Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Cry for me, Argentina - Isi Leibler



by Isi Leibler


That the current Argentine leaders could collaborate with such cynical whitewashing of the ‎murder of their own fellow citizens and create a "truth commission" with a barbaric regime ‎promoting Holocaust denial, warranted the condemnation of the Argentine government by ‎the civilized world.‎

The assassination of Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman reflects the endemic corruption of ‎the Kirchner regime and focuses the spotlight on the devil's pact consummated by President ‎Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner in 2013 with Iran, whose leaders inflicted the worst ever act of ‎terrorism on her own citizens.‎

Today there are approximately 250,000 Jews in Argentina. Since the days of Juan Peron, the ‎government's attitude to Jews has been ambivalent. Peron displayed friendship to the Jewish ‎community but enabled Argentina to serve as a haven for the most evil of Nazi war criminals -- ‎including Adolf Eichmann.‎

In March 1992, the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires was the target of a terrorist bomb attack ‎that killed 29 and wounded 242 people. Two years later, in July 1994, a second bombing was ‎directed at the Jewish community center (AMIA), killing 85 and injuring hundreds.‎

There were protracted investigations and eventually two Argentine prosecutors, Alberto ‎Nisman and Marcelo Burgos, formally accused the Iranian government of orchestrating the ‎attacks and utilizing Hezbollah agents to carry out the bombing. In 2007, the Argentine ‎government even issued arrest warrants for six Iranians, including former Defense Minister ‎Ahmad Vahidi and former President Ali Akbar Rafsanjani. They were placed on Interpol's "Red ‎List" of wanted criminals. None were apprehended and, not surprisingly, Iran adamantly ‎refused to cooperate.‎

Subsequently, prosecutor Nisman exposed a cover-up in which a judge was impeached for ‎bribery. There were also allegations that the Iranian intelligence service had deposited $10 ‎million in a Swiss bank account held by former Argentine President Carlos Menem in return for ‎his hushing up the affair, and in March 2012 he was ordered to stand trial for obstruction of ‎justice.‎

In 2005, President Nestor Kirchner described Argentina's failure to move forward in this ‎matter as a "national disgrace."‎

But on January 27, 2013, his widow and successor, President Cristina Kirchner, in a shocking ‎reversal, consummated a pact with the Iranians to create a joint "truth commission" in order ‎to investigate the AMIA terrorist attack by the "judicial authorities of Argentina and Iran ... and ‎issue a report with recommendations about how the case should proceed." Lest there were ‎any doubts as to the outcome, the statement unabashedly stressed that the project would be ‎‎"based on the laws and regulations of both countries."‎

In a formal declaration, Kirchner stressed that she would "never allow the AMIA tragedy to be ‎used as a chess piece in a game of faraway geopolitical interests" -- clearly conveying ‎Argentina's opposition to efforts to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear power.‎

That the current Argentine leaders could collaborate with such cynical whitewashing of the ‎murder of their own fellow citizens and create a "truth commission" with a barbaric regime ‎promoting Holocaust denial, warranted the condemnation of the Argentine government by ‎the civilized world.‎

This pact with the devil was clearly motivated by Argentina's economic crisis and its escalating ‎debts to the World Bank and other global institutions. This was preceded by media reports ‎alleging that Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman had offered to freeze the AMIA ‎inquiry in return for an upgrade in economic relations with Iran, exchanging Argentine grain ‎for Iranian oil. Timerman was also said to have proposed that Syrian President Bashar Assad ‎act as an intermediary to facilitate such a deal. A leaked cable from Iran's then-Foreign ‎Minister Ali Akbar Salehi explicitly stated, "Argentina is no longer interested in solving those ‎two attacks, but in exchange prefers improving its economic relations with Iran."‎

Israel's then-Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon stated that "it was clear to all that the ‎Iranians and their Hezbollah minions were involved in the attack" and that bringing the ‎Iranians into the so-called "truth commission" was equivalent to "inviting the murderer to ‎participate in a murder investigation."‎

This led to an enraged response by Timerman, who summoned the Israeli ambassador, Dorit ‎Shavit, and accused her government of providing "ammunition to anti-Semites who accused ‎Jews of dual loyalties." He added, "Israel has no right to demand explanations. We are a ‎sovereign state and Israel is not entitled to speak on behalf of the Jewish people and does not ‎represent it."‎

Timerman was a former Argentine ambassador to the US who promoted himself as both a ‎human rights activist and a committed Jew. It is noteworthy that his father Jacobo, an ‎Argentine Jew and editor of a leftist weekly news magazine, was arrested in 1977 by the right-‎wing military junta, held in solitary confinement, and tortured.‎

Through the secret intervention of Israeli authorities, he was released in 1979 and came to ‎Israel, where he documented his persecution in Argentina in a book titled "Prisoner without a ‎Name, Cell without a Number."‎

But he turned on his benefactors and in 1983 published a second book, brutally attacking ‎Israel's policies and accusing Prime Minister Menachem Begin of destroying the moral integrity ‎of the Jewish people, transforming Israelis into "efficient criminals." He even compared Israel ‎to the fascist government of Argentina that had incarcerated and tortured him. Shortly after ‎publishing his tirade, he returned to Argentina and died in Buenos Aires in 1999.‎

His hatred of Israel -- the country that saved his life -- was bequeathed to his son Hector, who ‎as foreign minister played a central role in the loathsome effort on behalf of the Argentine ‎regime to sanitize the Iranian murderers of his own people. ‎

Prosecutor Nisman resisted and dedicated himself to obtaining justice for the victims of the ‎terrorist bombings and bringing the perpetrators to trial. In recent years, he also displayed ‎determination to expose the government's attempt to cover up the Iranian involvement.‎

I met Nisman in Jerusalem in 2008 when he addressed the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. ‎His report of the Iranian involvement was chilling and I recollect remarking to him that he was ‎extremely courageous to engage in such a struggle.‎

Only hours before his murder, Nisman was scheduled to report his findings to the Argentine ‎National Congress. A 289-page report charging Kirchner and Timerman for conspiring to divert ‎action against Iranian officials responsible for the 1994 AMIA Jewish center bombing, was ‎discovered in his home. It was based on extensive wiretaps of conversations by both Kirchner ‎and Timerman. There was also a draft warrant for their arrest.‎

Kirchner initially responded to the death by calling it a "suicide" but subsequently claimed it ‎was a murder perpetrated by rogue intelligence agencies seeking to discredit her.‎

Immediately following Nisman's murder, posters appeared in Jewish neighborhoods ‎proclaiming "A good Jew is a dead Jew. The good Jew is Nisman." The Jewish community, ‎under enormous pressure and traditionally quite timid, on this occasion responded more ‎assertively. Tens of thousands took to the streets protesting with the theme "Je suis Nisman." ‎Community leaders refused to participate in an official Holocaust Remembrance Day ‎ceremony at the Foreign Ministry, saying, "It would be an insult to Holocaust victims to ‎attend." There was bitter condemnation of Timerman, "who is both an Argentine and a Jew ‎who is suspected of plotting to cast darkness on the investigation to solve the AMIA bombing" ‎and there were calls from the Jewish community for him to be expelled.‎

But aside from lamenting the death of a courageous prosecutor, there is little likelihood that ‎the perpetrators will ever be brought to justice.‎

This shocking episode reflects the precariousness of Jewish life, not merely in Europe but also ‎in Latin America, and once again highlights the relevance of aliyah for Jews who will not ‎reconcile themselves to bringing up children in societies that regard them as pariahs. ‎

While there are bitter recriminations in Argentina over the failure to indict the Iranian ‎terrorists responsible for the AMIA bombings, Secretary of State John Kerry -- under ‎instructions from his president -- is desperately seeking to consummate a deal that would at ‎best enable the regime responsible for this outrage to become a threshold nuclear state. That ‎the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his spokesmen to this day publicly announce that their ‎intention is to replicate their barbaric act against the Argentine Jewish community and wipe ‎Israel off the face of the map is shamelessly ignored. Kirchner prostituted her nation for ‎economic gain. U.S. President Barack Obama does so because of his obsession to engage with ‎rogue states.‎

Isi Leibler's website can be viewed at www.wordfromjerusalem.com. He may be contacted at ‎ileibler@leibler.com.‎

Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=11541

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

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