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Argentina’s notorious past as a safe haven for Nazi’s, circa 2025

This past week, progressive human rights lawyers filed a criminal complaint in Argentina’s federal courts seeking the arrest of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should he set foot in the country, amid reports of a possible visit in September. The criminal complaint filed in Argentina federal courts calls for Netanyahu’s arrest in the country and an investigation into the Israeli political and military authorities for an incident in the Gaza Strip on March 23 in which a number of terrorists were killed. According to unverified sources, among those killed were noncombatants. Upon reading this report, many were reminded that Argentina is home to one of the deadliest terror attacks on Jews outside the State of Israel. Around 31 years ago, on July 18, 1994, a bomb-laden van exploded inside a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires. It was the worst such attack in Argentina's history, killing 85 — and injuring 300.

The destruction of the Argentine-Israelite Mutual Association, known by its Spanish initials AMIA, came two years after a 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Argentina, which killed 29 people. Israeli officials say seven of the victims have never been identified. Argentine prosecutors blamed Iranian officials for plotting the AMIA attack and said Hezbollah operatives carried it out, but even after 31 years, no one has been convicted. Iran has refused to turn over the former officials and ex-diplomats who face charges.

Also this past week, an Argentinian real estate agency published photos of a property for sale in Mar del Plata, Argentina, including their living room displaying the "Portrait of a Lady," a portrait by an Italian master artist from the 17th-century, that was stolen from the 1,000-piece collection of Jacques Goudstikker a leading Jewish Dutch art collector, who fled the Netherlands in mid-May 1940 to escape the invading Nazis but suspiciously died on the vessel carrying him to safety. According to historical allegations, the ship that carried Jewish refugees may have included Nazi officials traveling clandestinely. Jacques Goudstikker died from “falling” into the hold of the ship. Journalists seeing the ad of the property for sale identified the stolen painting, but when police raided the house, they found no trace of the painting. More than 80 years after it was looted by the Nazis from a Jewish art dealer in Amsterdam, we are reminded of Argentina’s sordid involvement in helping Nazi’s escape post war Europe. The Dutch newspaper AD said it had traced the work, which features in a database of lost art and is listed by the Dutch culture ministry as “unreturned” after the Second World War. Some works were recovered in Germany and displayed as part of the Dutch national collection in the Rijksmuseum, “Portrait of a Lady” was not among them. AD said it had uncovered wartime documents suggesting the painting was one of two in the possession of Friedrich Kadgien, a Nazi official, SS officer and senior aide to Hermann Göring.

The progressive human rights lawyers that petitioned for Benjamin Netanyahu’s arrest should he set foot in Argentina, have brought to light Argentina’s anti-Semitic past and its love affair with Nazi’s fleeing Germany after the war. Argentina was a known safe haven for Nazi’s and their families. To get a feeling of how prevalent this was just consider the high share of German surnames in Argentina today.

Argentina, before the Second World War, had closer ties to the Axis nations (Germany, Italy and also Spain) than to the Allied countries of the free world. During the Second World War, Argentina was clearly Pro-Axis. The Juan Peron government in no way was Pro-Jewish. Peron’s Minister of Immigration was a notorious anti-Semite who even wrote books about the danger that Jews allegedly posed to Argentina. The Peron government did not only offer the Nazis’ asylum, they actively imported them from Europe. Nazis were welcome Guests. Some high-tier Nazis even meet with Peron. Peron a populist / “third-positionism” politician- ideology similar to fascism. His politics and style of government were inspired by the regimes of Mussolini and Hitler, hence his government's friendliness towards fascists and Nazi’s fleeing Europe.

Argentina was the chosen home of many notorious Nazi’s after the Second World War. Mengele, "notorious" for his inhumane experiments on Jewish prisoners, arrived in 1949 and lived under various pseudo names. Having felt secure and safe in his adopted home in Argentina, Mengele even filed a request to travel from Argentina to West Germany in 1959, using his real name. Then there is Adolf Eichmann, another SS officer and one of the principal architects of the "Final Solution". He arrived in Argentina in 1950 under an alias. In January 1942, at a lakefront villa in the Wannsee district of Berlin, a conference of Nazi high officials was convened to organize the logistics of what the Nazis called the “final solution to the Jewish question.” Eichmann was to coordinate the details; thus, although it was not yet generally known that the “final solution” was mass execution, Eichmann had in effect been named chief executioner. Thereupon he organized the identification, assembly, and transportation of Jews from all over occupied Europe to their final destinations at Auschwitz and other extermination camps in German-occupied Poland. He was arrested by Israeli secret service agents near Buenos Aires, Argentina, on May 11, 1960; nine days later they smuggled him out of the country and took him to Israel. After settling the controversy that arose over the Israeli violation of Argentine law, the Israeli government arranged his trial before a special three-judge court in Jerusalem. Eichmann was found guilty by the special court in Jerusalem and was hanged by the State of Israel for his part in the Holocaust, and direct responsibility for the Nazi extermination of Jews during World War II.

Argentina has yet to recognize her historical role and responsibility in assisting Nazi’s and their families in evading justice. Argentina has yet to identify and bring to justice those nations and terror organizations that executed the bombing of the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires. Argentina was the home of Mengele and Adolf Eichmann among the greater German community residing in Argentina. So if all this is not enough, this past week the Supreme Court in Buenos Aires discovered Nazi material among its archives. An anonymous judicial authority had exposed that the court had come across boxes of photos, postcards and propaganda "intended to consolidate and propagate Adolf Hitler's ideology" in Argentina during the Second World War.

Unconditional Christian love for Israel

Since the Palestinian terror organization Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, Hamas and their supporters among the global forces of anti-Semitism have engaged in a coordinated campaign to encourage Christians to withdraw their support for Zionism and the State of Israel. These forces of Jew haters are well aware that the last major bastion of pro- Israel supporters are Christian Zionists. Therefore, they have embarked on a campaign to convince Christians that the Jews are the aggressors—even the persecutors of Christians themselves—in the cause of breaking the Christian-Jewish alliance. Despite Hamas and Palestinian aggression against Arab Christians living within Palestinian villages and cities, Hamas propagandists and their supporters among the legacy media, academia, the Democratic Party, and progressive forces everywhere have weaponized historical Christian prejudices. For Hamas and their supporters there has never been a more opportune time for Hamas-affiliated anti-Semites to plant seeds of doubt about Christian sympathy for Jews.

Sometimes it takes a non-Jew to remind us, the Jews, of something we are reluctant to face: who we truly are. In the United States, the two groups that most ardently support Israel are American Jews alongside Evangelical and fundamentalist Christians. Jewish support is relatively easy to explain, but why should certain Christians, most of them politically quite conservative, be so devoted to Israel? There is a second puzzle: despite their support for a Jewish state, Evangelical and fundamentalist Christians are disliked by many American Jews.

The evidence about evangelical attitudes is clear. In 2006, a Pew survey found that Evangelical Christians were more favorable toward Israel than the average American was—and much more sympathetic than either mainline Protestants or secularists. In another survey, Evangelical Christians proved much likelier than Catholics, Protestants, or secular types to back Israeli control of Jerusalem, endorse Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria and take Israel’s side in conflicts that have erupted over the years in the Middle East.

Evangelical Christians have a high opinion not just of the Jewish state but of Jews as people. That Jewish voters are overwhelmingly liberal doesn’t seem to bother evangelicals, despite their own conservative politics. Yet Jews don’t return the favor: in one Pew survey, 42 percent of Jewish respondents expressed hostility towards Evangelicals and fundamentalists. In comparison, in a study of religious attitudes on a national scale, two scholars from Baruch College have shown, a much smaller fraction—about 16 percent—of the American public has similarly antagonistic feelings toward Christian fundamentalists.

So what is it about Christians and their support for Israel that makes some Jews at times uneasy? I can even imagine what makes Jews – especially Progressive Jews – nervous about this huge group of Israel lovers: their conservative values, an uncompromising stance on the Middle East peace process and support for Israel; the theological slant of their support for Israel. Christians love to love Israel unconditionally, and express love for Jews unconditionally. There is something almost non-Jewish about it. Jews usually do not talk about unconditional love. It’s not something that usually turns us on. We are more into debate, questioning, challenging and rattling the cage. Christians love to love. Jews love to kvetch.

So why do we find so little expression of unconditional love among Jews? Is it because we Jews confuse love with supporting official policy? That is, if we disagree with Israel’s policies, do we find it difficult – even impossible – to express unconditional love for Israel? Moreover, how many Israel supporters who disagree with Israel’s policies can honestly say that their love for Israel is, in fact, unconditional? When one considers the global movement to de-legitimize the State of Israel and the explosion of Jew hatred in recent years, that is, the enemies of Israel are not looking for a debate. Their aim is not to engage or interact but to demonize and eventually annihilate the State of Israel. Their opposition is not open to reason or good will. In short, their hatred is unconditional. This being the current geo-strategic reality challenging Israel, than why should some Jews be so uneasy by Christians’ unconditional love toward Israel?

How better to fight unconditional hatred than with unconditional love? What better weapon against the forces working to delegitimize Israel than a force that unequivocally expresses love of Israel? Of course, we Jews should never stop doing what we do best: argue, debate, challenge and unconditionally “Kvetch”. However, this must be conducted within a common consensus meaning that Israel must remain the national homeland of the Jewish people. For Israel supporters, unconditional love is the emotion that ought to trump all others; the emotion that fuels and gives meaning to our actions. I can challenge my child and rebuke him, but I can never forget to show him unconditional love. Many of our debates about Israel have become coarse and divisive. One reason is that in our zeal to express tough, critical love, we have forgotten about pure love, unconditional love so common among our Evangelical Christian supporters throughout the United States.

We have much to learn from our Christian supporters and how they express unconditional love for Israel. It is this unconditional love that can bind us together, Christians and Jews in our undivided support for the State of Israel and send a strong message of deterrence to the global enemies and supporters of the Hamas Palestinian terror organization,

The lion has roared – who can but fear?” (Amos 3:8).

Exploiting military related suicides to end the war on Hamas

Over the past weeks, the legacy media in Israel has spotlighted a suspected rise in suicides among IDF soldiers since the start of the war and has deliberately given extensive coverage of these suspected suicides of IDF soldiers while on leave or upon completing military service; both among young, enlisted soldiers as well as among older reserve soldiers.

The extensive reporting has consistently presented a reckless and dangerous narrative that highlighted suspected cases while claiming that by prolonging the war, the government of Israel is pushing soldiers beyond their limits and the resulting psychological toll has caused an increasing rate of suicide among IDF soldiers.

As a former IDF medical mental health officer with 25 years of professional military service, the proliferation of legacy media reporting of suspected suicide cases whether true or not has a contagious effect on those soldiers who are contemplating or are at risk of attempting suicide. Soldiers who are experiencing a period of instability or unrelated difficulties in their lives (relationships, family illnesses, financial, and so forth) may very well be affected by the extensive coverage and feel a sense of relief, a sense of legitimization, that’s it's OK to end ones' life similar to what other soldiers are doing.

During pervious cycles of suicides in the IDF (prior to the era of social media), it was proven empirically that media reports of suicides have an impact on the rates of suicides among IDF soldiers. At the time, the major media outlets agreed voluntarily to refrain from reporting on suicides in the IDF, and over the following years, there was a significant drop in suicide rates among IDF soldiers.

According to the data released in January 2025, which reflects a total of 15 months out of the 21 months of war, up to 28 soldiers are suspected of committing suicide since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023. An additional 10 suspected suicides occurred earlier in 2023, before the war began. These suspected suicide rates mark a sharp increase compared to previous years: 14 suspected suicides were recorded in 2022, and 11 in 2021. Overall, the total number of deaths in the IDF during 2023-2024 — including combat fatalities — was the highest in decades, largely as a result of the ongoing war. These are the statistics that have been used by the legacy media to sway public opinion and demand that the government in Israel end the war on Hamas. The most simplistic extrapolation and statistical analysis will clearly show that the legacy media narrative is not only false but widely misleading and has in itself created the snowball effect of additional suicides that might never have been realized.

Since the outbreak of the war on Hamas on Oct 7, 2023, the size of the standing army in Israel has increased substantially. For context, Israel has a population of about 9.5 million people according to 2023 census estimates. In 2022 the IDF counted 169,500 active-duty personnel and had a cadre of 465,000 reserve personnel in 2022, bringing its total force to about 634,500 individuals.

That equates to about 7% of the population in active or reserve military service. For comparison, America’s total active and reserve military force consists of about 1.74 million or roughly 0.5 % of the population. In addition to the active force, the IDF says that approximately 295,000 reservists have reported for duty since the beginning of the war. In essence, the country has committed about 75% of its armed forces personnel to service in a slate of different roles - basically a full war footing. The average number of days of reserve service is 61 according to the report. Approximately 45,000 reservists have returned to full reserve duty after having been given an exemption from active reserve service. The reservists remain overwhelmingly male at 81% of the reserve force. However, a couple of other numbers jump out. The report’s numbers show that approximately 20% of Israel’s reservists are over 40 years of age. Some 40% of them are parents (115,000 men, 3,000 women).

The war on Hamas has taken a heavy toll with killed in action reaching close to 900 soldiers and thousands wounded. These numbers include those killed and wounded as a result of operational accidents and "friendly fire". The IDF has reported that approximately 9,000 soldiers' mental health has been affected during the war. Of these about 75% have returned to operational activity.

The IDF has increased its active standing army by hundreds of thousands of soldiers. Proportionally speaking, the claim by the legacy media that the IDF is pushing soldiers beyond their limits resulting in a higher rate of suicide is simply incorrect and misleading. The high proportion of older reserve soldiers has created an additional risk factor. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers are returning home between military call ups and take their service automatic weapons home with them, an additional risk factor. The immediacy of a weapon at home may very well be the most significant suicide risk factor for men who develop PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), or are exposed to other non-military stress related events while home. Men and women in uniform commit suicide for many reasons, from my professional experience, many of the reasons are unrelated to military service and are a result of psychological stress from civilian life. The proliferation of alcoholism and drug use in civilian life has also contributed to the rate of suicide while soldiers are on leave or home between periods of reserve duty.

The war on Hamas has taken a heavy toll on the mental health of soldiers who have served as well as their families. We as a nation mourn all of our fallen soldiers, whether in combat or outside the combat zones. To claim that the government of Israel should end the war to prevent future suicides is a false and dangerous narrative that will motivate others to consider suicide as an option rather than all that can be done to strengthen the resiliency of all soldiers serving in the IDF

Jews, infidels, and everyone else in-between

When observing the daily demonstrations by Muslims and their radicalized supporters on the campuses and streets of America, I never cease to be amazed by the primal rage, overt hatred, and endless blaming of Jews expressed loudly, obsessively, and repeatedly. One cannot escape the question: why are Muslims so easily offended? When I see and hear these voices of hostility, I am reminded of the classic novel “Moby Dick” authored by Herman Melville. “Call me Ishmael”, is the opening sentence that opens the novel “Moby Dick”, and recounts that he, Ismael is sailing to sea out of a sense of alienation and cultural inadequacy. Ishmael describes the behavior of Captain Ahab who is so relentless in his obsession to kill the great white whale, that he is willing to endanger the entire ship, all of his sailors, just to kill the great white whale. The name Ishmael, the son of the Patriarch Abraham from the old Testament as well as the Koran, symbolizes more than anything the sense of being rejected and being scorned my one’s peers and by one’s civilization.

Ever since the days of Napoleon's landing upon the shores of Egypt at the very end of the 18th Century bringing with him the modern era to the people of the Middle East, Islam has been unable to free itself from the shackles of inferiority and self-destructive primal rage that typifies the hatred of modern day Muslims and their radicalized supporters against Jews and essentially everyone else. In recent years, and even more so since the Oct 7th massacre by Hamas of civilians living in communities adjacent to the Gaza Strip, the intensity of the hate, blame, and violence against Jews has reached new heights.

The European continent has over the past two decades undergone a rapid demographic transition that has led to a large Muslim population harboring an unchanging, hostile attitude toward their respective communities and host countries. We have much to learn from their experience during this transition. Nicolai Sennels, a Danish psychologist who has had extensive experience with treating Muslim youths has identified four main cultural differences that are important in order to understand the behavior of Muslims and how they interact with Western influences. Sennels has identified four main cultural sub-types that are important in order to understand the behavior of modern day Muslims. They concern anger, self-confidence, the so-called "locus of control" and identity.

Westerners are brought up to think of anger as a sign of weakness, powerlessness and lack of self-control. According to Sennels, in Muslim culture, anger is seen as a sign of strength. To Muslims, being aggressive is a way of gaining respect. When we see violent demonstrators, or the more classic pictures of bearded men jumping up and down while shooting in the air, we should take it for what it is: these are the true role models of acceptable behavior and the explicit legitimization of anger. In Western culture, self-confidence is connected with the ability to meet criticism calmly and to respond rationally. We are raised to see people who easily get angry when criticized, as insecure and immature. According to Sennels, in Muslim culture it is the opposite; it is honorable to respond aggressively and to engage in a physical fight in order to scare or force critics to withdraw, even if this results in a prison sentence or even death. Non-aggressive responses to such threats and violence are a sign of a vulnerability that is to be exploited by Muslims. They do not interpret a peaceful response as an invitation to enter into a dialogue, diplomacy, intellectual debate, compromise or peaceful coexistence but the opposite, as a sign of weakness.

"Locus of control" is a term from the field of psychology, and relates to the way in which individuals feel that they have control of their lives. In Western culture, we are brought up to have an "inner locus of control," meaning that we see our own inner emotions, reactions, decisions and views as the main deciding factors in our lives. There may be outer circumstances that influence our situation, but in the end, it is our own perception of a situation and the way we handle it that decides our future and our state of mind. The "inner locus of control" leads to increased self-responsibility and motivates people to become able to solve their own problems.

According to Sennels, Muslims are brought up to have an "outer locus of control." Their constant use of the term “Inshallah”, ("Allah willing") when talking about the future, as well as the fact that most aspects of their lives are decided by older traditions, clan tribal affiliations and authorities, leaves very little space for individual freedom. Independent initiatives are often severely punished. This shapes their way of thinking, and means that when things go wrong, it is always the fault of others or external factors (Jews, discrimination, so called corrupt American culture and so forth).

Identity plays a significant role when it comes to psychological differences between Muslims and American society. Americans and Europeans have been brought up to be open and tolerant toward other cultures, races, religions, etc. This makes us less critical, impairs our ability to discriminate, and makes our societies open to the influence of other cultural trends and values that may not always be constructive. According to Sennels, Muslims, are taught again and again that they are superior, and that all others starting with the Jews are subservient and inferior and that Allah will throw them into hell when they die. Muslim culture's self-glorification achieves the very opposite when exposed to the overall freedom afforded in America. In general, Westerners are taught to be kind, self-assured, self-responsible and tolerant of others, while Muslims are taught to be aggressive, insecure and intolerant.

The Pavlovian tendency to being overly forgiving in response to Muslim self-pity and blame is the psychological crowbar that has welcomed the escalating Muslim violence against Jews and everyone else in their way. It was Newt Gingrich who stated that "the Islamists cannot reconcile with a secular system of laws. They cannot truly tolerate a West that maintains a presence in the Arabian Gulf or that would defend Israel's right to survive as a country. They cannot tolerate freedom of speech, freedom of religion, or freedom for women. Their demands are irreconcilable with the modern world.

While trying to understand the volatility of millions of Middle Easterners taught from birth to hate America and to despise Israel, we in the West should be asking one basic question. Why do we feel the need to pander and apologize to the most radical, violent and intolerant extremes around the world, to let them set the tone; a tone designed to stifle all criticism of Islam, to declare as blasphemy any attempt to reform radical Islam. This more than anything is at the crux of the transformation America is undergoing, making the campuses and streets of America intolerant of Jews and anyone else in their way. It can also provide a pathway to explaining why Arabs are so easily offended.