Hector Timerman. Photo: Wikipedia

In a recent meeting with Israel’s ambassador to the country, Argentina’s Foreign Minister, Hector Timerman, who is Jewish, told Dorit Shavit that Israel’s demand for an explanation into a recently formed Argentina-Iran probe commission “gives ammunition to anti-Semites.”

“Israel has no right to ask for explanations. We are a sovereign state,” Timerman said, according to Foreign Ministry sources quoted in Haaretz. “Israel does not speak for the Jewish people and isn’t their agent. Jews who wanted and want to live in Israel moved there and became citizens, and those who live in Argentina are Argentine citizens. The attack was against Argentina, and Israel’s desire to be involved in the matter only gives ammunition to anti-Semites who accuse Jews of dual loyalty.”

Timerman’s father, Jacob Timerman, a well-known journalist in Argentina,  lived in Tel Aviv while in exile in the early 1980s, and Timerman’s brother, Daniel Timerman, lives there now.

Israel has expressed its displeasure at the recent announcement by Argentina and Iran that the two would jointly probe the cause of a deadly attack on Argentinian soil in the early 1990s.

Israeli and Argentinian intelligence services believe that Hezbollah agents, with the backing of Iran carried out a 1994 attack on the AMIA Jewish community center, which killed 85 and injured hundreds, and a 1992 suicide bombing at the Israeli Embassy, which killed 29 and wounded more than 200.