Yesterday, Arab news outlets reported that Jordan has informed Hamas that it must find another home for Ahlam Tamimi, who coordinated the 2001 Jerusalem Sbarro bombing—which killed sixteen people and injured dozens more. Tamimi was one of hundreds of terrorists released in exchange for the captured IDF soldier Gilad Shalit in 2011, and has lived in Jordan since. She is wanted by the FBI for her role in the killing of two American citizens in 2001 and, if the reports are correct, Jordan is threatening to extradite her to the U.S. if she doesn’t leave.

The Tamimi case points to a way to address one of the biggest drawbacks of the current cease-fire deal with Hamas: namely, the release of scores of Palestinians prisoners. Joseph Frager writes:

David Applebaum, and his daughter, Nava, on the eve of her wedding, were brutally murdered on September 9, 2003, during the bombing of Cafe Hillel in Jerusalem. Applebaum was chief of the emergency room and trauma at the Sha’are Zedek Hospital in Jerusalem. One of his killers, Ahmad Obeid, received seven life sentences for his part in the bombing.

Obeid has been or will be released as part of the present exchange for Israeli hostages. His accomplice, Mari Abu Saida, who received eleven life sentences, is also being released. Both should be extradited to the United States and face justice for the cold-blooded murder of U.S. citizens. It would send a message to the world that Americans are protected and fought for with everything in our arsenal. Khalil Jabarin, who murdered the American Ari Fuld, a resident of Efrat, on September 16, 2018, is also set to be released as part of the hostage deal.

The recidivism rate for the terrorists who were released in the Shalit deal was 82 percent.

And there is every reason to think the trend will be similar with more recent prisoner releases. On Saturday, the IDF struck terrorist cells in the West Bank, killing, among others, one of the prisoners released during the November 2023 cease-fire with Hamas. This, of course, is another effective way to solve the problem created by the mass release of convicted terrorists.

How did Qatar, an American ally, become the nerve center of the leading Palestinian jihadist organization? Natalie Ecanow explains.

When Jordan expelled Hamas in 1999, Qatar offered sanctuary to the group, which had already become notorious for using suicide-bombing attacks over the previous decade. . . . Hamas chose to relocate to Syria. However, that arrangement lasted for only a decade. With the outbreak of the Syrian civil war, the terror group found its way back to Qatar.

In 2003, Hamas leaders reportedly convened in Qatar after the IDF attempted to eliminate Hamas’s founder, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, following a Hamas suicide bombing in Jerusalem that killed seven people, including two American citizens. This episode led to one of the first efforts by Qatar to advocate for its terror proxy.

Thirteen years and five wars between Hamas and Israel later, Qatar’s support for Hamas has not waned. . . . To this day, Qatari officials maintain that the office came at the “request from Washington to establish indirect lines of communication with Hamas.” However, an Obama White House official asserted that there was never any request from Washington. . . . Inexplicably, the United States government continues to rely on Qatar to negotiate for the release of the hostages held by Hamas, even as the regime hosts the terror group’s political elite.

A reckoning is needed between our two countries. Congressional hearings, legislation, executive orders, and other measures to regulate relations between our countries are long overdue.