New Calls for Ahlam al-Tamimi to Be Extradited From Jordan

Two U.S. ambassadors, Mike Huckabee and Yehuda Kaploun, have just highlighted ongoing U.S. efforts to bring Ahlam al-Tamimi, who was convicted by Israeli courts for her involvement in the 2001 bombing of a Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem that killed 16 people, including three Americans, to the United States to face trial as the mastermind of the terror attack. She has been living in complete freedom in our soi-disant “ally” Jordan ever since she was released from Israeli custody in 2011, as part of a deal that saw Israel free 1,027 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Gilad Shalit, whom Hamas held hostage for more than five years.

More on this renewed call for al-Tamimi to be extradited to the United States, a quarter-century after the attack she masterminded took place, can be found here: “Two U.S. envoys call for Sbarro bombing terrorist Tamimi to face justice,” by Marc Rod, Jewish Insider, August 10, 2026:

U.S. advocates have long pushed for Jordan to extradite Tamimi to face trial in the U.S. on a pending indictment by the Department of Justice, calling for Amman to enforce a 1995 extradition treaty with the U.S. signed by King Hussein. But Amman has refused, claiming the treaty was never properly ratified by its parliament and is therefore invalid.

This is a lie. Jordan signed the extradition treaty with the U.S. in 1995. But even had it not been signed, Jordan would still be free to extradite her. It has chosen not to do so, and we have chosen to still call Jordan an “ally” as we lavish huge sums on it.

It is maddening that not only does Jordan refuse to extradite her, but that while living in Jordan, the public has lionized her. She even had her own television show for several years, called Nasim Al-Ahrar (Breeze of the Free) on the Hamas-affiliated Al-Quds TV. The program was produced locally in Jordan and focused on the stories of “Palestinian” prisoners held in Israeli jails. She continues to appear frequently on Jordanian television, where she celebrates the Sbarro pizzeria attack, and more recent attacks, too, such as the one Hamas carried out on October 7, 2023. She remains a star, someone for girls in Jordan to emulate. The FBI has offered a $5 million reward for information leading to her arrest. But she stays safe in Jordan, our “ally” that still refuses to extradite her.

Arnold Roth, an American whose daughter Malki Roth was 15 years old when she was killed in the Sbarro pizzeria attack, has for years been trying to get Washington to apply pressure on the Jordanians to extradite her. He has told the Jerusalem Post that “she was charged in the United States in 2013, and she’s been saved, protected, and harbored by Jordan.” He noted that when Tamimi was told while in an Israeli prison that “eight children” had been killed in the attack, she responded by repeating the. word “eight” with a smile on her face. And this is the person the Jordanian government chooses to protect.

For god’s sake, how long must the relatives of Americans murdered in the Sbarro pizzeria attack wait until al-Tamimi is extradited from Jordan? A quarter century has passed since that atrocity. The Jordanian government that falsely claims it has no extradition treaty with the U.S. protects her. She is lionized in Jordan, held up as an example of “Palestinian womanhood” at its bravest and best. And the Americans can only say that they “will do everything in our power”(Lempert) and “remain committed to bringing every last fugitive of this heinous act to justice” (Huckabee) and “the United States will never forget and remains committed to bringing the perpetrators, including Ahlam al-Tamini, to justice.” (Kaploun). Is it really beyond the wit of Washington to make Amman comply with its demand for her extradition?

The American government has three ways to pressure Amman to hand over the murderous al-Tamimi, who has American blood on her hands (three of the Sbarro victims were Americans). The first way would be to impose huge tariffs, say 100%, on all goods imported from Jordan. At present, the U.S. imports more than $3 billion in such goods, mostly apparel, all of it duty-free. A 100% tariff will put paid to those sales.

The second way to force Jordan to extradite the mastermind of the Sbarro terror attack is to threaten to ban Jordanians from entry to the United States, both those who come to study (King Abdullah attended Deerfield Academy — I happened to attend his graduation) and those who come to work. Jordan has long depended on American institutions to train its graduate students at the highest level, and an end to student visas would ultimately damage Jordan, that depends on those American-educated students to return and build up the economy.

The third way to pressure Jordan is simply to cut off all American foreign aid to the country, which for 2024, the last year for which data is available, amounted to $1.82 billion. Jordan is now the second highest recipient of American aid. A threat from Washington to cut off all that aid will get the attention — concentrate the mind — of the Jordanian government.

Best of all, why not threaten to use all three methods simultaneously to force Jordan to extradite al-Tamimi? Threaten, that is, to slap 100% tariffs on all Jordanian goods, to stop issuing both work and student visas to Jordanians, and to cut off all American aid to the country. Ahlam al-Tamimi, no longer smiling and strapped into her seat on a Royal Jordanian Airlines jet, with burly Jordanian policemen on either side, would soon be winging her way from Amman to Dulles Airport in Washington, where the grim-faced feds will be waiting for her arrival.