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No Justice: No Peace: The case of the Sbarro murders mastermind | Israel National News - Arutz Sheva
The case of Ahlam Aref Ahmad Al-Tamimi, Sbarro Pizzeria massacre mastermind is a travesty of justice and proof that crime pays. Op-ed.
Sbarro Restaurant Bombing Taylor Force Act Dr. Alex Grobman
Sbarro terrorist attack Flash 90
On March 8, 2021, Interpol declared Ahlam Aref Ahmad Al-Tamimi, a Jordanian national in her mid-30s, who participated in the August 9, 2001 suicide bomb attack at the Sbarro pizza restaurant in Jerusalem, would no longer be a “subject to an Interpol notice.” This change was announced in a letter published in the Arabic-language media. Apparently, her name had also been deleted from the Interpol’s website. [1]
No mention was made as to why the Red Notice had been cancelled, which notifies law enforcement in all their member countries about fugitives who should be arrested until “extradition, surrender, or similar legal action.” Red Notices assist police in bringing criminals to justice who have committed murder, rape, child abuse or armed robbery, even when the initial crime had been committed many years before. [2]
The Sbarro bombing killed 15 people, including two US nationals. Four other US nationals were among the approximately 122 others injured in the attack. [3]
Accompanying a Suicide Bomber to the Target
On Aug. 9, 2001, Al-Tamimi met the suicide bomber, 23-year-old Izzedine al-Masri from Silat al-Harithiya, a member of the Hamas military wing Iz a Din al-Kassam, in Ramallah. Together, they went by car to Jerusalem. Having a young Arab woman dressed in a tight-fitting dress accompany a male suicide bomber to his target enabled the couple to seem part of the urban landscape, and less likely to arouse any suspicion. This is exactly how Al-Tamimi, at the time a 21-year-old journalism student at Birzeit University, guided the suicide bomber to the Sbarro pizza parlor in the heart of Jerusalem, without being detected.
As a resident of Ramallah, Al-Tamimi had been to Jerusalem on countless occasions, spoke fluent English with only a minor trace of an Arab accent, and possessed a Jordanian passport. If stopped, she would attempt to convince the police she was a Jordanian tourist on holiday.
Al-Tamimi had been the first woman the Hamas military wing recruited. After her first mission to hide a bomb in a beer can at a Jerusalem supermarket caused only minimal damage and just a few casualties, she wanted to prove women had a role in the all-male Hamas organization.
As they walked toward Sbarro’s at the corner of King George Street and Jaffa Road, Al-Masri carried a guitar case on his back. Al-Tamimi had chosen Sbarro’s because the restaurant was generally packed with families with young children.
After she left Al-Masri at the entrance to Sbarro, she fled on foot to the Damascus Gate and immediately boarded a sherut (taxi) to Ramallah. She described her experience on TV that the news of the bombing, heard on the sherut’s radio in "the Zionist language," caused elation among the other passengers. The death toll was initially low (three dead Israelis), but it rose steadily. [4]
After returning to Ramallah, she went to the Palestinian Arab television studio where she was a newsreader and reported the horrific terrorist attack that she had planned and directed. [5]
An Israeli military court convicted Al-Tamimi to 16 life sentences. She completed only eight years before being freed on October 18, 2011, as part of a prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas. Included in the exchange was Gilad Shalit. Upon her release, she was deported to Jordan. [6]
Nizar Tamimi, who had participated in the 1993 murder of Chaim Mizrahi of Bet El, and sentenced to life in prison, was also freed as part of the agreement. Once Nizar, her cousin, and Al-Tamimi were released, they married. [7]
Attempts to Extradite Her to the US
Jordanian courts decreed that their constitution prohibited the extradition of Jordanian nationals, yet both countries signed the 1995 Extradition Treaty.
The US has worked to obtain custody of Al-Tamimi so she can be held accountable for her role in the terrorist bombing in accordance with the 1995 Extradition Treaty between Jordan and the US. Charges were brought against her in Washington on July 15, 2013, but sealed by the judge, while the US negotiated unsuccessfully, to have Jordan extradite her under the treaty. The FBI placed Al-Tamimi on its Most Wanted Terrorists list on March 14, 2017. [8]
Laith Nasrawin, a constitutional law professor at the University of Jordan, rejected the idea that Jordan was legally bound to extradite Al-Tamimi. “The 1995 extradition treaty, having not been ratified by the parliament, does not carry the weight of the law and is invalid from the court’s perspective,” she said. The treaty “may carry weight on an international level between the US and Jordan, but domestically and legally, the treaty is unconstitutional.” [9]
Yet, in 1995 Jordan extradited Eyad Ismail Najim, a Jordanian citizen linked to the 1993 New York City bombing, right after the two countries signed the treaty. According to Jordanian officials acquainted with the case, Najim was extradited only after he formally agreed to be tried in the US, not because of a legal ruling. [10]
In Jordan, Al-Tamimi’s case is a highly contentious issue, since the majority of Jordanians regard Israel as their adversary. Scores of Jordanians expressed their support for her on social media and appealed to the government to deny the request to extradite her. [11]
Al-Tamimi pleaded guilty in an Israeli court in 2003 to multiple counts of murder arising from the Sbarro suicide bomb attack and was sentenced to 16 life terms of incarceration. In the US, the maximum penalty for a person convicted of this charge is a life term of incarceration or death. The case is being prosecuted by the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section. [12]
Upon her discharge, she asked “Why is Ahlam defined as ‘a terror[ist]’? I’m part of an independence movement, a national liberation movement, a resistance movement acting for its freedom. The clauses of the UN General Assembly [charter] are on my side." [13]
In an interview with Israeli TV Channel 1, she boasted "I have no regrets, and no Palestinian prisoner regrets what he or she has done. We were defending ourselves. What are we supposed to regret? Should we regret defending ourselves? Should we regret that the Israelis killed one of us, so we killed a different one of them? We have no regrets.” [14]
During an interview broadcast on a Jordanian website, she was asked if she would participate in or conduct another terror attack, she responded: "Of course. I don't regret what happened, absolutely not. That is the path; I give myself for the sake of Allah, to Jihad for Allah. I carried out [my mission] and Allah made me successful: You know the number of victims who were killed. All that was thanks to the success from Allah. Do you expect me to abandon what I did, saying [I regret it]? Regret is something that is out of the question. If time could go backwards, I would carry out what I did, in the same manner."
On Hamas' Al-Aqsa TV, Al-Tamimi described the suicide bomber with admiration: “It’s important to say that I was walking with a spiritual person. Next to him, I sensed a sort of divine aura surrounding us." [15]
In Jordan, she hosted a talk show between February 2012 and September 2016 called Nasim Al-Ahrar [Breeze of the Free] on the Hamas-affiliated Al-Quds TV. Her show focused on Palestinian Arab prisoners in Israeli jails. In an interview with Saleh Arouri, who was responsible for Hamas prisoner’s and participated in the negotiations that led to the prisoner exchange agreement. Arouri proclaimed that only by continued “resistance” and kidnapping IDF soldiers could they obtain the release of additional Palestinian Arab prisoners from Israeli jails. [16]
Crime Does Pay: Pay for Slay
Until she was released from prison, Al-Tamimi received $51,836. Al-Masri’s family has received $53,689 overall, the bombmaker Abdullah Barghouti has collected $213,848. [17]
Palestinian Arab terrorists have known that whether they are killed in action or incarcerated in Israeli prisons because of their crimes, their families will be compensated by the PLO, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and/or other Palestinian-Arab terror organizations. [18]
The longer Fatah terrorists remains in prison, the higher the salary he/she receives. 24 [19] The “greater the crime,” the greater the compensation. There is a sliding scale. Murderers can receive up to $3,500 a month, observes Elliot Abrams, senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. Those sentenced to five years in prison or less receive a base salary of $350 per month. “The excuse that these payments are meant only to help prisoners’ families survive does not wash,” he says, “because if that were the goal, the stipend would depend on family size. Instead, the worse your crime, the more money you get.” [20]
Terrorists are exempt from paying for education, health care, and professional instruction. Once freed, they are offered substantial positions in Fatah and the PA. Those incarcerated for five years or more are eligible to a job in a PA institution. Terrorists who served are entitled to a more prestigious title in the government and a higher compensation. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has stressed more than once “the prisoners are top priority.” [21]
To compensate the terrorists, the PA employs least 550 individuals with a budget of $350 million. This compares to the $220 million allocated for their main welfare program. [22]
To stop providing funds to terrorists, the US congress introduced the Taylor Force Act. “This bill prohibits certain assistance under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 from being made available for the West Bank and Gaza unless the Department of State certifies that the Palestinian Authority: is taking steps to end acts of violence against U.S. and Israeli citizens perpetrated by individuals under its jurisdictional control, such as the March 2016 attack that killed former Army officer Taylor Force; is publicly condemning such acts of violence and is investigating, or cooperating in investigations of, such acts; and has terminated payments for acts of terrorism against U.S. and Israeli citizens to any individual who has been convicted and imprisoned for such acts, to any individual who died committing such acts, and to family members of such an individual. [23]
Beneficiaries of PA stipends include the family of Bashar Masalha, who stabbed 11 people near Tel-Aviv and murdered 28-year-old Taylor Force, who was visiting Israel on a break from Vanderbilt business school. Force, a West Point graduate, had served in Afghanistan and Iraq. Taylor had been walking on the Mediterranean boardwalk promenade with friends in Tel Aviv, when he was brutally knifed to death on March 8, 2016. [24]
Police killed Masalha, but his relatives collect monthly payments equivalent to several times the average Palestinian Arab salary. The Wall Street Journal concluded that “With special offices and more than 500 civil servants assigned to distribute these funds, the PA’s message is clear: Terrorism pays.” [25]).
Biden Administration and the Taylor Force Act
When asked whether the Biden Administration intended to resume aid to the PA to spur the Israeli-Palestinian Arab “peace process,” State Department Spokesman Ned Price” said “our intent to provide assistance to the benefit of all Palestinians, including to Palestinian refugees. We are in the process of determining how to move forward with the resumption of that assistance, consistent with US law, consistent with our interests.” [26]
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Taylor’s father Stuart Force and Sander Gerber, a New York hedge fund executive and fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, asserted that if the Biden Administration is sincerely interested in helping the Palestinian Arabs, “it should insist that the PA cannot be a peace partner until it stops the glorification of terrorists. The PA’s refusal to make peace with Israel, accompanied by its celebration of violence, is the real source of economic and humanitarian problems in Palestinian society, not the loss of U.S. aid.”
Should the administration attempt to circumvent the Taylor Force Act, it would guilty “of money laundering for terrorists.” [27]
To continue paying terrorist “salaries” after terrorists are released from prison and evade Israeli anti-terror law enacted in July 2018 and dupe donors, terrorist salaries are made to appear like conventional wages. Released terrorists are already being incorporated into the PA security system and government and civil positions according to Palestinian Media Watch. Although terrorists receive a “salary,” they are not obligated to work in their alleged positions, unless explicitly “requested” to do so.
Paying prisoners still incarcerated, which is viewed as a sacred task, the PA is in contact with the American administration, European governments, and Israeli authorities. The Palestinian Authority-funded PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs, assembled to find a solution, working even on vacation days, to fund the prisoners’ salaries only through the banks.[28]
Attempting to Bring Al-Tamimi to Justice
“Trying to bring the central figure in our daughter's murder to justice has been one of the hardest and most painful things my wife [Frimet]and I have ever had to do,” declared Arnold Roth, whose 15-year-old daughter Malki” was killed in the blast. Al-Tamimi “should have been put on trial in Washington under US law a long time ago. The charges against her were unsealed by Senior Department of Justice officials almost exactly four years ago to the day, on March 14, 2017,” he pointed out.
Furthermore, he said, “It is inexplicable to us that Jordan, which signed a treaty with the US more than a quarter century ago for the mutual extradition of fugitives like A l-Tamimi, remains in flagrant breach of that treaty even while it continues to be a recipient of colossal sums in US foreign aid each year.”
Roth added that “the blunt and unwelcome announcement by Interpol on March 8, 2021 that it has succumbed to pressure from the fugitive's family, lawyers and clan in Jordan and has cancelled the Red Notice, which operated until now to encourage member governments to arrest her if she enters their jurisdiction.” [29].
In a plea to President Biden, Frimet Roth criticized Jordan’s King Abdullah's regime for consistently rejecting to honor the extradition treaty. “We truly hope,” she said, “that you… will impress on Jordan that the existential support lavished on the Hashemite Kingdom is contingent on this evil woman being brought to justice. [30] .
The failure of the US to have Al-Tamimi extradited to the US for trial, and the attempt to circumvent the Taylor Force Act sends a message of hope to those who wish to destroy the Jewish state. Added to this is the Biden Administration’s restoration of relations with the Palestinian Arabs, reinstating aid to Palestinian Arab refugees and new support for “a mutually agreed” upon two-state solution. [31] (Edith M. Lederer, “U.S. announces restoration of relations with Palestinians,” Associated Press (January 26, 2021.) The Palestinian Arab state would ostensibly include about 70% of Judea and Samaria and all of Gaza, with its capital on the peripheries of East Jerusalem. [32]
There are also plans to reopen Palestinian Arab diplomatic missions presumably such as the PLO mission in Washington, DC, the US Consulate General in Jerusalem that have afforded direct communication between the Palestinian Authority and Washington.[33]
Why the return to the failed policies of the past? The centrality of the peace process had become a “peace religion” with its own dogma according to Aaron David Miller, former advisor to Republican and Democratic Secretaries of State on Arab-Israeli negotiations (1978-2003).
These “articles of faith,” he explains are: “First, pursuit of a comprehensive peace was a core, if not the core, U.S. interest in the region, and achieving it offered the only sure way to protect U.S. interests; second, peace could be achieved, but only through a serious negotiating process based on trading land for peace; and third, only America could help the Arabs and Israelis bring that peace to fruition.”
Failure to resolve the conflict would “would trigger ruinous war, increase Soviet influence, weaken Arab moderates, strengthen Arab radicals, jeopardize access to Middle East oil, and generally undermine U.S. influence from Rabat to Karachi.”
Miller realizes that the belief “that there’s a single or simple fix to protecting those interests, let alone that Arab-Israeli peace would, like some magic potion, bullet, or elixir, make it all better, is just flat wrong. In a broken, angry region with so many problems — from stagnant, inequitable economies to extractive and authoritarian governments that abuse human rights and deny rule of law, to a popular culture mired in conspiracy and denial — it stretches the bounds of credulity to the breaking point to argue that settling the Arab-Israeli conflict is the most critical issue, or that its resolution would somehow guarantee Middle East stability.”
“These tenets endured and prospered,” he said, “even while the realities on which they were based had begun to change.” In other words, there has been “more process than peace.” [34]
Elliot Abrams adds another act of faith that has become part of American diplomatic canon. This is the belief that even when there is little hope in achieving a sudden or dramatic diplomatic break though, the standard response is “Okay, but what’s the harm in trying? As former president Bill Clinton used to say, “We always need to get caught trying—fewer people will die.”
The assumption that no harm ensues when the US attempts to find a comprehensive peace accord and that lives are saved in the process, is simply false Abrams contends as continuing acts of terrorism demonstrates. Furthermore, Abrams asserts the prestige and stature of America and the president are diminished when these efforts end in failure. [35]
At a meeting with the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) on November 17, 2020, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh had the opportunity to express his vision for peace. Instead, he used the occasion to attack the Arab states who signed the Abraham Accords, negating their right to protect their own crucial interests.
Ambassador Dore Gold, the former director general of Israel’s Foreign Ministry, believes that “Shtayyeh is probably hoping that selective reinterpretations of the Middle East peace process can be used to the Palestinians’ advantage. Describing the stipends granted to families of those who engaged in terrorism as a ‘social welfare’ program might work as a strategy if the audience hearing this argument is either incredibly or ignorant.” [36]
[1] The Times of Israel staff, “Interpol said to drop warrant for Sbarro pizzeria bomber Ahlam Tamimi,” The Times of Israel (March 12, 2021); https://arabi21.com/story/1343778/.
[3] “Individual Charged in Connection With 2001 Terrorist Attack in Jerusalem That Resulted in Death of Americans,” The United States of Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs (March 14, 2017).
[4] Email from Arnold Roth, March 22, 2021; Samuel M. Katz, The Ghost Warriors, The Ghost Warriors: Inside Israel's Undercover War Against Suicide Terrorism (New York: Berkley Caliber, 2016) 194-198; Brian Whitaker, “Who carried out suicide bombing?” The Guardian (August 9, 2001).
[5] Meir Indor, “Regards from Amman: The Tamimi Family and the Good Life,” The Jewish Press (June 27, 2012).
[6] “In dividual Charged in Connection With 2001 Terrorist Attack in Jerusalem That Resulted in Death of Americans,” op.cit.
[7] Jackson Richman, “Report: Jordan Expels Nizar Tamimi, Husband of US-Wanted Terrorist,” Algemeiner (October 2, 2020); Indor, op.cit.
[8] “Individual Charged in Connection With 2001 Terrorist Attack in Jerusalem That Resulted in Death of Americans,” op.cit; Phoebe Greenwood, “Palestinian families wait to hear prisoners' fate,” The Guardian (October 11, 2011).
[9] Ali Younes, “‘Close the file’: Jordan king urged to deny US extradition demand,” Al Jazeera (June 18, 2020).
[12] “Individual charge,” op.cit; Interestingly, Daled Amos noted that “In 2011, a photographer named Nariman al-Tamimi staged a video [see Yishai Goldflam, Tamar Sternthal, “UPDATED: B’Tselem Photographer Stages Scene,” CAMERA (May 19, 2011), that made it appear that when Israeli police arrested an 11-year-old boy for throwing stones, they refused to take the boy's mother in the car. Nariman al-Tamimi is the name of Ahed Tamimi's mother.”
[13] Ahlam Tamimi pleased Jordan refuses to extradite her to the US: Why am I a "terrorist"? - "I'm part of a resistance movement," Al-Jazeera website (Arabic) (March 28, 2019) quoted by Palestinian Media Watch (March 28, 2019).
[14] “PA TV rebroadcasts Israeli interview with terrorist Tamimi, who smiles upon hearing her attack killed 8 children,” Palestinian Media Watch (October 23, 2011).
[15] Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik, “A Palestinian hero in the media- The woman who aided suicide terrorist who attacked the Sbarro restaurant and killed 15,” Palestinian Media Watch (November16, 2011); “Suicide bomber's accomplice about killing 15: If time could go backwards I would do it again,” Ammon News, independent news agency (Jordan) (Oct 19, 2011) quoted in Palestinian Media Watch (Oct 19, 2011). “Released Hamas Terrorist Ahlam Tamimi on Palestinian Public's Delight at Suicide Bombings,” MEMRI (July 12, 2012).
[16] Khaled Abu Toameh,” Female terrorist hosts talk show on Hamas TV” The Jerusalem Post (March 1, 2012).
[17] “Report: Terrorists behind Jerusalem pizza bombing received more than $910K,” JNS (August 8, 2019).
[18] PA TV repeats Abbas’ vow to pay terrorists no matter what – even are left with only one penny” Official Palestinian Authority TV Palestinian Media Watch (March 13, 2021); “PA law grants promotions in rank to terrorist prisoners from PA Security Services WAFA, official PA news agency,” Palestinian Media Watch (December 12, 2013).
[19] Bassam Tawil, “Palestinians: Why Abbas Cannot Stop Funding Terrorists,” Gatestone (June 26, 2017).
[20] Elliot Abrams, “Stop Supporting Palestinian Terror,” National Review (April 17, 2017); “Pay for Slay in Palestine,” The Wall Street Journal (March 27, 2017); Thane Rosenbaum, “Palestinians are rewarding terrorists. The U.S. should stop enabling them,” The Washington Post (April 28, 2017).
[21] Yossi Kuperwasser, “Incentivizing Terrorism: Palestinian Authority Allocations to Terrorists and their Families,” Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (December 30, 2016); Maurice Hirsch and Nan Jacques Zilberdik, “PA salaries to terrorists rise by 11.8% in 2019 - amidst self-inflicted financial crisis, “Palestinian Media Watch (July 3, 2019).
[22] Mike Pompeo, Sander Gerber, and Stuart Force “Is the Biden Administration Planning on Violating the Taylor Force Act, as the PA Continues Its Despicable Anti-Israel, Anti-America Pay-for-Slay Policy?” American Center for Law and Justice (March 1, 2021); Maurice Hirsch, “Murderers of the Fogel family set to get 50% salary increase from the PA,” Palestinian Media Watch (March11, 2021);Gilad Erdan, “The Truth About the Palestinian Hunger Strike,” The New York Times (May 1, 2017); “Palestinian ploy to deceive donors PA will stop giving $130 million a year to terrorist prisoners, but PLO will pay the terrorists instead,” Palestinian Media watch (June 3, 2014); Yigal Carmon, “Palestinian Authority Support for Imprisoned, Released and Wounded Terrorists and Families of 'Martyrs,'” Written testimony submitted to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, for "Financially Rewarding Terrorism in the West Bank," MEMRI (July 6, 2016).
[23] “https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/1164; Taylor Force Act Talking Points https://emetonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Taylor-Force-Act-Notes-.pdf.
[24] Eric Shawn, “Bill in Congress would pressure Palestinian gov't to cut off terror-tied payments,” Fox News Politics (April 30, 2017); Itamar Marcus, “Fatah celebrates murder of American tourist,” Palestinian Media Watch (March 9, 2016).
[25] “Pay for Slay in Palestine,” The Wall Street Journal (March 27, 2017); Itamar Marcus, “Fatah celebrates murder of American tourist,” Palestinian Media Watch (March 9, 2016); See also, Shoshana Bryen, Close the PLO Office in DC,” Israel Policy Center (April 19, 2017); Kevin Derby, “Ted Cruz, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen Renew the Fight to Kick PLO Out of Washington,” Sunshine State News (May 6, 2017).
[26] “State Department Ned Price Press Conference Transcript February 11” https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/state-department-ned-price-press-conference-transcript-february-11.
[27] Mike Pompeo, Sander Gerber, and Stuart Force “op.cit; Stephen M. Flatow, “Will Biden tolerate ‘pay for slay?’” Israel National News (Dec 1, 2021).
[28] Maurice Hirsch, “PMW initiative creates havoc for the PA Pay-for-Slay policy,” Palestinian Media Watch (March 17, 2021); PA TV repeats Abbas’ vow to pay terrorists no matter what.” (op.cit); “PA’s trees for terrorists planted in school garden to teach kids about “heroic prisoners” Palestinian Media Watch (March 14, 2021); Itamar Marcus & Nan Jacques Zilberdik, “PA plants trees to honor 35,000 “Martyrs” – including all suicide bombers,” Palestinian Media Watch (February 2, 2021); see also “Israel: Law on Freezing Revenues Designated for the Palestinian Authority,” The Law Library of Congress, Global Legal Research Directorate (March 2019).
[29] 11-Mar-21: Interpol and justice); Arnold Roth, “Why does BBC‏ ‏promote my daughter’s murderer?” (October 13, 2020); For other reaction, please see “Wiesenthal Centre to INTERPOL: “Return Terrorist Al -Tamimi to ‘Most Wanted’ Status,” (March 12, 2021); https://www.wiesenthal.com/about/news/wiesenthal-centre-to-30.html;” EMET IS APPALLED THAT INTERPOL HAS DECIDED TO DROP THE ARREST WARRANT FOR AHLAM TAMIMI, A KNOWN TERRORIST AND KILLER OF AMERICAN CITIZENS,” Press Release (March 15, 202).
[30] Frimet Roth, “To President Biden: I remember shedding tears that day - it is four years later,” Israel National News (March 18, 2021); Frimet Roth, “Mother of Israeli Suicide Bombing Victim: Do Not Free My Daughter's Murderer,” Haaretz (October 16, 2011).
[31] Edith M. Lederer, “U.S. announces restoration of relations with Palestinians,” Associated Press (January 26, 2021).
[32] “Biden administration to restore aid to Palestinians,” BBC News (January 27, 2021); Lee Smith, “Biden Torpedoes Abraham Accords Summit,” Tablet (March 22, 2021); Israel Kasnett, “Former Ambassador Friedman sifts through ‘transformative’ accords and their future success,” JNS (March 18, 2021).
[33] Tovah Lazaroff, “Biden envoy: US to reopen diplomatic missions for Palestinians,” The Jerusalem Post (January 27, 2021).
[34] Aaron David Miller, “The False Religion of Mideast Peace,” Foreign Policy (April 19, 2010); Aaron David Miller, The Much Too Promised Land: America’s Elusive Search for Arab-Israeli Peace (New York: Bantam Books, 2008), 27-28; Joe Klein, “Q&A: Obama on His First Year in Office,” Time Magazine (January 21, 2010); Alex Grobman, “Exposing the Myth of Linkage,” The Jewish Press (December 13, 2016); Dennis Ross, Doomed to Succeed: The U.S.-Israel Relationship from Truman to Obama (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015), 346.
[35] Elliot Abrams, “The Harm in Trying: The downside of the Middle East 'peace process,'” The Weekly Standard (July 3, 2017).
[36] Dore Gold, “Diplomatic fantasies at the Council on Foreign Relations,” Jerusalem Post (November 27, 2020).
Alex Grobman is senior resident scholar at the John C. Danforth Society, and a member of the Council of Scholars for Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME). He has an MA and PhD in Contemporary Jewry from The Hebrew University in Jerusalem.