Ingratitude of Jewish foreign minister who Israel helped his father

Israel is a Jewish state? The answer seems obvious. But this question is about the tension between the Jewish foreign minister of Argentina and Israel's ambassador to the country.

The tension created by Argentina's decision to establish a joint investigative committee with Iran to examine the attack against the Jewish community building about 16 years ago. Israel was outraged by the decision and invited the Argentinean ambassador for a reprimand at the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem.

Argentine government was angered at the move; Foreign Minister Hector Timerman called the Ambassador Dorit Shavit for a conversation defined as 'hard and tense'.

The Foreign Minister said that Israel's intervention in the internal affairs of another state encourages anti-Semitism. The fact that the attack was aimed against Jews does not give, he said, Israel the right to ask for clarification: "Israel does not speak for the Jewish people, and is not their agent. Jews who wanted and want to live in Israel migrated to and are citizens; whoever lives in Argentina is an Argentine citizen. The bombing was against Argentina and Israel's will to be involved in the matter only gives ammunition to anti-Semites who accused Jews of dual loyalty."

The Ambassador would not accept this narrow definition given to Israel and explained that the state has a responsibility to all Jews in the world, "as the Jewish state, Israel sees itself as responsible to some extent for the peace of the Jews and follows anti-Semitism around the world," she said. "Therefore she helped the Jews to leave the Soviet Union, immigrated Ethiopian Jews."

The Ambassador hinted to the Minister that Israel helped his father, just because he was Jewish, while he was pursued in the 80's by the military government that ruled Argentina then: "At certain times also helped Jews in Argentina. You probably know what I'm talking about."

Eventually, the two sides had agreed to calm the situation and move the contacts to quiet diplomatic channels.

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!