Photo Credit: Matty Stern / U.S. Embassy Tel Aviv
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu meets with US President Donald Trump's Special Representative for International Negotiations Jason D. Greenblatt in Jerusalem, in March 2017.

The United States has belatedly issued a statement condemning the vicious terrorist attack last Friday that took the life of 23-year-old Hadas Malka, z’l. The condemnation was not issued by the White House, but rather was tweeted early Monday morning (Israel time) by the president’s Special Representative for International Negotiations, Jason D. Greenblatt, who is also an observant Jew.

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The young Border Guard Police Staff Sergeant-Major was stationed near the Damascus Gate entrance to the Old City of Jerusalem when she was stabbed to death by a Palestinian Authority Arab terrorist, just a few minutes before the start of the Sabbath.

Four other people — including another police officer, two Arabs and a woman — were wounded in a second, simultaneous attack that was carried out by two additional terrorists at the nearby Zedekia’s Cave. All three terrorists — were operatives from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) headed by Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas. Israeli security personnel shot and killed them all; but it didn’t bring back the young woman who lost her life only minutes after texting a light-hearted “Shabbat Shalom to my loving friends!” greeting, together with a selfie snapped at her post, to her friends at the start of the Sabbath. It was the last sentence she would ever write.

By the time the United States got around to expressing its condemnation over the “savage terrorist attack” and reaffirming its support for its “ally Israel,” Malka’s remains had already been interred in the military cemetery in Ashdod, and her brokenhearted family was sitting shiva (the seven-day Jewish mourning ritual) at their home in the central Israeli Moshav of Givat Ezer.

The fact that the condemnation was not officially issued by White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, let alone expressed personally by President Donald Trump, is not likely to be missed by officials of the Palestinian Authority or any of the leadership among the Arab Nations. And that was likely a deliberate step.

Four hours after the first one, Greenblatt’s next tweet: “Excited to be traveling back to Israel and the Pal. Territories to continue the discussion about the possibility of peace.

White House senior adviser and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is reportedly joining him this time, and expected to arrive in Israel on Wednesday.

Is the United States about to toss its “ally” with whom it has an “unbreakable bond” under the bus for a deal with its Arab friends in the region?


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Hana Levi Julian is a Middle East news analyst with a degree in Mass Communication and Journalism from Southern Connecticut State University. A past columnist with The Jewish Press and senior editor at Arutz 7, Ms. Julian has written for Babble.com, Chabad.org and other media outlets, in addition to her years working in broadcast journalism.