Pro-Israel Group Calls For More Arrests Like Maduro’s

NEW YORK – Following the arrest of President Nicolas Maduro, a leading pro-Israel organization has declared that the Trump administration should continue to pursue other indicted individuals who are escaping justice by residing in countries that will not extradite them. Americans For A Safe Israel (AFSI) has called for the immediate apprehension of Ahlam Tamimi, one of the Hamas bombers of the notorious 2001 Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem — in which three Americans were murdered. Tamimi has been living openly in Jordan for many years.

“This August will mark 25 years since the Sbarro bombing in Jerusalem, when a Hamas homicide bomber entered the busy neighborhood restaurant and ended the lives of 16 innocent people, including eight children and a pregnant woman, and wounded over 120 individuals,” stated Moshe Phillips, Chairman of Americans For A Safe Israel. “Three U.S. citizens were murdered in the terrorist attack. Two died on the day of the bombing: Malka Roth, just 15, and Shoshana Greenbaum, a 31-year-old teacher and first-time expectant mother. Chana Nachenberg died in May 2023 after lingering in a coma for 22 years.”

The Obama administration issued an arrest warrant for Tamimi in 2013, but kept the indictment secret according to the FBI [https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/wanted_terrorists/ahlam-ahmad-al-tamimi]. The Trump administration revealed the indictment in 2017, but it appears that no American administration has ever demanded that Jordan hand over Tamimi — even though the U.S. and Jordan have an extradition treaty. There are also dozens of Palestinian Arab terrorists who have murdered American citizens and are living under the protection of the Palestinian Authority and Mahmoud Abbas — some of them are even serving in the Palestinian security forces. Yet the U.S. government has never pressed Abbas to hand them over for prosecution.

“It’s tragic that many of our political leaders seem to care more about offending Jordan than prosecuting these killers of Americans,” stated AFSI’s Moshe Phillips. “The precedent has been set with Maduro. Ahlam Tamimi must be apprehended so she can stand trial in an American court, just as Nicolas Maduro will. What remains to be seen is what American Jewish leaders will do about this. The American Jewish community needs to speak out loudly and demand that murderers like Tamimi be brought to justice by whatever means necessary.”