To those of you who can read Spanish I recommend following Luis D’Elía on Twitter. Why should he be of interest? Well, the rotund social activist is a prominent supporter of the government of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and on more than one occasion he and his followers have provided the street muscle to keep opponents of the government from holding demonstrations at sensitive locations.
Though Deputy Alcira Argumedo is not a member of the governing party, today’s Pagina/12, the Izvestia of the government of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, generously donates space to her in today’s edition of the paper. Deputy Argumedo is superficially concerned with the current spat between Venezuela and Colombia but what’s really on her mind is something else; the Jews.
Continue reading ‘It’s The Jews! Another Comforting Signal to Iran From Buenos Aires’
Though the AMIA massacre occurred on July 18th, 1994 the official commemoration of its sixteenth anniversary took place on the 16th. In these two stories covering the events that took place you’ll find Guillermo Borger, head of the AMIA community organization. the one directly affected by the attack, praising the “good performance” of the present administration with regard to the investigation into the attack and lauding Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s “bravery” in calling for the extradition of the Iranian fugitives in her speech to the General Assembly of the United Nations.
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In Argentina in the 1970s hundreds of young Jewish people were kidnapped, tortured and murdered because they adhered to one of the revolutionary branches of Peronism or Marxism, because they were in contact with someone who did or simply because the rabid antisemites in the police and army saw being Jewish as necessarily being some kind of Bolshevik. 1n 2010 some of their murderers and tortures are having to answer for their acts in courts throughout the country. The present government deserves much credit for this as large sectors of society would prefer the crimes of the 1976 - 1983 dictatorship to be forgotten about.
Continue reading ‘Argentina, Al-Assad And Two Kinds of Dead Jew’
If you click here you can read a report from Télam, Argentina’s official news agency, about the official visit of President Bashir al Assad to Buenos Aires. You can also see a short excerpt from President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s remarks after the lunch which she hosted for the Syrian leader. She talks about the Golan Heights and the Falklands/Malvinas, the importance of founding a Palestinian state and Argentina’s desire to play a leading role in the Middle East peace process. In the story that accompanies the video mention is also made of the signing of bilateral agreements and moves to expand trade; the usual stuff of state visits.
I wrote here about the appointment of Héctor Timerman, and here I critiqued his fawning attitude to the Iranian regime. His evident anxiety to show that the fact that he is Jewish isn’t going to have a bearing on policy decisions isn’t impressing many people. La Nación, Argentina’s leading quality daily newspaper has had to close its comments section under two stories about Timerman’s appointment in the last two days because of the wave of antisemitic filth that was being submitted to them.
Héctor Timerman, Argentina’s new foreign minister, gives a two-page interview to Pagina/12 today in which he says the following with regard to Argentina’s attempts to have a number of Iranians extradited to answer charges of having been responsible for the AMIA massacre,
As of yesterday, Argentina has a new foreign minister. His name is Héctor Timerman and he takes up his new job after having been been Argentina’s ambassador in Washington since 2008. The relevance of his appointment for readers outside Argentina resides in its possible consequences for the AMIA case.
Continue reading ‘Timerman: Argentina’s New Foreign Minister’
Most readers of this blog will not have heard of him but Charly García is an Argentine rock musician of unrivalled talent and artistic integrity. He’s been a giant on the nation’s cultural scene for more than three decades and he travelled to Israel to play two concerts this week. Never a man weighed down by brute notions of political correctness his visit represents another raised middle finger to the boycotters.
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AIPAC has “… for years molded the policies of the government of the United States in the Middle East, for example, the invasion of Iraq.”
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The present and previous presidents of Argentina have both stood up at the UN General Assembly and politely requested that the government of Iran extradite the AMIA massacre suspects it is sheltering.
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Yesterday I reviewed Bridget Kevane’s ignorant and ill-intentioned attempt to besmirch the memory Jacobo of Timerman. Today I’m going to take a look at her hatchet job on Argentina in general and its current ambassador it Washington in particular, a text in which she gets in a few final swipes at Timmerman along the way.
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Many readers will be familiar with the name of the Argentine journalist and publisher Jacobo Timerman. Kidnapped and tortured by agents of the 1976-1983 dictatorship, he was eventually allowed to leave for Israel where he wrote a book, Prisoner Without A Name, Cell Without A Number that was to become a classic account of the horrors of military rule in Argentina.
Here’s a quick test of your ability to spot antisemitic talk when confronted with it. Please read the following text:
You’re a Jewish son of a bitch and I’m going to kill you. You’re a con man, just like your family and the rest of the Jews, Hitler ought to have killed you all, never mind, I’ll be out in six months for having acted in the heat of the moment […] Yes, I’m antisemitic and xenophobic […] I want the money tomorrow.
Continue reading ‘The Two Eduardos And An Unfortunate Choice of Words’
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Readers with good memories will recall the appointment of Jorge Palacios, a disgraced former Federal Police officer to head the city of Buenos Aires’s first autonomous police force. To put it mildly, it wasn’t an idea that prospered. Palacios was obliged to resign when indicted on charges of being involved in the cover up of the AMIA massacre and is now in prison while being investigated on charges of organizing illegal wiretaps. Among those who had their phone conversations illicitly listened in on was Sergio Burstein, a well known campaigner for justice for the families of the survivors of the AMIA attack.
Continue reading ‘Israeli Embassy Controls Buenos Aires City Hall’
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