The Islamist terrorist armies – Hamas, Hizbullah, Ansarallah (the Houthis) – and their backers are not able to win wars against the US allies in the Middle East. But they are able to win information campaigns. In so doing, they can influence and prepare Middle Eastern publics for future rounds of conflict. The Arabic media is thus another arena of conflict, and the US must engage in it, sometimes one case at a time.
The Ahlam al-Tamimi Case
Ahlam al-Tamimi was a 20 year-old journalism student at Bir Zeit University in the West Bank, working as a stringer for several Arabic outlets, when she helped plan a terrorist attack for Hamas. She surveilled a number of restaurants in downtown west Jerusalem (before construction of the West Bank barrier wall) and chose Sbarro Pizza, at the busy intersection of King George and Jaffa Streets, a hangout with Israeli youth and foreign exchange students.
In the early afternoon of August 9, 2001, at the height of the lunch hour, Tamimi accompanied the 21-year old Izz al-Din al-Masri to the site of Sbarro Pizza. His suicide vest exploded, killing 15 including seven children, a pregnant woman, one Brazilian and three American students. Among the injured was a young mother left in a vegetative state who died 22 years later in a Jerusalem hospital.
Tamimi, now in journalism mode, took a bus back to Ramallah and reported on the explosion that evening for a local Palestinian television channel. Arrested and convicted in an Israeli court on multiple counts of accessory to murder, she was released in October 2011, one of over 280 convicted terrorists exchanged for Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured by Hamas during a raid outside of Gaza. Upon release, Tamimi was able to cross into Jordan, where she holds citizenship and has family. Today she lives in Amman, openly proud of the Sbarro terrorist attack, saying she would do it again if she could. She continues to work occasionally as a journalist, for a while hosting a talk show on a Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Jordanian television channel, and has been interviewed on Al Jazeera and other Arabic news outlets about the attack.
Meanwhile, in the US, the Justice Department belatedly filed criminal charges against Tamimi in 2013 and she is on the FBI most wanted list for her role in planning and carrying out the murder of three Americans. The State Department has a $5 million reward for information leading to her arrest or conviction, and has submitted an extradition request to the Jordanian government. The Jordanian government has denied the request.
The Situation in Jordan
Tamimi’s family in Jordan is part of the large Palestinian community there, estimated to comprise between 50 to 60 percent of Jordan’s citizenry. Her family petitioned King Abdullah II in 2020 to resist American pressure to extradite her. Qatar’s Al Jazeera television publicized this petition, seeking to make her a cause célèbre in Jordan and throughout in the Arab world.
American diplomats working with Jordan face a dilemma. On one hand, both the protection of US citizens abroad and counter-terrorism policy argue for exercising all of America’s extensive leverage with Jordan to incentivize the government to extradite Tamimi. That leverage, both carrots and sticks, includes large bilateral economic and military aid packages, and US support for Jordan in the IMF, World Bank and other multilateral economic organizations.
On the other hand, there is a deep schism in Jordan between Palestinians and East Bankers (whose families originate east of the Jordan River) which leads to chronic instability. Some analysts believe Tamimi’s extradition might trigger widespread Palestinian protests against Jordan’s pro-Western monarchy. Adding to the monarchy’s fragility is the fact that millions of Syrians and Iraqis have settled in Jordan to escape instability at home, introducing new ethnic tensions into the country.
Jordan represents to American and Israeli strategists a pro-Western government at the center of the Mashreq (the volatile eastern side of the Middle East), bordering Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Israel and Syria. For Israel, Jordan is a friendly regime providing strategic depth against Iran, for instance, working with the US and Israeli military to shoot down Iranian missiles launched against Israel. Iran continues to try to subvert and undermine Jordan’s monarchy and open a new front against Israel along Israel’s longest and most porous border. The latest threat to the Kingdom’s stability is from the new Islamist regime in Syria which has ties to the Islamist opposition inside Jordan.
To date, these American and Israeli strategic concerns have overwhelmed American law enforcement and counter-terrorism interests in bringing Tamimi to justice. Thus successive nominees for US ambassador to Jordan, when questioned in their Senate confirmation hearings, have undertaken to “explore all options” and “do everything in my power” to secure Tamimi’s extradition. What do these assurances mean in practice? I don’t know, but they probably mean Tamimi’s extradition was raised in classified discussions with Jordanian officials who gave assurances that Tamimi is under control and there is no need to rock the Jordanian boat by formally handing her over to American justice. The details of such meetings would be available only to members of Congress and their staff members in classified briefings.
I have two concerns with the unsatisfactory status quo on Tamimi. First, is the situation really “under control” with her at large, serving as a symbol of Muslim Brotherhood resistance? What other young men might she be inspiring to commit murder against Americans? Second, in cases like Tamimi, where bereaved American families want justice, the judgment calls of US officials relying on non-public information can and should be questioned. Have all avenues really been explored? Can our experts in the Middle East both work to ensure Jordan’s stability while securing vital law enforcement interests of the United States?
Public Diplomacy in the Arab World
At the heart of the “we can’t do anything about Tamimi” argument is the fear that pressuring Jordan to extradite her would cause unrest and rock a fragile monarchy at a sensitive time. (Note: It’s always a sensitive time in the Middle East, but this particular sensitive time was precipitated by the same organization – Hamas – with which Tamimi affiliates.) She continues to receive occasional media coverage in Al Jazeera’s Arabic language television channel.
What if other broadcast media in the Arab world put out a different story about Tamimi, about Islamist efforts to promote her that hurt national goals in Jordan, for instance how protecting internationally wanted criminals like Tamimi deters investment in Jordan? The US State Department has at any one time many dozens of officers whose specialty is the Arabic media, and they serve together with hundreds of locally hired media experts throughout the region, including at Embassy Amman. Their job is to cultivate ties with Jordan’s journalists and media and find opportunities in the local media to promote US national interests.
In my experience, Middle Easterners often follow their local media to get hints about the future direction of their government. If we wanted to prepare the Jordanian public for an eventual extradition of Tamimi, perhaps the best way to do it is to have a few media stories percolating about how certain positive developments for Jordan’s economy are being held back by international concerns with harboring fugitives like Tamimi.
Even in today’s post-Gaza war environment, with Palestinian unhappiness with the US at a height, there are things creative diplomats can do to promote US national interests in Jordan – including the long-standing interest in bringing Tamimi to justice.
