The Day Trump And The Media Saw Eye To Eye
Something remarkable happened in the nation’s capital last
week. The president, who derides
most journalists as purveyors of “fake news,” and
journalists who openly despise the president, suddenly found an issue on which
they could agree: the innumerable virtues of a visiting dictator who shelters
murderers of American citizens.
It was a week in which enraged journalists compared the
president’s border policies to those
of the Nazis, and prominent Democrats called for mobs to
besiege administration officials
whom they spot in restaurants. Yet, amid all this sound and
fury, the political combatants
paused, set aside their mutual hatred for a few hours, and
joined hands in a lovefest devoted
to a foreign tyrant who rules by royal decree and provides
haven to the killers of American
women and children.
Who is this extraordinary despot who captures the hearts of
American journalists and the
president alike? Why, it’s King Abdullah of Jordan, of
course.
Liberals are outraged when Trump seems to behave like a
would-be monarch, yet they swoon
when a real-life king came to town. Conservatives were
furious over the exchange of Bo
Bergdahl for Taliban killers of Americans, yet they rolled
out the red carpet for the Jordanian
leader who protects killers of Americans.
After President Trump and King Abdullah met at the White
House, they spoke to reporters.
Trump began by praising Abdullah as “incredible” and
“fantastic.” The reporters then asked
about the president’s executive order concerning border
separations, about the chances for
Middle East peace, and about the administration’s
forthcoming Mideast peace plan.
Later in the day, the president spoke to reporters again.
They asked about Harley-Davidson
moving some of its operations overseas; the tariffs dispute;
the actions of steel manufacturers; U.S.-China trade; the Supreme Court travel
ban ruling; the process for deporting illegal immigrants; and funding for the
border wall.
President Trump did not say a word about the killers of
Americans whom Abdullah is
sheltering. And not one journalist asked him about it. It
was “Don’t ask, don’t tell” at its most
shameful.
But since the president and the news media won’t tell you
about it, I will. On August 9, 1982,
Palestinian terrorists firing submachine guns and throwing
hand grenades attacked lunchtime
diners at the Chez Jo Goldenberg restaurant in downtown
Paris. Six people were murdered, 22
were wounded. Among the fatalities were two women from
Chicago: Grace Cutler, age 66,
and Ann Van Zanten, age 31, a curator at the Chicago
Historical Society.
In 2016, Zuhair al-Abbasi, one of the perpetrators of the
Paris attack, was detained in Jordan
because of an Interpol warrant. France asked Jordan to
surrender him. Jordan refused, claiming the French-Jordanian extradition treaty
went into effect only after al-Abbasi was arrested in Jordan.
Then why not extradite him to the United States? The
U.S.-Jordanian extradition treaty has been in effect since 1995. But the Trump
administration has never asked Jordan to hand over al-Abbasi.
Exactly 19 years to the day after the Paris attack, on
August 9, 2001, terrorists bombed the Sbarro pizzeria in downtown Jerusalem.
Fifteen people were killed, 130 wounded. Three of the
fatalities were American citizens, including 15-year-old
Malki Roth. Two of the terrorists were
captured. One was 21-year-old Ahlam Tamimi. She confessed,
was sentenced to 16 terms of
life imprisonment, and then released in a 2011 prisoner
exchange.
Tamimi settled in the Jordanian capital of Amman, where King
Abdullah’s regime rewarded her
with her own television show, called “Breezes of the Fire.”
She repeatedly boasted on air about her role in the Sbarro attack.
Last year, the Trump administration finally unsealed a U.S.
indictment against Tamimi that had originally been issued four years earlier.
Why it took four years to unseal it was never explained.
When the indictment was unsealed, Tamimi was added to
America’s Most Wanted list. Yet, no
monetary reward was offered for her capture, as is routinely
done in all such cases. It took an entire year of pressure by the Roth family
to finally get the Trump administration to post a reward.
The Justice Department also belatedly issued a wanted poster
with Tamimi’s photo. But it’s
written in English, not Arabic. And it appears only on the
department’s website, not in the
streets of Jordan. It’s not even posted at the American
embassy in Amman.
Indeed, the Justice Department has told the Roth family that
if a bounty-hunter were to capture Tammy and bring her to the U.S. embassy in
Amman, the U.S. would refuse to accept her because she must be transferred
according to the extradition treaty. Talk about a Catch22!
And so, the murderers of Americans continue to walk free in
Jordan, the Jordanian regime continues to receive $1 billion in aid each year
from the Trump administration, and justice continues to be trampled upon.
Well, that's what I think.
Stephen M. Flatow
* * *
This column and others I have written may be read on line at JewishPress.com. Be sure to be on the lookout for my book "A Father's Story: My Fight for Justice Against Iranian Terror" out in October.
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