Israeli FM Liberman praises Jordan for retaliation against ISIS

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman praised Jordan for its retaliation against the Islamic State for burning a Jordanian military pilot to death.

Jordan on Wednesday morning executed two jihadist prisoners on death row. Sajida al-Rishawi, a failed suicide bomber, and Ziad al-Karbouly, a senior al-Qaida officer, were hanged at dawn.

“King Abdullah should be praised for his prompt and forceful action this morning against this act of terror, executing a female terrorist whose release ISIS demanded, as well as an al-Qaida operative, to be followed by the execution of other terrorists incarcerated in Jordan,” Liberman said in a statement issued Wednesday.

Liberman said that the Israeli people empathize with the pain of the Jordanian people and support Jordan’s “harsh and decisive” response to the murder of captive fighter pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh.

Kasasbeh was captured on Dec. 24 after his F-16 fighter plane crashed over northern Syria while participating in the U.S.-led coalition campaign against the Islamic State. A video released Tuesday showed Kasasbeh in an orange prisoner jumpsuit doused in gasoline inside a cage before a black-masked terrorist lights a trail of gas on the ground that leads to the cage. The images of Kasasbeh being burned alive are shown on the video.

The release of the video came three days after ISIS claimed that it beheaded Japanese journalist Kenji Goto after last week killing Japanese aid worker Haruna Yukawa.

“The leaders of the world must follow King Abdullah’s example in combating terrorism in general, and ISIS in particular, because terrorism cannot be defeated by words but only by forceful action,” Liberman said. “We cannot conduct negotiations for the release of prisoners or enter into any deals with terrorists. They must be destroyed and eradicated, as King Abdullah has done.”