We find ourselves in the days leading up to the 30th anniversary of the AMIA massacre in the neighborhood of Once, Buenos Aires. The terrorist attack, perpetrated by Iran, was planned in Tehran, conceived via diplomatic channels in Argentina, and executed by Hezbollah with local collaborators. Thirty-two years have passed since the bombing of the Israeli embassy, and next January will mark a decade since the assassination of Prosecutor Alberto Nisman, not in Once but in Puerto Madero. In this context, it is crucial to remember that the case of the shameful Memorandum with Iran is still ongoing, as a way to cover up the Iranian regime’s involvement in these attacks, with the help of its local partners, who have steered Argentina’s course and diverted its promises of justice for more than two decades.
Yet, in these somber hours, we continue unveiling the truth, building memory, and demanding justice. This cycle of our Active Memory connects Jewish and Argentine history with the contemporary history of the Middle East and the international terrorism of the Iranian regime.
Iran, with its terror-enforcing agencies, managed to perpetuate its attacks both in 1992 and 1994 in Argentina, through Hezbollah, as well as last October 7th, through Hamas in Israel.
Nowadays, the shaping of public opinion is no longer nurtured by truth or objective information, but by perceptions molded on social networks, products of mathematical algorithms or their manipulation, generating a turbulent chaos that rules as a new world order. The tragic events of October 7th became invisible as if the Iranian terror in the hands of Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon had never occurred.
Thirty years ago, the President of Argentina himself announced Iran’s participation in the AMIA bombing. Today, with the case declassified by justice, there is no doubt about its participation and responsibility.
For those aligned with the re-emerged anti-Semitism, now mutated into anti-Zionism, everything began on October 8th, ignoring Hamas’ terror and the atrocities against civilians, especially women and children. This new Jew-hatred, revived in the global wave of the October 8 algorithms, does not call for a cease-fire for a peaceful resolution but for the elimination of the State of Israel and the extermination of the Jews.
It is beyond belief that, after World War II and the Shoah, we would witness such hatred and calls for the extermination of the Jews in many free societies around the world. However, it is time to acknowledge that the 80-year pause we were granted after the Shoah is now over. The monster is not going away. Thirty years ago, when the bomb exploded on Pasteur Street, taking the lives of the AMIA victims, we also heard those who said, “Many innocent citizens had died on Pasteur Street,” as if those who were at the AMIA headquarters, because they were Jews, deserved to be victims of a terrorist and anti-Semitic attack.
No one can justify this tragic war in Gaza and northern Lebanon, where innocent civilians, both Israelis and Palestinians, are victims. However, we cannot equate responsibilities and motivations. After October 7th, Israel has the legitimacy to defend its citizens and recover its hostages after the Hamas terrorist attack. No country in the world would be denied this right. Israel has always demonstrated its historic vocation and commitment to negotiate and sign peace agreements. It has done so with Egypt, Jordan, recently with Arab countries in the Abrahamic Accords, and is about to do so with Saudi Arabia. We do not defend the policies of Netanyahu’s government in this crisis or his shameful coalition government. Nor will we justify the responsibility of Hamas for leaving Gazan civilians exposed on the surface of Gaza, while they shelter in tunnels and stockpile weapons from Iran. We must all condemn wars and the resulting deaths.
The current situation and the memory of three decades ago put the AMIA bombing in context. Buenos Aires was a pioneer, the first city where Iran and Hezbollah started what they are now spreading worldwide and generating in Gaza. It is in Argentina where this history of terror, which recognizes no limits or borders, began: in 1992 at the embassy, in 1994 at the AMIA headquarters, in 2015 during the assassination of Nisman, and on October 7th in Gaza and in southern Israel. They are the same actors in different contexts with the same motivation: terror.
The victims of the AMIA massacre, 30 years later, are victims of Iran, as are the victims of October 7th in Israel and those of the ongoing war that we mourn today, nine months later.
Rabbi Sergio Bergman, President of the World Union for Progressive Judaism
Buenos Aires, July 7, 2024