A House Divided

What do the flag, Lay Liberty and 9/11 teach us, if not determination to fight for what we believe in? [Reuters]

24 Years ago, after the 9/11 tragedy, the West still doesn’t understand the dangers of radical Islam. The resulting 9/11 Commission Report stated that “the 9/11 attacks were a shock, but they should not have come as a surprise. Islamic extremists had given plenty of warnings that they meant to kill Americans indiscriminately and in large numbers.”

And yet, today when Israel hears the Iranian warnings, seas the Iranian effort to build a weapon that would destroy it and is reacting with urgency, the West lambastes Israel for attempting to do now, what the US should have done before 9/11.

In “The crisis of Islam; holy War and Unholy Terror”, Bernard Lewis writes, “For most of the 14 centuries of recorded history, Jihad was most commonly interpreted to mean armed struggle for the defense or advancement of Muslim power.”

The US appears to have learned nothing from 9/11. President Barack Obama believed, when he took office in 2009, that he could reach out to the Muslim and Arab world and bring them around. He bowed to the Saudis and offered his hand to Iran. How naïve! Obama failed to understand what Professor Lewis emphasized; ”if the fundamentalists are correct in their calculations and succeed in their war, then a dark future awaits the world, especially the part of it that embraces Islam.”

Today, President Trump, despite proving to be most outstanding US president ever wants to speak to the leader of Iran! In this he joins the West in not realizing the lessons of the 9/11 tragedy, while Israel understands that failure to combat global Jihad will result in further such disasters and, ultimately, the continued spread of radical Islam.

On April 8, 2022, The Media Line published “Why Biden?” by Rabbi Abraham Cooper and Rev. Johnnie Moore. Its commencement reads, “Why are the Biden administration empowering tyrants in the name of a clean planet?”

Reportedly, the said-to-be-imminent Iran nuclear agreement will green -light not green energy but billions in previously sanctioned oil revenue for Ayatollah Ali Khomeini, ensuring Tehran to soon affix nukes to its long-range ballistic missiles to threaten Israel and the entire Gulf region.

“Iran would have plenty of cash left over to infuse its terrorist lackeys in Lebanon, Yemen and Gaza with the ability to crush hopes for broader peace in the Middle East.” There would be one policy judiciously left of the table; no return to former president Donald Trump’s policies which made the US independent and a net exporter to its friends and allies.”

As the world watched, 1,000,000 new refugees emerged in a week; Europe’s largest nuclear power plant caught on fire; whole apartment complexes are turned into rubble, countless civilians were indiscriminately killed; and bombs caused damage to the Babyn Yar Holocaust memorial and Russian Orthodox churches. It was felt time for the political elite to show some humility.

On August 7, 2019, JNS.org posted, SARAH N. STERN’s “A very bitter Jerusalem bombing anniversary.” It reminds us that after American largess and Israeli know-how, the Jordanians have been offering safe haven to a cold-blooded murderer of American citizens who had made a career out of her crime.

August 9, 2019 marks the 18th anniversary of a very dark day. That was the day that Ahlam Tamiimi calmly picked up Izz-al-Din Shuheil al Masri from his home in al-Aqaba in Judea [the West Bank] and serenely delivered him to the Sbarro pizzeria shop in Jerusalem.

One of a number of students, Malki Roth entered the restaurant with her best friend, Mihal Raziel. At the same time, IZZ Al-Din entered the restaurant and—using a guitar case rigged with nuts, bolts and nails, together with a suicide vest with 10 kilograms of explosives—detonated himself. The explosion rocked the nearby vicinity, murdering 15 people, 8 of them children.

Over the years, there have been several appeals for restitution. Headline in Times of Israel dated 14 July, 2020; “18 Jewish groups urge US to push Jordan to extradite gloating Sbarro terrorist” by David Horovitz. Ahlam Tamimi, who orchestrated the 2001 Jerusalem bombing in which 15 people were killed, has been charged with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction against US nationals.

Eighteen major US Jewish organizations in the United States called on the US—to exert pressure or Jordan’s King Abdullah to extradite Abdullah to extradite Ahlam Tamimi. Expressing ”our collective outrage over the Kingdom of Jordan’s refusal to extradite the murderer of American citizens, “the organizations urged the US to hold ”Jordan accountable to its commitments under its extradition with the United States and to bring all pressure to bear, including but not limited to recent government legislation significantly impacting US financial aid to Jordan.

Israel Hayom – 12 July, 2022; US seeks extradition of Palestinian terrorist residing in Jordan. “The family of an Israeli-American girl murdered in the 2001 Sbarro suicide bombing in Jerusalem urges President Joe Biden to press the kingdom, a close American ally, to send Ahlam Tamimi to the US for trial.”

Times of Israel Staff – Feb.3, 2025- “Jordan reportedly warns it could extradite Sbarro bombing mastermind to US for trial. In reversal, Amman said to give Hamas one day to find Ahlam Tamimi another home or it will send her stateside, where she is wanted over the 2001 Jerusalem attack that killed 16, including 2 Americans.”

Ahlam Tamimi was convicted in an Israeli court of orchestrating the grisly August 9, 2001 attack that killed 16 people in a crowded Sbarro’s eatery in central Jerusalem, but was released in the 2011 deal for kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit and quickly found safe harbor in Jordan.

Tamimi, a Hamas activist who chose the target for the bombing and guided the bomber there, was sentenced in Israel in 2003 to 16 life sentences for the attack, which also injured 130 people. She has lived freely in Jordan, where she holds citizenship. In a 2017 interview with The Associated Press, she said the Palestinians have a right to resist Israel by any means, including deadly attacks.

JNS.org Feb 3, 2025 – Fate of the terrorist behind Sbarro pizzeria bombing remains in question. Reports that Jordan would extradite the terrorist to the United States, if true, would mark a major shift in Amman’s position.

Arnold Roth, whose teenage daughter, Malka, was killed in the attack,” and who has waged a years-long campaign with his wife, Frimet Roth, to see Tamimi brought to justice, told JNS something has been happening, though it’s difficult to ferret out the truth from the reports”.

Roth speculated that Tamimi is already out of Jordan, perhaps on the way to Qatar. “Her husband is there. Her bank account is there.”Jordan would like to be rid of her; she is a “huge embarrassment”, according to Roth. “The Jordanian government wants to see her someplace where there’s no more criticism of Jordan- to skip the part about how they have been breaching their treaty with their most important ally for 13 years.”

Of the 3 US presidential administrations Roth has dealt with-those of Obama, Trump and Biden—none have done a thing, he said. He stated, he has a “particular ax to grind” with the Trump administration. The Roths took out a front-page ad in The Jerusalem Post when then- Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Israel in November 2020, asking him to take action on Tamimi, “America’s most wanted female fugitive.”

“Pompeo’s response [he certainly saw the ad] was absolute silence from that day until today,” Roth said. “There’s something extraordinary about the way United States governments-one after the other, from Obama till today-have just steered clear of this issue.”

For a balanced view of President Donald Trump, one should read Professor Victor Hanson’s, “The Case for Trump”. It is intellectual as the author who supports Trump, includes some of his misjudgments, as few as they are.

Liz Crokin is an award-winning author and a seasoned journalist. What follows is her “The REAL Donald Trump; Trump Does the Unthinkable.”

She found that he doesn’t drink alcohol or do drugs; he’s a hard working businessman. On top of that, he’s one of the most generous celebrities in the world with a heart filled with more gold than his $100 million New York penthouse. A few of Trump’s “acts of kindness” as cited by Liz Croken”:

[a] In 1988, a commercial airline refused to fly Andrew Ten, a sick Orthodox Jewish child with a rare illness, across the country to get medical care, because he had to travel with an elaborate life-support. His grief stricken parents contacted Trump for help and he didn’t hesitate to send his own plane to take the child from Los Angeles to New York so he could get his treatment.

[b] In 2014, Trump gave $25,000 to Sgt. Andrew Tamoressi after he spent 7 months in a Mexican jail for accidentally crossing the US-Mexico border. President Barack Obama couldn’t even be bothered to make one phone call to assist with the US Marine’s release; however, Trump opened his pocketbook to help this serviceman get back on his feet.

[c] In 2008, after Jennifer Hudson’s family members were tragically murdered in Chicago, Trump put the Oscar-winning actress and her family up at his Windy City hotel for free. In addition to that, Trump’s security took extra measures to ensure Hudson and her family members were safe during such a difficult time.

Recently, President Trump held a publican viewed meeting with King of Jordan. Why did he not make a concerted effort to insist on the return of Ahlam Tamimi to Israel?