we may be able to do more for it than it can do for us.
Western Europe, with its history of colonialism, antisemitism, and genocide against the Jews and others, is not a moral exemplar; its politics are politics of interest larded with a large measure of Jew-hatred. At the same time that we extend civilian law in Judea and Samaria, we should take the strongest possible steps to eliminate EU influence there, as well as in various areas of Israeli politics and society.
We can and should take this step. Even though it is practically a very small step, it is psychologically and spiritually important. It may not be possible, even in a few months. Don’t wait until it’s too late.
Before Covid-19 struck, Boris Johnson had decided to invite the Chinese tech giant Huawei to provide parts of Britain’s 5G communications network. Now, with China condemned for causing the pandemic through its reckless behaviour and then behaving like a gangster state in resorting to lies, threats and manipulation, the government is proposing an alliance of ten democratic nations to develop alternatives to Chinese technology.
This “D10” would be composed of the G7 nations — the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan — plus Australia, South Korea and India. It’s an idea that is not only excellent in itself but encapsulates an insight with far-reaching potential to restructure global institutions.
What’s actually outdated is the idea that peace and justice can only be advanced by the world acting as one big united family. This belief in the brotherhood of man lay behind the foundation of the United Nations in 1945. Yet the UN has not only failed to live up to its ideals of confronting aggression, preserving peace and defending human rights, but has in fact helped thwart them.
Given that most countries are tyrannies, kleptocracies or rogue states, a global body which brings them all together will inevitably be dominated by their unsavoury characteristics.
What’s needed instead is a United Democratic Nations. This is an idea that has often been floated wistfully by critics of the UN but dismissed as quixotic. The D10 proposal, however, could be the launchpad for just such a body. Going beyond the issue of Huawei and 5G technology, democracies should band together to defend freedom and justice by standing up to the depredations of regimes that seek to extinguish them.
The UN might have been created as a result of the shattering impact of the Second World War. It was founded, however, on a starry-eyed denial of the fact that if a lion lies down with a lamb, the lion doesn’t turn vegan but the lamb gets eaten.
I am a Jordanian Arab from a Muslim family. I was born in 1989. In 2010, I decided to leave Islam after becoming fed up with all the jihadist violence and intolerance and persecution of non-Muslims. What made my decision final was the realization that this violence and hatred was justified by verses of the Koran and Hadith.
From 2010-2012, I was an atheist, though I continued to seek the truth regarding God and religion, even visiting Buddhist temples in Amman.
I was a university student at the time, and announced my newfound atheism through social media, which immediately turned many friends and colleagues against me. They felt I was backwards in my thinking, and I came to feel the same about them.
As you are no doubt aware, atheism is detested in the Arab and Islamic world. I faced a lot of hurtful opposition from those around me, but I kept my head down and focused on completing my university studies. It wasn’t easy. There were those who tried to have me kicked out because of my stance against Islam, but they failed.
In 2012, I decided to visit a church and learn more about Christianity. I was curious about Jesus. After four months of investigating, I joined an international church under the auspices of an American priest. On the very first day, I was asked to pray for salvation, after which one of the Christian brothers gave me weekly Bible lessons. Shortly after, I was baptized in the Jordan River.
Jordan is seen by many as a moderate Arab Muslim country. But even here, it is illegal to leave Islam. The civil courts are still governed by Sharia law, and to have someone complain against you for rejecting Islam can result in criminal punishment.
This didn’t deter me, and in 2012, I made an online video telling people in Arabic about how I’d become a Christian. Several days later, I was attacked by three radical Muslims. I also received threats from a radical Salafi movement under the leadership of Jarrah Rahahleh, an international terrorist, who used to send jihadists to Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan, and was arrested many times by Jordanian authorities. Further threats came from others.
Thus it was that the group that would come to be known as the “Nakam,” Hebrew for “Avengers,” was born. In the spring of 1945, a Passover gathering of survivors in Bucharest was addressed by Abba Kovner, the young leader of the Jewish uprising in the Vilna ghetto. Kovner was born in 1918 in Sebastopol, Russia, and spent his high school years in Vilna, where he joined Ha-Shomer Hatzair youth movement. When the Germans invaded and occupied Lithuania, they rounded up the Jews and put them in a ghetto. Kovner pleaded with Vilna’s Jews to join the partisans in a popular uprising, but they refused. After briefly fighting the Germans, Kovner and other partisans fled to the forest. While there, they destroyed 180 miles of train tracks, five bridges, 40 enemy train cars and killed 212 German soldiers. He returned to Vilna with the Red Army on July 7, 1944, capturing the city from the Germans on July 13, 1944. After the war, he and 50 other partisans attempted to poison thousands of Nazi and SS prisoners in a Nuremberg POW camp. It is unknown how many Germans were killed. In 1961 he testified at the trial of Adolf Eichmann. In 1970, he won the “Israel Prize” in literature for his poetry.
At that gathering, Kovner spoke passionately and invoked Psalm 94, in which God promises that he shall deal with the enemies of the people of Israel. “He will turn upon them their own violence and with their own wickedness destroy them.” This, Kovner suggested, was the fate that should be meted out to the Germans. And if the courts of international justice would not do it, then the Jews should do it themselves.
Calmly, the group set about implementing the death sentences they themselves had passed. First, they would identify a Nazi who had melted back into civilian life. They would then stage an arrest and spirit the German away. Some of these ex-SS men were strangled, others hanged. The deaths of those who were hanged could be passed off as suicides. Hangings might take place in a garage, with the subject forced to stand on a car roof while his neck was placed in the noose attached to an overhead beam. An Avenger would drive the car away and the man would be strangled. These efforts endured into the 1950s. The executioners kept their mouths shut and took their secrets to their graves.
The Nakam went to Spain, Latin America, Canada, and other places where Nazi murderers found refuge. In one such operation, the Nakam tracked down Alexander Laak, responsible for the deaths of 100,000 Jews at the Estonian concentration camp of Jagala. One evening they waited for Laak’s wife to leave for the movies, went to his home, and confronted him with his crimes and their intended punishment. They gave him a choice: They would kill him, or he could do it himself. He hung himself.
Benjamin Levi, one of the avengers, recalled that period in his life saying, “I saw a lot of things. I saw very noble people become animals. And very plain people become noble.” He had joined the partisans during the war and helped to liberate Vilna. He and his comrades rounded up Lithuanians who had collaborated with the Germans and shot them on the spot. “We didn’t keep prisoners,” he said. “There was no discussion. It was a normal thing.” All enemies were immediately shot. “The moment I start to think about this more and more memories come,” he said to a later interviewer. “We don’t talk about this anymore. But it’s alive inside.”
After the founding of the State of Israel, the Mossad, Israel’s national intelligence agency, undertook the task of tracking down former Nazis and killing them, and in some cases, putting them on trial. But that’s another story.
Malki Roth, 15, was murdered
for eating pizza while Jewish in Jerusalem. That she was with her best friend,
also murdered for eating pizza while Jewish in Jerusalem, is of little comfort,
though the two are buried next to each other, together in death as they were in
life. But what grabs you by the throat and doesn’t let you go is that the
mastermind of the Sbarro Restaurant Massacre, Ahlam Tamimi, lives free and
clear in Jordan, a celebrity to her people.
Why a celebrity? It’s simple.
Ahlam Tamimi is celebrated in Jordan for causing Jewish blood to be spilled. In
particular, the blood of Jewish children, which apparently brought her great (and
very public) delight.
Now if you are an American, you
should care about this because Malki Roth was an American citizen. The United
States has an extradition treaty with Jordan. But the United States has done
next to nothing to seek justice for one of her own. Which is shameful.
Jordan gets a lot of money from
the United States, so it would seem to be the easiest and most sensible thing
in the world to accomplish the extradition of Tamimi, a wanted terrorist. Cut
the money pipeline and they, Jordan, will hand Tamimi over quick enough.
But that hasn’t happened.
Why not? And how do Malki’s
parents, Arnold and Frimet Roth, live with that reality and betrayal, even as
their daughter’s blood cries out from the ground for justice?
Arnold and Frimet Roth gaze at a photo of their daughter Malki, HY"D.
Arnold
Roth was interviewed in this space one year ago in an effort to raise
awareness of this story, this travesty of justice. But twelve months on, the extradition
has still not occurred. Tamimi has not been
put on trial. She is still free,
still celebrated as a hero in Jordan. And Malki Roth’s blood still cries out
from the ground.
It seems appropriate, one year
on, to take stock and ask: What has changed in the course of one year? Is there
any hope, any progress at all? I spoke to Arnold to learn more:
Varda Epstein: In our interview of a year ago, you mentioned some
concrete achievements in your efforts to persuade the US to increase the
pressure on Jordan to extradite your daughter’s murderer, Ahlam Tamimi. Tamimi
had been charged and a reward for her capture issued. But there were unnamed
officials who seemed to be blocking this process. Can you tell us more about
this? Has anything changed, at least on this score?
Arnold Roth: A terrific question. Let’s
look first at what hasn’t changed.
A major
news organization recently called fugitive bomber Ahlam Tamimi “the
most wanted woman in the world”. It wasn’t meant as a compliment. But it’s
also not clear what it really does mean. There are 28 people on the FBI
Most Wanted Terrorists list as of today. Of these terrorists, 26 are
men. Tamimi is one of the only two female terrorists on this list.
But it would be a stretch to say she’s
living the life of someone on the run. Tamimi lives with her husband/cousin in
a fancy apartment in Jordan’s capital. That’s where she was when you and I
spoke about her last June. And that’s
where she is now. She’s still free as a bird, unrestricted in her movements,
frequently quoted and published in the Arabic media. Tamimi, above all, continues
to be a figure of malignant influence, a devotee of Islamism in the most
violent sense, a woman who uses every accessible part of the media to keep
pumping out lethal hatred often, widely, and to a hugely appreciative audience.
Tamimi Has Never Been in Hiding
And contrary to its own carefully
manicured public relations, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, an ally of Western
governments that has one of the world’s most restricted and tightly controlled
media strategies, continues to be perfectly fine with all of this.
Tamimi was not in hiding when we spoke
last time and she’s not in hiding today. She has, in fact, never been in hiding—not
even for a single day since she returned home to Jordan in 2011 after several
years in an Israeli prison cell. Jordan is where she was born and educated, and
Jordan is where Tamimi still lives today, out in the open, though she was
supposed to spend the rest of her life behind bars.
Sentenced by a judicial panel to 16
terms of life imprisonment after confessing to her role in the Jerusalem Sbarro
pizzeria massacre, Tamimi got her freedom back by way of the Shalit Deal. In
this “exchange,” Israel released 1,027 terrorists—more than half of them
killers—for a soldier held hostage for more than five years by Hamas terrorists
in conditions that, according to lawyers, constitute a war crime.
Tamimi's Life is Public
Photos of the Tamimi apartment in Amman,
even more than when we spoke last year, are still easily found on social media.
The Tamimi home has been photographed from the inside, from the outside, from the
terrace looking up and looking down. The trajectory of Tamimi’s life and career are public information. Herwedding got live TV coverage. She earned a master’s degree in journalism the same week your first interview with me was published, and this too, made it into the news. Everything Tamimi does is eagerly scrutinized by her adoring Jordanian public.
Should this trouble thoughtful people?
Yes. Because the U.S. government announced a $5 million reward on her head in
January of 2018. But it’s obvious that the Tamimi reward doesn’t work the way
such rewards normally do. No one needs to be financially incentivized to hand
over the details of where Tamimi is when every relevant person already knows
her location.
If the reward was never intended to apply inside Jordan, why is this never stated publicly and how can U.S. officials claim relentless efforts to bring Ahlam Tamimi to U.S. justice?
High-level U.S. officials obviously
know this particular reward was never intended to apply inside Jordan,
leaving inquiring minds to wonder (a) how it is that this is never stated
publicly, and (b) what goes through the minds of officials as they make eloquent
speeches or issue media releases about Tamimi and their “relentless” efforts to
bring her to U.S. justice?
At a certain point, those
well-composed, emphatically-phrased official statements coupled with the
refusal of a long line of U.S. diplomats and other officials to engage with me
and my wife leave us—picking my words cautiously—troubled.
The regime of King Abdullah II,
meanwhile, is still fully engaged in illicitly blocking U.S. law enforcement’s efforts
to take Tamimi into custody. Amman’s willingness to stare down the United
States, its most important ally and the source of more foreign aid that Jordan
gets from anyone else, remains as it was when you and I last spoke, something deeply
puzzling.
Prominent Officials Heap Praise on Abdullah
Deepening this puzzle further, there’s
no shortage of U.S. institutions, politicians and prominent Jewish community
figures who persist in heaping generous praise upon Abdullah’s majestic head.
First: A
high-ranking official, the kingdom’s foreign minister, let himself be provoked
in November 2019 to break Jordan’s protracted official silence on Tamimi. We
blogged about it here: “13-Nov-19:
Thank you, Mr Foreign Minister”. Our gratitude to Mr Ajman Safadi was
sincere. His statement means that Jordan’s disgraceful, almost incomprehensible
policy of standing firmly in solidarity with the engineer of the Sbarro
pizzeria massacre is now a matter of policy that diplomatic double-talk simply cannot
disguise.
Next: The
United States, after a long period of avoidance and ambiguity, came out with its
own brief but clear statement (as we wrote here)
in November 2019:
In 2018, Jordan continued to cite a court ruling that its
constitution forbids the extradition of Jordanian nationals. The United
States regards the extradition treaty as valid.
Until those words in italics appeared
in an official U.S. government publication, the matter was arguably unclear. Now
it’s not. That’s very important.
Important Warning Letter
Another step forward: On April 30,
2020, a small group of U.S. lawmakers sent off a letter to Jordan’s ambassador
to Washington. In their letter, the lawmakers politely asked highly relevant
questions that go to the legal theory behind the March 2017 decision of
Jordan’s Court of Cassation to invalidate the 1995 Jordan/US treaty.
The lawmakers’ letter also touched on a
crucially important development that, again, has gotten almost no media attention.
Here’s the short version:
In December 2019, President Trump
signed into law a powerful sanction that, while it does not mention Jordan by
name, applies to a beneficiary of US foreign aid (Jordan is the third largest
recipient of such aid), has an extradition treaty with the US (as Jordan does,
though it denies this fact), and is in breach (as Jordan surely is, and the
State Department now at last agrees) of its obligations under that treaty.
The sanction, which the Secretary of
State can waive, means that in such circumstances foreign aid to the
beneficiary, ceases.
Jordanian Public Opinion Ignited
Jordan’s reaction to the letter from
these members of Congress is worth understanding. Impassioned lectures from
outside Jordan about terrorists and Islamism, justice and core values and dead
children blown up in a pizzeria were easily ignored in Amman. But when the story
turned to money, public opinion was ignited. Jordan’s media was incensed
by an all-too-credible threat that the U.S. might stop shoveling cash into the
Jordanian treasury.
So that’s the most substantive change:
that finally, via baby steps, the Jordanian leadership has been forced to think
about acknowledging the cost of the Jordanian public’s adoration of a
child-killing bomber living in its midst as a celebrity.
Arnold Roth with Malki
Frimet Roth and Malki
Varda Epstein: Am I correct in thinking that there has been more
coverage of your efforts to have Tamimi extradited in recent months? Why is the
media willing to cover this story now, when it was mostly silent until now?
Arnold Roth: Media
coverage, or more importantly its absence, is a cause of considerable ongoing embitterment
for us. The exceptions are, I am pleased to say, significant but they don’t
change the sense we have that for the mainstream news industry, we and our
cause are untouchable.
When I tell people we feel like
the town lepers, I don’t feel like I am exaggerating very much.
·A Hebrew
translation of David Horovitz’s article appeared on the Times of Israel’s
sister publicationZman Yisrael on May 23, 2020. And
that, sad to say, was the first, and so far only effort to explain the
Tamimi/Jordan affair in a serious, analytical way to an Israeli audience.
Let me connect the dots. We live in
Jerusalem and have a broad and varied circle of friends, contacts, and
colleagues. Most of them, and even many of our Israeli family members, have little
or even no idea of what we have done or of what’s been done to us since the
Shalit Deal and the renewal of Tamimi’s terror career in Jordan. No one is
going to persuade me that this—the media suppression of an obviously
significant chain of events, is a normal situation.
Varda Epstein: What progress has been made toward having Tamimi
extradited to the States?
Arnold Roth: Let’s
begin with the first public notification milestone.
But it was immediately clear to us that
unsuccessful secret efforts had been made repeatedly to persuade Jordan to hand
Tamimi over for prosecution in Washington years before that. (Tamimi had returned
to her homeland, Jordan, in October 2011 as a result of her unforgivably being
included in the Shalit Deal walk-free list.)
As to progress, that’s a binary thing.
Either she’s being extradited or she’s not. Currently she’s not. We believe she
will be.
Varda Epstein: Jordan claims it has no extradition treaty with the
United States. Can you tell us about that?
Arnold Roth: On this
aspect, there is a huge amount of disinformation, most of it deliberate and
calculated. In large measure, that’s the outcome of a systemic news industry
failure. It’s shameful that this is still happening and that, by definition, so
few people know.
Jordan’s assertion that Tamimi cannot
be extradited because of Jordanian law has been dismissed by I think every
single expert source we have consulted.
The Jordanian judges in their brief
hearing and terse judgement spoke of a constitutional problem—that the National
Assembly, Jordan’s parliament, ought to have ratified the treaty which everyone,
including the Jordanians agrees, was certainly signed by the two governments
back in 1995.
They Found Their Hook
Non-ratification is the only ground
they cited for invalidating the extradition treaty. The court relied on no
other legal flaw. They found their hook and they hung the conclusion on it: Tamimi
cannot be extradited. That was all they needed or intended to find.
Since then, numerous Jordanian
commentators, including reporters, politicians, assorted charlatans and lawyers,
have gone public with claims that what this is really, truly, honestly is
about, is that Jordan never
extradites Jordanians. Or alternatively that this is not an extraditable
matter. Or that the doctrine of double jeopardy applies. Or that it’s a matter
of Jordanian national pride. Or that anyway what she did was not a crime if she
did it—but she didn’t, or so they claim.
They've Extradited Fugitives Before
In our unanswered communications with
Jordanian officials (not one of whom has ever acknowledged our existence, let
alone our arguments), we have rhetorically asked whether Jordan has extradited
fugitives to the US before. That’s a more significant question than it appears.
And the answer is: yes, it
surely has, even if the highest court in Jordan and no mainstream media anywhere
want this to be known.
We have tried to draw them out on other
questions. Does Jordan have extradition treaties with other countries? Is extraditing
Jordanians foreign to Jordanian constitutional law or jurisprudence or
political philosophy or royal decree? Is treaty ratification always done? Or
never done? Or done only once a treaty takes effect?
Jordan Remains Silent
The answers are clear to us even while
the Jordanians stay silent.
Look at the issues dispassionately and
it’s hard to avoid an irksome conclusion: that for people engaged in politics
and diplomacy, what’s true about Jordan’s egregious breach of its treaty
with the U.S. takes a backseat to what’s flattering and complimentary
and helpful to our Hashemite allies.
Even if I weren’t the father of a
child murdered by the main beneficiary of this odious fig-leafing, I would be
disgusted by it. And by those who know and yet still engage in it.
Varda Epstein: What are the risks and benefits for King Abdullah in
refusing to honor Jordan’s extradition treaty with the United States?
Arnold Roth: Let’s distinguish
between risks/benefits that are real and those that are illusory.
Here’s how it’s often said to us. Good
King Abdullah’s freedom to act is limited by the realities of a kingdom that
could explode at any moment. Of course he wants to do the right thing. Of
course he feels Tamimi is an embarrassment to his country’s fine name. Of
course he respects and wants to do honor to his father’s values and
achievements and treaties. But put yourself in his shoes, and etc.
All of this is nonsense. It’s also
doubtful whether other heads of state would be spoken of in terms as
condescending and contradicted-by-the-facts as these.
What Jordan Risks
So to your question, the risks Jordan
faces by continuing to demean its treaty obligations come down to:
·Potential loss of U.S. foreign aid;
·The continued growth and normalization of
overt antisemitic and violently-hostile-to-Israel sentiments at every level in
Jordanian society;
·Ditto for anti-U.S. sentiment and activity;
·Growing instability because of unchecked
forces active in Jordan that happen to be the same forces with which Tamimi is
aligned.
Jordan stands to keep benefitting
hugely if it chooses to stay a U.S. ally. But Americans need to ask themselves
whether Jordan’s actions make that possible.
Varda Epstein: There have been some signs that Tamimi is laying low,
that she is nervous about extradition. Can you tell us about that? What does
this indicate?
Arnold Roth: You’re
perceptive. We don’t communicate with our child’s vicious killer. But we track
her statements in the conventional media as well as via the social media where
she has always been happy to play. And to be clear—in the age of online
translation-on-demand, I am referring to what she says in Arabic. Only
the Arabic counts.
The Tamimis claim the pressure for
extradition is coming from “Zionists” when it’s actually the U.S.
Congress and the executive arm of the US government. They declare their trust
in “Jordan's leadership, government and people.” But that’s not true
either.
"Where's Abdullah?"
Ahlam Tamimi herself says that: “We
are still awaiting the Jordanian official response to the latest escalation…I was amazed at the silence of the Jordanian political side and its failure
to respond to the message of the seven members of the American Congress...”
Translation: “Where is King
Abdullah II?”
The answer may be related to something
she herself published just days before the U.S. Congress adopted its
Jordan-centric sanction: “15-Dec-19:
The Sbarro bomber trashes the ruler who protects her from the FBI” in
which Tamimi compares King Abdullah II unfavorably with his late father, King
Hussein.You might wonder after reading her post, as I do, why Jordan’s proud and capable king troubles himself to keep
this dangerous ingrate safe. It doesn’t make sense.
And something to note about her social
media presence: Tamimi, a journalist, gets op-ed space in the Arab media on
request. She’s frequently featured on the vastly influential Aljazeera platform, for instance. But she’s
evidently devoted to social media.
One By One They Shut Her Down
I mention this because whenever we
find them we report her accounts to the security people at Twitter, Instagram,
et al, and one by one we have seen them shut her down. The most recent shut
down was yesterday. She keeps coming back but each time, she has to rebuild her
following.
I also want to mention something
important your esteemed host, Elder of Ziyon, noted in the past couple of
weeks: “Ahlam
Tamimi says she’s “terrified” she will be extradited.” What onlookers
ought to be asking is: Why is this happening only now? Which homicidal fugitive
from the law, with the blood of at least sixteen people on her hands, is
entitled to sleep peacefully in her bed at night? How did this ever happen?
Varda Epstein: What could the U.S. do to pressure Jordan, if it were to
get serious about extraditing Tamimi?
Arnold Roth: So, as we
have already discussed, the U.S. now has a well-focused sanction in its
arsenal. But given the close and strategic ties between the leadership of the
two countries of Jordan and the U.S., and given the very black-and-white nature
of the criminality at the heart of this absurdly stretched-out affair, there’s
really only one thing the U.S. ought to be doing and that’s to say to the
powers in Jordan: We’ve been left waiting for far too long. Send Tamimi for
trial in Washington now.
And the only possible answer is: Which
flight?
Varda Epstein: Why would the U.S. not want to pressure Jordan on the
extradition issue?
Arnold Roth: I’m an
ignoramus on such matters. The more I engage with people from the U.S.
Congress, or with Washington insiders, or senior-level Jewish community
leaders, the more I realize how little I actually grasp about how they approach
questions like the one you just asked. I wish you would ask the people in those
groups. Especially those who refuse to take my calls. I will give you a list
after we finish here. Good luck.
Varda Epstein: What would it mean to you and your wife Frimet,
personally, to see Tamimi extradited, and hopefully sentenced: behind bars or
executed?
Arnold Roth: We want
justice to be done. So long as it’s not, there’s an ongoing pain deep inside us
that it makes no sense to talk about because those who have it inside them already
know and those who don’t are fortunately immune from empathizing.
Best friends Malki Roth, left, and Michal Raziel were enjoying a slice of pizza at Sbarro, when the busy, popular Jerusalem eatery was bombed.
Gravestones of best friends Malki Roth, left, and Michal Raziel, buried next to each other in the Holy City.
Varda Epstein: What can we, as regular people, do to help bring justice
for Malki?
Arnold Roth: First, and
easiest: give us the chance to share and explain the Tamimi/Jordan scandal to
you and the people among whom you live. You, Varda, have earned my deep
gratitude for having understood that without anyone saying it. Thank you, thank
you. We’re nowhere close to achieving this and our progress is plainly impacted
in a negative way as a result.
For everyone else: Frimet and I write
and talk with the passion, with the credibility, and in my opinion with the
clarity that comes from being at the heart of this for the worst of all
possible reasons. Please try to help us reach out to people who have never
heard of the Sbarro massacre, of Malki, of the ugly games politicians play in
order to see that Tamimi stays safe and untouched by U.S. justice.
That might mean Zoom events; interviews
or op-eds in the media that serve your community; introductions to senior
politicians with the backbone to speak out in ways that the Hashemite Kingdom
of Jordan will hear and gradually understand. In other words, please help us
create awareness because darkness and gloom—some of it generated maliciously,
some of it simply the result of apathy and neglect—need to be dispelled by
light.
About the less obvious and more
complicated things, we don’t talk much. We share (some of) them with our
activists’ mailing list. To be part of our campaign for justice, please sign on
to the list by emailing your name and city and email address to thisongoingwar@gmail.com
Thank you, Varda. Two final thoughts—one
from Benjamin Franklin. “Justice will not be served until those who are
unaffected are as outraged as those who are.” The other is from the Torah: “Justice,
justice shall you pursue.” Or in Hebrew: “Tzedek tzedek tirdof”
which is not so much a quotation as an actual divine precept, a commandment for
life.
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 14 years and 30,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.
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