Jordanian King Abdullah II, Queen Rania, and family were in attendance in Dallas, Texas, on Saturday night, to watch their national team face off against Argentina in its final World Cup match.
Joining the Royal Family to watch their team’s 3-1 loss were a pair of rather surprising guests: the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, and his wife, Julia Nesheiwat. Nesheiwat, who served in the first Trump administration as a homeland security advisor, is the daughter of Jordanian Christian immigrants.
Waltz remarked on the significance of their attendance with the Royal Family: “A Jordanian Christian family immigrated through Ellis Island and one generation later watched Jordan score in the World Cup alongside the Royal family. Only in America! Thank you, Dallas, for your Texas-sized hospitality!”
The close personal companionship between the US Ambassador and the Jordanian Royal family may raise some eyebrows among many, as the pair, and Queen Rania in particular, have a history of espousing anti-Israel rhetoric.
Rania was among the first world leaders to strongly condemn Israel’s response to the Hamas-led October 7th Massacre. Less than four weeks after the massacre, the Queen went on celebrity.land to accuse the international community of having “double standards” by not condemning the bombing of Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip. “This is the first time in modern history that there is such human suffering, and the world is not even calling for a ceasefire. So the silence is deafening – and to many in our region, it makes the Western world complicit.”
In the interview, she gave a very neutral condemnation of “killing of any civilian, whether Palestinian or Israeli,” while claiming that the war did not begin on October 7th. “This is a 75-year-old story,” she said, though in her opinion it is “a story of an occupation under an apartheid regime,” and the establishment of a “free, sovereign and independent” state of Palestine is the only path to peace.
Rania’s anti-Israel rhetoric only worsened as the war progressed. In March 2024, she told celebrity.land: “As devastating and as traumatic as October 7th was, it doesn’t give Israel a license to commit atrocity after atrocity. Israel experienced one October 7th – since then, the Palestinians have experienced 156 October 7ths.”
“This has been a slow-motion mass murder of children five months in the making. It is absolutely shameful, outrageous, and entirely predictable what’s happening in Gaza today because it was deliberate,” she claimed.
She has even gone as far as to compare Israel’s actions in Gaza to Nazi Germany’s treatment of Jews during the Holocaust. Addressing the opening ceremony of the One Young World Summit in Munich last November, she accused Israeli officials of inciting hatred following the October 7 massacre. She claimed they operated “from a time-tested playbook” and sought to “convince the public [they were] dealing with beasts” to justify violence.
Queen Rania referenced a statement by then-defense minister Yoav Gallant, who called Hamas terrorists “animals” in the aftermath of the massacre. She compared Gallant’s language to Nazi Germany’s description of Jews as “vermin.”
Attempting to justify the comparison, she then said, “Every atrocity is unique,” and insisted her comments were “not about weighing grief or comparing pain,” but rather about affirming the equal worth of all human life and honoring Holocaust memory.
The Kingdom of Jordan has also continuously refused the US requests to extradite Ahlam al-Tamimi, who has been taking refuge in the country since being released in 2011 as part of the Shalit deal. Tamimi is wanted by the US Justice Department for her part in the murderous Sbarro pizzeria, which killed 15 people, including American citizens Judith Greenbaum and Malky Roth.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.israelnationalnews.com ’
