David Horovitz, founder and editor of Times of Israel, sent this letter today to the TOI Community list. It’s shared here with his permission.
Roth held dual Israeli-American citizenship, and the US has been focusing increasing attention on the case — filing charges against Tamimi in 2013; announcing those charges in 2017; urging Jordan to honor its extradition treaty in her case; and, in December 2019, passing legislation enabling the withholding of US foreign aid to Jordan if the kingdom continues to refuse to do so.
No potential US ambassador would comment in this way on so sensitive an issue without careful consultation among his superiors.
A cynical take on the timing of Wooster’s remarks might suggest that the Trump Administration is sending a signal to Jordan’s King Abdullah amid the escalating tension surrounding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s declared intention to start annexing the Jordan Valley and the West Bank settlements two weeks from now — a move bitterly opposed by Amman and deemed “unacceptable” by the king only yesterday.
US pressure on Abdullah to extradite Tamimi is extremely discomfiting for the monarch. The unrepentant killer has become quite the celebrity in her home country, and acquiescence to the US extradition request could cause ructions. Is the US indicating to Abdullah that he might want to dial down his anti-annexation efforts, or risk a dialing up of the US pressure for Tamimi to be handed over?
If that sounds conspiratorial, it is worth noting that the Roth family’s battle for justice has played out through almost a decade of geopolitical maneuverings, betrayals and hypocrisies. As Malki’s father, Arnold Roth, noted yesterday, when the news broke of Wooster’s comments, “the odds tend to be stacked against people who want to see actual justice done in actual cases where they feel personally engaged.”
At the same time, he also called Wooster’s remarks “encouraging” and “a meaningful step forward in exposing and we hope ending a dark chapter.”
“We long for the day she faces justice in a US court,” he concluded.
Maybe, just maybe, that day is now a little nearer.
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