The FBI Most Wanted Terrorist Who Lives Freely as a Celebrity
One of her American victims died last year. Plus, Black September and other crucial history ignored by the media
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Today, the media is rushing to carry claims from Hamas about the war in Gaza, particularly involving the city of Rafah. It’s more of the same — a terrorist group’s lies are presented as truth, while crucial truths go ignored.
That’s what I explain in Episode 8: All the Queen’s Lies, Part II, based on a request from a listener. (Click here for Part I.)
As previous episodes have made clear, many in the media don’t value the lives of Jewish people living in the tiny Jewish homeland. But do they at least value American lives? All too often, no — not if those lives are Jewish people. So it was no surprise that in an interview with Queen Rania on MSNBC, Joy Reid didn’t bring this up:
Ahlam Ahmad Al-Tamimi is living freely as a celebrity in Jordan, despite an extradition treaty with the United States. (The kingdom has apparently tried to argue that the treaty was not ratified, giving pseudo-legalistic cover to the decision by the authoritarian state.) Here she is smiling when finding out that she killed even more children than she thought. One of her American victims, Chana Nachenberg, died last year after 22 years in a coma.
There’s so much more that this “interview” ignored — basic facts and context that could transform the audience’s understanding of the Middle East and the world, including:
-Jordan is as young a nation as Israel. Transjordan became an independent country in 1946 and was reborn under a new name, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, in 1949. The country occupied and annexed the West Bank and East Jerusalem. It lost the territory when it was among the nations that attacked Israel and lost in 1967, but it retained an administrative role in the West Bank for years to come. The name “the West Bank” is based on Jordan.
-In September 1970, Palestinians hijacked five planes — three of which had nothing to do with Israel — and managed to force three to land in Jordan, where the hijackers made demands of the kingdom in exchange for freeing hostages. Mimi Nichter was among the hostages, and wrote a piece for Newsweek following the October 7 massacres by Hamas in Israel.
In the days after the hijackers landed the planes, Jordan’s military fought a bloody war against Palestinian factions. Estimates of the number of Palestinians killed vary widely, but numerous sources say it was in the thousands within just a couple of weeks — quite possibly, to this day, the fastest killing ever of a large number of Palestinian people. A Palestinian terrorist group calling itself Black September then formed and launched attacks around the world, including the Munich Olympics massacre of Israeli athletes. One of the terrorists is believed to be in Jordan.
- Here’s a great video I refer to of Israeli Arab Yoseph Haddad trying to educate a woman at a table for an antisemitic group called Students for Justice in Palestine, via Shay Szabo. (They’re both great to follow if you’re on Instagram.)
-Here’s a great speech from “Son of Hamas” Mosab Hassan Yousef.
-Here’s the report from U.N. Watch that finds, “Teachers and schools at the U.N. agency that runs education and social services for Palestinians regularly call to murder Jews, and create teaching materials that glorify terrorism, encourage martyrdom, demonize Israelis and incite antisemitism.”
All of this and more were entirely absent from the MSNBC “interview,” which consisted entirely of Queen Rania attacking Israel with falsehoods and misleading expressions of opinion, all with Joy Reid’s help.
What you can do
See bad reporting? Alert me to it! Post info and links in the comments section here if you’re a paid subscriber.
(If not, you can find a form via my website that will take you through a process of confirming your email.) Also, feel free to send this, or text like it, to NBC News:
Joy Reid’s “interview” with Queen Rania was filled with lies. It also left out crucial context that could have explained so much about what’s really going on in the Middle East. You’re supposed to be a news agency. Why do you let people lie and mislead with no consequences? Please listen immediately to the podcast They Stand Corrected, which is fact checking the disastrous interview.
A listener requested that I include contact information. Try emailing: Cesar.Conde@nbcuni.com (chairman), Rebecca.Blumenstein@nbcuni.com (president), and Rashida.Jones@nbcuni.com (MSNBC president). If you don’t hear back (you probably won’t), email a follow-up a week later requesting a response. Also, send a copy to me.
Meanwhile, lots of other media are booking Queen Rania. Send text like this to any news agency that quotes or books her for an interview:
Queen Rania has been blatantly lying about Israel and spreading hatred. Why would you, a news agency, give a platform to someone who keeps lying? Please listen to the podcast They Stand Corrected for a detailed fact check of the queen.
Search online for the email contact for top executives of the news agency. If you have trouble reaching them, let me know and I’ll help!
This show could use your help to keep going! Consider a paid subscription here. Or if you’re interested in sponsoring the show, email supportTSC@joshlevs.com.
Thanks and big love,
JL