Why Jordan Shields a Convicted Terrorist while Asking for U.S. Aid

Later, the country gained independence from Britain and re-branded itself as the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The name is more clever, but it tells an inconvenient reality: the Hashemites and their first King, Abdullah I, are not indigenous to the country in which they established their monarchy. They were transferred from the Arabian peninsula when the British crowned the Saudis as monarchs in what became “Saudi” Arabia. The Hashemites are not only not indigenous, they are a minority in a country whose majority are, in fact, Palestinian Arabs.

It's not just that the country was made up. Since its inception, despite secret contacts with Israeli leaders between King Abdullah I and his grandson King Hussein before making peace with Israel in 1994, the Jordanian/Palestinian street is widely hostile to Israel. The “street” includes average men smoking hookah to the Palestinian/Jordanian Queen Rania, whose vile criticism of Israel is being sung like their national anthem.

The problem with this is that in three decades of peace, Jordanian leaders have never promoted peaceful relations with Israel to the “street” and continue to allow Israel to be the evil boogeyman that everyone can blame. Even if the King wanted to make some public/bold moves, he risks the backlash from his subjects, and no less so from his wife, who he’s allowed to rile the masses at home and abroad.

Jordan’s next problem is a lack of development in just about anything. Because it never had a modern Jewish population, the East Bank/(Trans)Jordan ever experienced the benefit of the blossoming and thriving economy or building a new country that happened with the Jewish people returning to the Land of Israel and the prosperity that ensued. Without the Dead Sea to mine potash, phosphates, and make fertilizer, Jordan’s economy would be dead. It’s noteworthy that they rely on Israel’s prosperity to import 200 million cubic meters of water just to survive.

But the average Jordanian is not aware of this or how Israel is central to their well-being each time they boil chickpeas to make humus, bathe, or flush.  

Not only has Jordan not done anything to promote positive relations with Israel among average Jordanians, it has done nothing to squelch the virulently anti-Israel hostile Jordanian “street.” This infects all of Jordanian society, including its parliament, government, and Queen.

Because of this weakness and its long border with Israel, Jordan is in the crosshairs of Iran and jihadis in Syria. Were it not for Israeli intelligence and cooperation and US arms, King Abdullah would find his monarchy’s very existence at risk.

King Abdullah knows very well the challenges his father, King Hussein, faced in 1970 from the PLO, which sought to create a nascent Palestinian state in the eastern part of what was Mandatory Palestine. Had Hussein not slaughtered tens of thousands of Palestinian Arabs in Jordan (no charges of genocide unless one can blame Israel), he may have been deposed like his grandfather’s brother, Iraqi King Feisal, and killed himself.

Following Abdullah and President Trump’s meeting, there’s one more glaring problem. Jordan has been harboring a convicted terrorist for more than a decade who is responsible for the bombing of the 2001 Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem, leaving dozens dead and wounded. Among the dead included two American citizens. Jordan should have extradited the terrorist, Ahlam al-Tamimi, long ago.

Tamimi was sentenced to 16 life sentences by Israel for orchestrating the Sbarro bombing but was released in 2011 as part of a deal with Hamas in exchange for the release of kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit. Not only has she never disavowed her crimes, Tamimi uses her freedom in Jordan to continue to incite more terror.

Arnold Roth is the father of Malki Roth, who was murdered at the Sbarro bombing. “Tamimi is an actual celebrity in Jordan and parts of the Arab world – because she plotted and then carried out a massacre in a pizzeria using a human bomb, with an explosives-laden guitar case. One of the many children ‘successfully’ targeted for murder by Tamimi’s savagery was my 15-year-old daughter Malki. Today, Tamimi is America’s most wanted female fugitive with a $5 million reward on her head. At the same time, she’s also a high-profile figure living in Jordan free as a bird, with an army of followers and admirers.”

Commenting on the royal visit to Washington, he noted, “King Abdullah is involved, whether he wants to or not, in the messy business of keeping her free in Jordan even though she’s wanted by prosecutors in Washington. This week, watching him hold off and at the same time hold close to the new president of the US, I wasn’t feeling much empathy. He’s the second most important reason why my child’s fugitive killer is still free. The most important reason is the apathy, the silence, and the obstructiveness of a string of American leaders and institutions. It all comes down to an acute sense that we have been betrayed.” Roth will participate in a webinar on February 15 to discuss this and what can be done.

There are recent reports that Jordanian authorities informed Hamas that the terror group must either find a country to deport Tamimi (where she will be free from extradition) or she will be extradited to the United States, where she is on the FBI’s Most Wanted List for the murder of two Americans. She should have been brought to Washington in handcuffs on Abdullah’s own plane.

It’s not just a problem that Jordan has refused to extradite Tamimi. Trump may rightly exert maximum pressure on Jordan to do so. The additional problem is that because Jordan has been complicit in inciting the Jordanian “street,” rather than deporting a vile terrorist and washing its hands of her, by doing so, the King will face widespread protests, even threats to his throne.  We need to be aware that the King and his Queen could well find themselves deposed and out on the street.

Unfortunately, this is not Jordan’s only instance of harboring and abetting terrorism. In a landmark case discussed here, Jordan’s Arab Bank was found guilty of 24 counts of supporting terrorism by transferring funds to Hamas.

All this is a problem of Jordan’s own doing, never embracing peace with Israel warmly or educating its citizens that peace is in their interests, a positive value, and imperative. By allowing the “street” to use Israel as its punching bag for everything bad that’s happening to them, Jordan, as we know it, is stuck between a rock and a hard place of balancing being a responsible state with the hateful state of its citizens.

It would be nice and refreshing if Jordan were to begin an essential generation-long reeducation of its people to the value and imperative of lasting and mutually beneficial relations with Israel. One can hope, but the problems with Jordan run so deep that it’s hard to expect.

*The opinions in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Crosswalk Headlines.

Photo Courtesy: ©Getty Images/Photographer
Published Date: February 12, 2025

Jonathan Feldstein was born and educated in the U.S. and immigrated to Israel in 2004. He is married and the father of six. Throughout his life and career, he has been blessed by the calling to fellowship with Christian supporters of Israel and shares experiences of living as an Orthodox Jew in Israel. He writes regularly for a variety of prominent Christian and conservative websites and is the host of Inspiration from Zion, a popular webinar series and podcast. He can be reached at firstpersonisrael@gmail.com.