Easy to apportion blame on Israel for Argentina’s ‘Dirty War’

Michele Engelberg

The Internet references a book claiming Menachem Begin supplied Argentina with arms during the Falklands War (1982) against Britain. Begin’s motivation was “to avenge (Britain’s) crackdown on the Irgun during the time of the British mandate in Palestine”, for meddling to Jewish detriment on the ground and revenge for them having executed his good friend.

“Several newspaper editorials contended that Britain had no right to complain about Israeli arms sales because it (Britain) had consistently supplied weapons to Arab countries that were sworn to destroy Israel.”

One site quoted a senior Israeli official saying it was “highly unlikely that in the months of the Falklands War, when Israel was preparing the invasion of Lebanon (1982), anyone in the defence establishment, and certainly not the prime minister, would have the time or resources to organise emergency arms supplies for faraway Argentina”.

I found the article, which must have prompted the accusations (because it was quoted verbatim in parts) from Ha’aretz. This article expresses the frustration of Jewish Israeli Argentineans who filed a Freedom of Information Law request to obtain details of the extent of Israel’s involvement (or non-involvement) with Argentina’s military regime of that time.

During Argentina’s “Dirty War” Jews were kidnapped and killed because of their political affiliations, not as a result of anti-Semitism. The state terrorism was largely in the form of abducting people who were anti- the regime, either shooting them immediately or sending them to concentration camps where they would be tortured and/or killed.

This would require guns, like hand-held pistols that are short-range weapons. “Mortars… air-to-air missiles… anti-tank weapons… gas masks… landmines… radar equipment,” etc. (that the article in Ha’aretz lists) are not the type of weapons used to abduct people off the street. These weapons are used for war against another country – like the Falklands War that Argentina was fighting against the British.

Ha’aretz, for all its flaws, has not drawn the conclusion that was drawn in the Jewish Report letter where it “…wishes to highlight Israel’s involvement in Argentina’s ‘Dirty War’… of Israel’s role in supplying military equipment to the regime… (other letter writers) claim Israel’s actions against Palestinians are in self-defence. The case of selling arms to a brutal dictatorship… show this isn’t always the case.”

Johannesburg