News broke out last week that the US has captured Osama Bin-Laden’s son-in-law, Sulaiman Abu Ghaith. It appears that the former Al-Qaeda spokesman was picked up as he was traveling from Turkey to Amman.

But in Amman, capital city of Jordan, resides a woman who was far more active than Abu Ghaith in killing and maiming American citizens. Ahlam Tamimi, described as a university student and part-time journalist, planned the Sbarro massacre of August 2001 in Jerusalem, and personally led the guitar-case carrying bomber to the crowded destination.

President Obama is planning to visit Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and Amman, Jordan this month. He could do a great service in the fight against terrorism by publicly committing his administration to the active prosecution of Palestinians who willfully murdered and wounded American citizens. U.S. terror victims are not asking for favors; we are asking our government to bring justice to those who have been devastated by wanton Palestinian terror funded by U.S. tax dollars.

Fifteen people were murdered in the Sbarro massive explosion, including two American citizens, and another four Americans were wounded. Tamimi was arrested, tried, and sentenced to sixteen life sentences in Israeli jail. But in October, 2011, she went free as part of the deal Israel made to release captive soldier Gilad Shalit. Today, Tamimi sits in Amman where she has her own talk show. As to her role in the bombing, one can hear it in her own words:

The story of Tamimi is the story of failed U.S. law enforcement as it should apply to Palestinian terrorists. After the murder of Leon Klinghoffer on the Achille Lauro, in 1985, the U.S. passed a set of laws to make a terror act against a U.S. citizen anywhere in the world an offense prosecutable in U.S. federal court. A summary of the laws may be found here. These laws form the basis for the extradition of terrorists and pirates, but, to date, the U.S. has never applied these laws to a Palestinian terrorist involved in the death or injury of an American citizen.

This state of affairs is not due to a lack of information: from the 1993 signing of the Oslo Accords to 2006, the tail end of the “Second Intifada,” Palestinian terrorists have murdered 54 American citizens and wounded another 84—including this author and his son—a total of 72 separate terror attacks. The FBI dutifully opened files on every attack and a new office was opened in the Department of Justice to “monitor” such cases: the Office of Justice for Victims of Overseas Terrorism (OJVOT).

If anything should be abolished during the present “sequester,” it is this office: the number of Palestinian terrorists tried since this OJVOT came into existence in 2005 is equal to the number prior to that date: Zero.

While no Palestinian terrorist has ever been extradited by the U.S., the DoJ has been busy coordinating with Israel the transfer to the U.S. of accused drug dealers and wanted criminals. Since 2004, two years after my son and I were the recipients of Palestinian shrapnel from a suicide bombing, I have begged and pleaded with U.S. officials to prosecute Palestinian terrorists. While their responses have uniformly been of sincere concern and determination (“The United States is committed to seeking justice for our citizens victimized by terrorism whether at home or abroad…”—AG Holder to this author), no Palestinian terrorist has ever been prosecuted.

When Israel was set to release hundreds of convicted terrorists in the aforementioned Shalit deal, I frantically contacted officials in the US government: the two women who brought “our” bomber to downtown Jerusalem were on the launch pad for release. The U.S. belatedly passed along to the Israeli government that no terrorist with American blood on his or her hands should be released. This note was given the day before the prisoner exchange. Needless to say, Israel ignored the request and not a word was said in Washington about the matter.

The reason is simple: Washington never expected Israel to comply, because our cases are irrelevant to the FBI and the DoJ. When the terrorists were released in exchange for the Israeli soldier, the FBI could not even figure out who got out: they could not translate the names because identity numbers were missing digits. Finally, an American lawyer who has worked harder than all of the various governmental agencies combined for U.S. terror victims, informed the FBI that 15 terrorists directly involved in the murder and maiming of American civilians walked free.

On October 17, 2011, Palestinian terrorists shot and killed Israeli Minister Rechavam “Gandhi” Ze’evi. Ze’evi was the founder of the right-wing Moledet party, and a strong advocate for finding and returning home Israel’s missing soldiers.

In 1974 Ze’evi retired from the IDF with the rank of Major General.

Among his other many accomplishments were his extensive and well-researched writings on the Land of Israel and as director of the Eretz Yisrael Museum.

Ze’evi was born in Jerusalem on June 20, 1926.

Ze’evi was killed in his Jerusalem Hyatt hotel room on Mount Scopus by Palestinian terrorists. The terrorists fled to the Palestinian Authority were they were given safe haven. Eventually the IDF captured them, and they were given life sentences in prison.

Rechavam “Gandhi” Ze’evi

It is now official. Rachel Corrie, patron saint of the pro-terror radical left and its Islamofascist allies, essentially committed suicide in order to assist Palestinian terrorists. She was not killed in cavalier fashion by Israel. Israel had no particular reason to want her dead (as opposed to deported).

The Haifa district court last week tossed out a petition by Corrie’s clueless parents. They had sought damages and a court proclamation that Israel was at fault in their daughter’s death. Instead, Judge Oded Gershon made it very clear that Rachel Corrie was responsible for her own death.

She intentionally placed herself in harm’s way interfering with Israeli anti-terror operations in Gaza. She did so in a place where Palestinian terrorists had fired at Israeli soldiers just hours earlier. The troops were there to destroy smuggling tunnels beneath residential buildings, tunnels used to smuggle in explosives, missiles, and other weapons – you know, the things used by terrorists to murder Jewish children and other living things.

Corrie had been sent to Gaza as part of a Solidarity-with-Genocidal-Hamas-Murderers delegation organized by the pro-jihad International Solidarity Movement, which notoriously hosted two terrorists the day before they murdered several Israelis at the Mike’s Place tavern in Tel Aviv in 2003.

Corrie entered Gaza to serve as a human shield for Hamas mass murderers. On March 16, 2003 she decided to play chicken with a large Israeli earthmover. The irony is that the driver would have stopped and capitulated to Corrie’s shenanigans if he had seen her. But he did not and struck her. She later died in a Palestinian medical facility.

Since then both the totalitarian left and the goose-stepping ultra-right have beatified Corrie. She is the darling of the Iranian Holocaust deniers. A ridiculous theater play has been making the circuits proclaiming Corrie a victim rather than an accomplice of terror. The most lasting image of Corrie was that of her face contorted with rage and as she burned an American flag.

When Reuters reported that Palestinians “honored” her after her death in a “symbolic funeral” by flying U.S. flags, James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal remarked that if Corrie were still alive, no doubt she’d have burned those flags.

Since her death, Corrie’s parents have been serving as an Israel-bashing SWAT team. They frequently come to Gaza to show their support for the same Hamas terrorists their daughter served. Ironically, on one occasion the terrorists kidnapped the Corrie parents but then quickly released them when it became clear they were far more valuable assets for terrorism while they run about free. The Corries also have been leading the jihad against the Caterpillar company because it sells equipment to Israel.

When the Corrie parents began their legal assault against Israel here in Haifa, where I live, I wrote an open letter to them, an excerpt of which is still relevant:

The city of Haifa is still recovering from the trauma of the summer of 2006, when it, along with the rest of northern Israel, was targeted by thousands of Katyusha rockets, fired from southern Lebanon by Hizbullah terrorists. Haifa has also been targeted by suicide bombers who carried out mass murders against civilians in buses and restaurants. Now Haifa is about to become the victim of yet another indignity. It is to be the scene for a legal assault by the parents of Rachel Corrie….

You have stated, “She [Rachel] had been working in Rafah with a nonviolent resistance organization, the International Solidarity Movement, trying to stop the demolition of Palestinian homes and wells.”

Well, she was not. Rachel was trying to prevent the demolition of tunnels used to smuggle weapons for Palestinian terrorists seeking to murder Jewish civilians. Your daughter was in a war zone as a belligerent, on behalf of a movement of Arab fascists seeking to destroy Israel and murder as many Jews as possible.

You demand that we feel your pain at the loss of your daughter, yet your daughter conscripted herself as an accomplice for those seeking to murder my children. You feel no pain for the scores of martyrs in my own city of Haifa murdered by those same terrorists.

You write, “Clearly, our daughter has become a positive symbol for people.”

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While the news this week will be about Rachel Corrie, many have forgotten all the Jewish Rachels who have been killed by Palestinian terrorists.

Here is a short video to remind you who they were and how they were murdered.

A member of the military wing of Gaza’s ruling terrorist movement Hamas died when a bomb he was securing accidentally exploded, the Hamas Ezzedine al Qassam said on Friday.

The hapless shahid, who went by the name of Khalout Majid (until he went kaboom), died when a bomb went off while he was guarding the place where it was stored in northern Gaza City.

An Israeli military spokesman said he was unaware of the explosion.

Earlier this month, another member of the Brigades was killed in an explosion of an incendiary device which he was driving in his car in Gaza City.

The Israeli army said he was not involved in the incident either.

The two joined several other Palestinian terrorists who have been the recipients of the much coveted Darwin Award, which recognizes individuals who contribute to human evolution by self-selecting themselves out of the gene pool.

Back in 1999, in Jerusalem, the switch away from Daylight Saving Time raised havoc with Palestinian terrorists. The Palestinians refused to live on “Zionist Time,” with dire consequences:

At precisely 5:30 PM on Sunday, September 5, 1999, two coordinated car bombs exploded in different cities, killing three terrorists who were transporting the bombs. It was initially believed that the devices had been detonated prematurely by klutzy amateurs. A closer look revealed that the bombs had been prepared in a Palestine-controlled area, and set to detonate on Daylight Saving Time. But the confused drivers had already switched to Standard Time. When they picked up the bombs, they neglected to ask whose watch was used to set the timing mechanism. As a result, the cars were still en-route when the explosives detonated, removing the terrorists from humanity’s genetic considerations.

The 2012 Darwin Awards have already been decided (the winner was an attentive zoo employee who tried to assist a constipated elephant, but third place went to a couple who threw a lit stick of dynamite out of their car only to discover the window was closed) – but it’s not too late to suggest a Khalout Majid nomination on their Facebook page.

I’ve been wavering back and forth on this, but more and more people I’ve proposed this theory to are beginning to say that there might be something to it.

Last week’s Sinai attack is still a mystery. A bunch of Palestinian terrorists kill the soldiers of a Muslim Brotherhood run country, all to get 2 APC vehicles with which to attack Israel! That’s very, very strange.

The first questions I asked were, who could be responsible, and what might they gain from it?

Other than saying the Palestinians are crazy and just like killing people (which we know to be true), there’s only one other answer that keeps popping up.

At first my friends thought the idea was too sophisticated for them to pull off. But now they’re not so sure.

The only group that gains by an Islamic group’s attack on the Egyptian army is Egyptian President Morsy and his Muslim Brotherhood.

Look what’s happened since the attack:

Morsy’s moved heavy armor, tanks, even fighter planes and gunships into the Sinai – and didn’t wait for Israel’s approval to do so.

He plans to keep them there, and perhaps even add more. (Not to attack Israel, but to violate and eventually kill the treaty).

Morsy did a coup, he fired the top Egyptian officers and replaced them – creating an internal loyalty realignment amongst the mid-level officers, as well as obviously his top level officers.

Morsy’s officially taken control over the Egyptian army, by announcing himself as the Supreme Commander on Egyptian TV (making the Muslim Brotherhood into the Big Giant Head, I suppose).

Morsy’s announced he’s reviewing the Camp David Accords in order to change them, because Egypt needs full and unrestricted control over the Sinai.

That’s a lot of convenient fallout from one attack.

At every level Morsy and the Muslim Brotherhood gain by the Sinai attack, and in fact, they are the only winners. And that makes them the prime suspects behind the attack.

What do you think?

Sportscaster Bob Costas remembered the 11 Israelis killed in the 1972 Munich Olympics on air as the Israeli delegation entered the Olympic stadium in London.

“These games mark the 40th anniversary of the 1972 tragedy in Munich, when 11 Israeli coaches and athletes were murdered by Palestinian terrorists,” Costas said during NBC’s broadcast of the opening ceremonies last Friday.

“There have been calls from a number of quarters for the IOC to acknowledge that with a moment of silence at some point in tonight’s ceremony. The IOC denied that request, noting it had honored the victims on other occasions.”

Costas noted that International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge held a moment of silence in the Olympic Village earlier in the week.

“Still,” Costas said, “for many, tonight, with the world watching, is the true time and place to remember those who were lost, and how and why they died.”

After 12 seconds of on-air silence, Costas cut to a commercial.

(JTA)

For months, International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge has dismissed calls for a moment of silence at the opening ceremony of the London Olympics to mark the 40th anniversary of the murder of eleven Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

On Monday, in advance of this Friday’s opening ceremony, Mr. Rogge did preside over a previously unannounced tribute attended by several Olympic administrative officials.

But not only was this an insult to the memory of the slain Israelis, it underscored Mr. Rogge’s utter failure to grasp that the murders were not only about the Israeli victims but about the Olympics itself.

Since the days of ancient Greece, the Olympics have been characterized by a general truce that interrupted whatever wars were being fought at the time. This was to enable athletes and visitors to travel unimpeded to the games and ensure that the games themselves would be conducted free of violence. We don’t always have good things to say about UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, but a statement he released last week put it best:

The tradition of an Olympic truce began in ancient times to allow safe passage for athletes traveling to the games. This resulted in an environment where the true spirit of the Olympic Games was on display: peaceful competition among nations, feats of individual excellence.

Today, sports and events such as the Olympic and Paralympic games break down barriers by bringing together people from all around the world and all walks of life. The participants may carry the flags of many nations, but they come together under the shared banner of equality and fair play, understanding and mutual respect.

We give meaning to these values through the Olympic truce, the call for warring parties everywhere to lay down their weapons during the games. These pauses in fighting save lives. They help humanitarian workers reach people in need. And they opened diplomatic space to negotiate lasting solutions.

The Olympic truce – and more broadly the Olympic ideal – carries a powerful message: that people and nations can set aside their differences and live and work together in harmony. And if they can do it for one day, over one event, they can do it forever. This is the dream on which the United Nations is built, and the goal of our daily work.

I call on all those engaged in hostilities to respect the Truce – which has been endorsed by all 193 UN member states. This is an uphill battle – but we must persist in proclaiming the Truce and do our utmost to win adherence to it. For these next few weeks may the torch of the Olympic and Paralympic games in London serve as a beacon of peace around the world.

Consider what happened in Munich on September 5, 1972, the 11th day of the Olympiad. At 4:30 a.m., several Palestinian terrorists made their way past security and, armed with hand grenades and Kalashnikovs, entered two Israeli team apartments. They killed two Israelis and took nine hostage. The hostages were later killed by the terrorists in the course of a failed rescue effort.

The massacre clearly struck at the essence of the Olympic concept. So why would Mr. Rogge and the IOC resist marking this enormous negation of it? There were various reasons given that revolved around the notion that the games are “apolitical” and that every effort is made to avoid “political issues” and embarrassing participating (i.e., Arab) states.

Political issues? Noting the cold-blooded murder of eleven human beings is a political statement? That only follows if the murders themselves were deemed political statements. Is that Mr. Rogge’s point after all?

In a sense this reminds us of the recent meeting between Prime Minister Netanyahu and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The secretary was pitching a resumption of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians and among other things was urging Mr. Netanyahu to meet PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s demand that Palestinians incarcerated in Israeli jails for terrorist acts committed prior to the Oslo Accords be released. The theory seems to be that before Oslo, the murder of Jews was properly viewed as an act of resistance by a freedom fighter. Post-Oslo, however, such a form of resistance was criminalized.