Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman praised Jordan for its retaliation against the Islamic State for burning a Jordanian military pilot to death.
Jordan executed two jihadist prisoners on death row on Feb. 4. Sajida Rishawi, a failed suicide bomber, and Ziad 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.
On Feb. 3, Sen. Barbara Boxer, a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, met with King Abdullah in Washington and condemned the Islamic State’s killing of pilot Muath al-Kaseasbeh.
“This barbaric killing shows the world once again that ISIL’s brutality and cruelty knows no bounds,” said Boxer, who is Jewish. “The international community must stand together, united, in confronting this threat to civilized people everywhere. As Americans, we send our deepest condolences to the family of Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh, and our thoughts are with the people of Jordan.”
Kaseasbeh 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.
Amman confirmed that the video was authentic and announced that the pilot had been killed on Jan. 3, despite the fact that ISIS had offered to spare Kaseasbeh’s life in exchange for the release of Rishawi, who participated in a 2005 attack in Amman that killed 60 people.
Islamic State released a video showing Kaseasbeh in an orange prisoner jumpsuit doused in gasoline inside a cage, and then a black-masked terrorist lighting a trail of gas on the ground that leads to the cage. The images of Kaseasbeh being burned alive are shown on the video.
Secretary of State John Kerry called Kaseasbeh “brave, compassionate and principled.”
“That he was murdered after his father’s plea for compassion reminds all the world that this foe has no agenda other than to kill and destroy, and places no value on life, including that of fellow Muslims,” Kerry said in a statement.
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. — jta