Sunday, May 03, 2015

Argentine Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman and the AMIA/Nisman/vulture-funds tangle

Raúl Kollmann in “Ellos dicen culpables sí, juicio no” Página/12 29.04.2015 reports on the resignation of Argentine Héctor Timerman from the Jewish organization AMIA and explains the immediate background of his decision:

La renuncia de Timerman es a la AMIA, la mutual a la que están afiliados una parte de los integrantes de la comunidad judía. La AMIA administra los cementerios, la red educativa, algunos comedores, la asistencia social, el respaldo a personas de la tercera edad y muchas actividades culturales. Los socios de la AMIA votan su comisión directiva, hoy en día en manos de los sectores más religiosos y ortodoxos. Al mismo tiempo, para las cuestiones políticas se supone que la representación está en la DAIA, donde convergen las instituciones (entre ellas la AMIA), los templos, las escuelas, los clubes. Cuando se elige la conducción de la DAIA, las instituciones y clubes con más socios tienen varios votos: la AMIA, por ejemplo, tiene cuatro de los 120 totales. Con la carta de renuncia dirigida a Leonardo Jmelnitzky, actual presidente de la AMIA, Timerman quiso dejar en claro que no quiere ser representado por la conducción de la AMIA y tampoco por la DAIA.

En las últimas semanas surgió un grupo importante de integrantes de la comunidad judía que concretaron la primera convocatoria de judíos progresistas que no se sienten representados por la AMIA y la DAIA. El ex director ejecutivo de la DAIA Jorge Elbaum produjo una enorme repercusión con dos notas publicadas por Página/12 en las que mostraba y testificaba sobre las presiones que recibió la DAIA para bloquear el memorándum con Irán. Se alinearon voceros del PRO, de las embajadas de Estados Unidos e Israel y, enseguida, las fundaciones financiadas por los fondos buitre, en especial por Paul Singer. El propio fiscal Nisman se movió activamente como “amigo” de la Fundación para la Defensa de la Democracia, también financiada por Singer. Todas estas movidas fueron rechazadas en el plenario de argentinos de origen judío, que tuvo la conducción de la periodista Miriam Lewin ....

[Timerman's resignation is directed to the AMIA, the mutual society to which a part of the members of the Jewish community are affiliated. The AMIA administers the cemeteries, the educational network, some dining facilties, social assistance, support for the elderly and many cultural activities. The members of AMIA vote for their board of directors, these days in the hands of the most religious and orthodox sectors. At the same time, for political questions the representations is assumed to be in the DAIA, where the institutions converge (among them AMIA), the temples, the schools, the clubs. When the leadership of the DAIA is decided, the institutions and clubs with the most members have various votes: AMIA, for instance, has four of the 120 total. With the letter of resignation directed to Leonardo Jmelnitzky, current President of the AMIA, Timerman wants to make it clear that he doesn't wish to be represented by the leadership of the AMIA nor by the DAIA.

In recent weeks, an important group of progressive members of the Jewish community has emerged that constituted the first announcement by progressive Jews who do not feel themselves represented by the AMIA and the DAIA. The ex-Executive Director of the DAIA Jorge Elbaum produced an enormous repercussion with two notes published by Página/12 in which he demonstrates and testifies about the pressure the DAIA received to block the memorandum on Iran. Spokespeople aligned from the PRO, the embassies of the United States and Israel and, promptly, the foundations financed by the vulture funds, particularly by Paul Singer. Prosecutor Nisman himself actively behaved as "a friend" of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, also financed by Singer. All of these moves were rejected by the plenary session of [the progressive group] of Argentines of Jewish origin, which was lead by the journalist Miriam Lewin. ...]
A sidebar article reports on the left-leaning group of dissenters from the AMIA/DAIA positions, Un foro “colectivo y democrático” Página/12 29.04.2015.

Kollmann further reports:

En su diálogo con este diario, Timerman contó los intercambios con los dirigentes comunitarios sobre el memorándum. “Nosotros les dijimos que era un paso adelante, como lo sostuvieron Interpol o Amnesty International. Era intentar destrabar la situación y juzgar a los sospechosos, que Irán no iba a extraditar. Ellos dijeron que sí al principio y después que no. La Presidenta les ofreció que traigan una idea alternativa. Y no trajeron nada, salvo la posibilidad de reformar la Constitución para juzgar en ausencia, algo que en la Argentina nunca se hizo. Por eso insisto en el texto que ellos, los dirigentes de la comunidad judía, no quieren avanzar en buscar formas de juzgar a los sospechosos. Ellos dicen culpables sí, juicio no.”

[In his conversation with this paper, Timerman recounted the exchanges with the community leaders about the memorandum {the agreement with Iran}. "We told them that it was a step forward, as Interpol or Amnesty International maintained. It was intended to unfetter the situation and try the suspects that Iran had not extradicted. They said yes at first and later no. The President {Cristina Fernández} invited them to bring an alternative idea. And they didn't come up with anything, except the possibility of reforming the Constitution to allow a trial in absentia, something that has never been done in Argentina. For that reason, I insisted in the text {of the resignation letter} that they, the leaders of the Jewish community, did not want to have progress in looking for forms of trying the suspects. They are saying guilty yes, trial no."]]
As I've commented on here numerous times, the AMIA case has become deeply involved in efforts by American neoconservatives, the Government of Israel and the Republican Party to get up a war with Iran. Paul Singer is one of the biggest donors to the Republican Party, whose enthusiasm for the Likud Party of Israel's warlike policies he apparently shares. He's also a supporter of neocon policies and is engaged in a landmark legal dispute with Argentina over "vulture fund" investments in defaulted Argentine bonds. And all of this has become embedded into differences of priorities and outlook within Argentina's Jewish community and with the partisan opposition to Cristina's government and her Peronist Justicialista Party.

The Washington Post, whose editorial stance has been staunchly neoconservative for years, in a recent editorial accused Cristina and her government of promoting anti-Semitism in defending itself over the Nisman/AMIA case, Argentina’s president resorts to anti-Semitic conspiracy theories 04/23/2015. From everything I can see, this is a ludicrous accusation.

Jim Lobe and Charles Davis respond specifically to the WaPo editorial in Following the Money: The New Anti-Semitism? LobeLog Foreign Policy 05/01/2015.

Obviously, Foreign Minister Timerman is Jewish, as is Cristina's Economics Minister Axel Kicillof. Those are the two most prominent ministers of her Cabinet on the international scene.

On these themes, see also:

Charles Davis, U.S. Hedge Funds Paint Argentina as Ally of Iranian ‘Devil’ – Part One Inter Press Service 07/29/2013

Charles Davis, U.S. Hedge Funds Paint Argentina as Ally of Iranian ‘Devil’ – Part Two Inter Press Service 07/31/2013

Graciela Mochkofsky, Why Alberto Nisman Is No Hero for Argentina — or the Jews The Forward 03/10/2015, who gives this summary of Nisman's background:

In 1997, when he first became involved in the case — known in Argentina by the JCC’s acronym, AMIA — Nisman was a young and ambitious prosecutor making a career in the newly inaugurated system of open trials.

His task was to make presentable the fabrication concocted by Judge Juan José Galeano. With forged evidence, Galeano and other authorities had accused a ring of corrupt police officers of being the “local connection” in the bombing.

The open trial began in 2001 and ended in disaster in 2004. The forgery was so apparent that it didn’t survive scrutiny. The policemen were exonerated. The judge, the prosecutors, the head of the intelligence service, a high-ranking police officer, former president Carlos Menem and the leader of the main political Jewish organization were eventually indicted for the cover-up (and are going to trial in a few months). Nisman somehow survived, and President Néstor Kirchner (Cristina Kirchner’s now late husband, who took office in 2007) appointed him as special prosecutor for the AMIA case. He had to rebuild it from scratch. In 2006, based mostly on foreign intelligence reports, Nisman accused the Iranians of sponsoring the attack, allegedly carried out by Hezbollah militants.

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