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ENGLISH VERSION
Glass houses and black kettles
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| HERALD STAFF |
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VERSIÓN ESPAÑOL
Culpas ajenas y papelones propios
No sólo nada nunca es bueno o malo en la política internacional o local; incluso la existencia de maldad en un lado no hace que el otro sea bueno. De esta manera, el llamado completamente legítimo del presidente Néstor Kirchner ante la Asamblea General de las Naciones Unidas para la colaboración de Irán en la investigación del atentado de 1994 de la AMIA se topó con una respuesta iraní irracional delirando sobre ‘presiones sionistas‘: si Kirchner realmente se dejara empujar por las presiones sionistas, adjudicaría la responsabilidad del ataque a la AMIA directamente al entonces presidente Ali Hashemi Rafsanjani (una teoría en cuya certeza sólo insiste Israel) y rompería las relaciones con Irán (a lo cual lo instan los líderes de la comunidad judía local). Tampoco se prestó Kirchner a ninguna crítica del programa nuclear de Irán o a ningún intento de tildar a la república islámica de estado terrorista.
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Not only is nothing ever black or white in the worlds of international or domestic politics _ even the existence of black on one side does not make the other white. Thus President Néstor Kirchner’s entirely legitimate call at the United Nations General Assembly in New York for Iranian collaboration in the investigation of the 1994 terrorist attack on the AMIA Jewish community centre has met with an irrational Iranian response raving about ‘Zionist pressures‘ _ if Kirchner really were swayed by Zionist pressures, he would be carrying responsibility for the AMIA attack all the way up to then Iranian President Ali Hashemi Rafsanjani (a theory which only Israel insists to be a certainty) and breaking off relations with Iran (strongly urged by Jewish community leaders here). Nor did Kirchner lend himself to any criticism of Iran’s nuclear programme or any attempts to brand the Islamic republic as a terrorist state .
And yet the Iranian response did have a point when it said that the main problem with the AMIA investigation has been corruption in the Argentine judicial system. Murky although the international masterminding of the 1994 attack remains (and Iran is certainly not helping), the ‘local connection‘ of the attack had been unmasked (including the shady car dealer known to have supplied the vehicle for the attack and a Buenos Aires provincial police inspector unable to explain three million dollars in his bank account) but everybody had to be released on the technicality of a mistrial, that mistrial taking the form of a bribe given to that car dealer to testify against his co-defendants by the judge in charge of the case (since removed from the bench). No matter how easy it might seem to refute a delirious Iranian government which denies the Holocaust or the existence of Israel, Tehran has nevertheless put its finger on a weakness which should occasion considerably more self-criticism on the Argentine side.
Given this deplorable judicial handling of the AMIA investigation, the politicians for once deserve the praise, starting with Kirchner. At the height of an election campaign, there are no serious elements in the opposition who would take issue with Kirchner’s stance against Iran (apart from a few left-wingers acting more out of reflex hostility to the United States than any sympathy with Iran) _ indeed the strongest opposition, not for the first time, tends to come from government ranks. This should be hailed as positive, the beginnings of a state policy. Given the way in which his autistic administration has isolated Argentina from the world in the past four years, it would probably be safe to say that Kirchner presented the best face he has to the international community in his last appearance before it.
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