MORE ON TIMERMAN - 1979/07/19

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: Argentina Declassification Project - The "Dirty War" (1976-83)
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06626849
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 12
• Document Creation Date: April 3, 2019
• Document Release Date: April 12, 2019
• Publication Date: July 19, 1979

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Pzi
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AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES
CLASSIFICATION
CONFIDENTIAL
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SuBJECT:(1.) MORE ON TIMERMAN
ACTION:
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SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY LIMDIS
LIMDIS
CONFIDENTIAL BUENOS AIRES 5843
REF: BUENOS AIRES 5763
1. (C - Entire Text.)
2. I talked this morning with a person very close to
General Suarez Mason, and gave him my thoughts on the
helpful role that General Suarez Mason might play in
obtaining the release of Jacobo Timerman. My pitch
is that if Suarez Mason sees himsel becoming an
influential person in Argentina's foreign affairs
he should begin now with gestures that might erase
at least part of his dark reputation. My contact
agreed to discuss this with Suarez Mason on Friday.
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OPTIONAL FORM 153
(Formerly FS-413)
January 1975
Dept of State
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Deputy Secretary Christopher's Meeting
with Jacobo Timerman
Jacobo Timerman, Hector Timerman, Rabbi
Mort Rosenthal, Deputy Secretary Christopher,
Deputy Assistant Secretary Schneider,
Doug Dworkin, Claus W. Ruser, Gerald
J. Whitman (Notetaker)
Mr. Christopher welcomed Mr. Timerman to the
United States.. Mr. Timerman's case had become a symbol.
We had hoped that this day would come. The Deputy
Secretary expressed his sympathy and admiration for
the fortitude with which Mr. Timerman had served his
detention.
Mr. Timerman expressed his gratitude to Mr. Christopher
for the U.S. Government's efforts on his behalf, both
by officials in Washington and the Embassy in Buenos
Aires.
The Deputy Secretary said he was interested in
Mr. Timerman's views in light of his experience, his
advice on human rights policy, and Argentina's prospects.
Mr. Timerman said he would try to answer with
candor. Three years ago the United States had begun
its numan rights policy high with idealism. It was
a policy to be applied to all regimes, be they communist
or fascist. It was the first time in history a major
power had made human rights a significant element
in its foreign policy. At this time, however, the
U.S. was no longer the leader in the advancement of
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human rights, and perhaps its policy had missed the
point. The policy was begun with ideas that-struck
the world, but the initial efforts were not followed
through. The pragmatic approach of doing only what
could be done was wrong -- there was nothing to be
gained by being pragmatic.
Mr. Christopher said U.S. human rights policy
had not changed, but its implementation was only one
part of U.S. foreign policy. He could not hold up
Argentina as the best example of the results of our
policies but, over the world as a whole, that policy
has had some effect. Perhaps, however, the U.S. had
been too pragmatic in applying its human rights policy
and, in light of Mr. Timerman's views, it might be
worthwhile to re-examine that pragmatism.
Mr. Timerman said that Argentina is similar to
what the Balkans were in Europe: it is the sick man
of Latin America. /n an atmosphere of conspiracy,
military solutions are advanced for political
problems and vice versa. These problems have always
existed, but there is one significant difference this
time -- there was never so much violence before.
The government%believes that killing people is a solution.
Mr. Timerman said it was interesting that the
Soviets had established influence with Argentina,
while the PRC had become Chile's friend.
When asked what his blueprint for human rights
policy in Argentina would be, Mr. Timerman asserted
that the U.S. must consider Argentina within the
context of Latin America; there must be a joint
policy with other countries -- such as Venezuela and
Mexico -- to build up democracy. As it stands now,
Argentina ri gggaing-fo-f-T-Mnerous explosion.
Mr. Timerman said there is no group in Argentina
today strong enough to provide an alternative leadership
I
to the country. But, perhaps in a few years, such
! a group will develop. Supporting the moderates in
I the present regime, however, is not a solution, since
they are just as responsible as the hardliners for
\ what is happening in Argentina and they have no solution
'for the country's problems.
Mr. Christopher said Mr. Timerman's remarks have
authenticity, since the moderates have not changed
things very much. World-wide our efforts to work
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with the moderate factions in military regimes has
produced only modest results. Perhaps the U.S. should
simply take the high road. With respect to enlisting
the support of other Latin American countries, he
noted that these countries have not always been very
helpful.
When asked why he thought he was released, Timerman
said he was certain it was because of the pressure
of public opinion from the United States. The Argentine
Government is afraid of U.S. and international public
opinion, and public opinion should be used more often.
Argentina thinks in terms of power and for this reason
respects the U.S.
Mr. Timerman concluded the meeting by again thanking
Mr. Christopher for U.S. support, and expressing his
deep gratitude for the assistance he received frow
the U.S. Embassy in Buenos Aires.
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looking to their own vulnerabilities, both electorally
and on the issues Anyone tempted to be smug should
recall that the South and West, where Reagan's
strength would he in a contest against Kennedy,
contain 291 electoral votes, 21 more than are needed to
win the election If Carter were nominated, Reagan
would not have so firm a hold on some southern states,
but he could make it up in the Northeast
On the issues, the Democrats need to come up with
better answers than they have for dealing with
inflation, energy supplies, and US weakness in the
world Ronald Reagan may be too simple in his
approach to govern effectively, but the Democrats
right now are too confused to win the election
Only the Jews can save the Jews.
Coming Home
by Jacob� Timerman
Tel Aviv
The Jews are always making explanations, again and
again, to themselves and to non-Jews, in all countries,
searching for words in all languages What is curious is
that we must always explain the same things, things
that have been explained through many centuries Each
generation, of Jews and non-Jews, demands a new
explanation But it is essentially the same explanation
every time
Two things I said upon my arrival in Israel on
September 27 aroused debate in the Jewish community
of Argentina, as well as in some non-Jewish circles
there Needless to say, these statements were seized
upon with a kind of morbid pleasure by the anti-Semitic
press of Buenos Aires I said "Only the Jews can save
the Jews The others can only help "I also said "At last I
have found a home, my fatherland It is a shame that
the philanthropic organizations that brought my father
from the Ukraine to Argentina did not bring him to
Israel"
Some friends in Buenos Aires pointed out that during
my imprisonment, I got very little help from the Jewish
Institutions in Argentina Only two rabbis stood beside
me and my family It was not the Jewish press of Buenos
Aires, but an English daily�the Buenos Aires Herald�
that took up my case The Judenrat (Jewish Council) of
Buenos Aires left the task of presenting my case in the
hands of lawyers retained by my family If that
organization ever mentioned my case, it did so only to
register the statement in its archives, so that it could
Jacob� Timerman, a native of Argentina, was editor of La
Opinion in Buenos Aires He spent two and a half years
as a political prisoner there In September he was
released and settled in Israel This article was translated
from Spanish by Edith Pieper and Leon Wieseltier
December 1, 1979
prove its concern in case anyone asked
But I was not speaking about saving myself, about my
physical safety If I had feared for the security of my
family and me, I would have left Argentina when I
started to edit the newspaper La Opinion in 1971, from
that moment I endured threats and bombing attempts
from both the extreme left and the extreme right I was
even aware in April 1977 that my arrest was imminent
But I felt that my paper's struggle for democratic
pluralism and human rights, against anti-Semitism and
fascism, obliged me to remain
Of course I am grateful to all those who aided in my
survival and fought for my freedom Yet in the end
deliverance consists in the possibility of realizing in
oneself one's own identity It is the possibility of living
an identity without the slightest possibility that that
identity will be discussed, analyzed, rejected In that
transcendent sense, only the Jews can save the Jews,
because only the Jews could have built the state of
Israel, and only the Jews can maintain its existence,
enrich its reality, assure its future Is this so difficult to
understand? How many times have we already
explained it Is it necessary to explain it again?
James Neilson, a journalist for the Observer of London,
wrote about my expulsion from Argentina "Had Israel
not existed to give him refuge, a dozen countries in the
civilized West would have been proud to do the same
The parallels with Soviet treatment of Solzhenitsyn
could hardly have been more vivid" Rarely have I
encountered a journalist of such courage as James
Neilson, who wrote dozens of articles in the Argentin-
ian, British, and Israeli press about my situation and the
situation of thousands of other prisoners He is a
democratic man, a Christian born in England, who
spent a year as a student in an Israeli kibbutz And yet
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� AA,
he believes that Israel gave me refuge That is precisely
what Israel did not do Many countries in the West,
when word first got out that I might be released, quietly
contacted my family and offered residence and citizen-
ship, assistance and work The only country that did
not do this was Israel Nor did I ask permission of Israel
to come here I came simply to take what is mine Israeli
citizenship It is mine for being born a Jew Nobody has
to offer it to me, and of nobody need I request it That is
why Israel offered me nothing and why I requested
nothing And in the not-offering and the not-asking hes
the greatness of what happened
How can this be explained? Those who aided me, who
generously offered their countnes, who asked me to
accept the asylum they proposed, must understand that
I have not rejected their acts of friendship They must
also understand that I appreciate their help They must
also know that I have no doubt that in those democratic
countries the Jewish communities may freely develop
and live, and not fear persecution But at the same time
it is essential that they understand that deep within me,
in my soul, in my veins, in my cells, in my atoms, I bear
many centuries of persecution And it is not refuge that
I want, however generous or safe it might be
The countries that offered me citizenship may be
safer or more comfortable than Israel But which one,
except Israel, could offer me that feeling of ownership?
Here I am the owner Here I can offer refuge and help to
the persecuted in other countries, to the Kurds, the
Vietnamese, the Lebanese, the Cambodians It is a
feeling that is difficult to explain, an experience difficult
to transmit, especially in a few quick sentences at a
press conference in the airport at Tel Aviv after 30
months in prison But was there a need for further
explanations? For how many years have we been
explaining this?
Through the street of many Western cams I could
stroll as a secure citizen, without fearing for my safety
as a man or as a Jew This is true But when I stroll
through the streets of Tel Aviv, I do it as an owner, as
the owner of every bit of ground, of every leaf on the
trees And here hes the difference between saving and
helping The Jews made Israel, and they can save me
from the passionate complexities and contradictions of
my Jewish identity Outside of Israel the others can
only help me to feel no longer persecuted, to live in
safety
do not believe that those countries that offEred me
refuge, or those individuals and democratic institutions
that assisted me, should take offense at this attitude
Some consider it patronizing or aristocratic But it is the
aristocracy of freedom, of a total and definitive freedom
accepted without reserve
We may approach the issue from another angle
There is a genre of speculative political fiction similar to
science fiction For example, there was a book several
years ago about the first black president of the United
States Or imagine a pope chosen by the Kremlin
20
Political fiction may transport us through ina
adventures of the imagination what if Hitler hal
invaded Britain?, what if a Nazi were elected
tile
White House?, etc One theme of such specula �
works often is the consequence such an event
have for Jews But no political fiction could
imagine that a Jew could be persecuted as such, as al
in Israel.
I believe that I may never find the words that
adequately express what this feeling means to a
But it is what I feel And it is what democratic
must understand Perhaps this way they wdi
understand Israel's insistence on many matters
affect its security as a state This insisten
stubbornness, if you wish�troubles democratic
tries such as France and Germany, which have resol
their border problems after many centuries of cons
war
For this reason I again insist that only Jews can sa
the Jews That is a simple sentence, nothing one
even boring But when considered from the perspecti
I have been trying to explain, it is easy to understand.
certain Jews in the Diaspora feel uncomfortable wi
this sentence, it is because they feel obliged to make
great dialectical effort to explain that the Diaspora
should continue to exist And if many non-Jews do not
understand this sentence, it is because Jewish and
Zionist organizations do not often enough accept the
task of keeping alive, and in the open, the fundamental
principles of Jewish identity In those countries where
Jews have a clear perspective and firm conviction
concerning their identity, as in the United States, this
sentence should not arouse anxiety
In other words, I now have my own home, i
homeland This affirmation frightened the Mem* in
Argentina it may be supposed in the Diaspora th�at a
homeland cannot be found The historical meaning of
my affirmation is greater than the particular events of
my own experience The Israeli newspaper Magna
recently published letters from Argentinian political
leaders pointing out that the annulment of my
Argentinian citizenship should not disturb me, that it
was a decision taken in peculiar political circumstances.-
And so in fact it was And I have no doubt that justice,
and the political future in Argentina, will permit me
again to obtain Argentinian citizenship if I ask But I
will not ask Never And this must not be understood as
a negation of the Argentinian people, or of the 50 years
that I lived there My act is an affirmation, not a
negation It is the affirmation that there exists a Jewish
history that is legitimate, a Jewish historical memory
that cannot be discarded It is the affirmation of that
process of national liberation called Zionism which goes
beyond my own story. It matters little what happens to
me personally What matters is that in the face of any
eventuality that may befall any Jew, in any part of the
world, for just or unjust reasons, Israel remains a
homeland to which he or she can come without
explanations And here that Jew is as much the master
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Approved for Release: 2018/10/01 C06626849
as those thousands of Jews wheise families have lived
here for generations, many of them as long as or longer
than most of the Arabs who inhabit other parts of
Palestine Even those countries that are most open to
refugees present certain conditions they ask to know
about background, education, health, and so on Only
Israel presents no conditions in its offer of a homeland
Zionism is not a movement of persecuted people, it is
a movement of free people It is in the democracies, in
the countries from which Jews do not need to escape,
that Zionism develops most strongly, and where it has
its best results This is precisely because Israel offers
much more than a refuge It offers a unique possibility
for the perfection of man the development of his
identity to its furthest and most profound conclusions
Our historical memory, the memory of many
holocausts past, and the idea that nobody can guarantee
the impossibility of holocausts in the future, however
remote they seem, is an integral part of Zionism It is
only one part, and perhaps the decisive part But the
crucial feature of Zionism is national liberation,
identity There may be those who wish to portray this
as the negation of the Diaspora But it is something
more important it is the affirmation of the future I am
here in Israel to be part of the future Not to be the
result of the past
The collapse of the middle class.
White-Collar Status Panic
by Paul Blumberg
The unprecedented inflation of the past decade has
prooluced dramatic changes in the customary income
diffe}ences between white-collar and blue-collar
workers In 11 years between 1967 and 1978, prices
reflecte in the consumer price index, virtually
doubled Jus. to stay even with inflation before taxes, a
worker's pa had to double The figures in Table I
reveal that am ng American wage and salary workers,
only those in strqg trade unions have been protected
from the effects )of inflation hese few workers
continued to enjoy re wage ip reases much as they did
in the earlier postwar pe o /the figures given here are
all before taxes, recent i ation has driven all workers
into higher tax brack s, the after-tax trends in
income are far gloos ier for t 'ose who have done the
best. Neverthele , the relati ely small groups of
workers in stee , auto, mining, t cking, and the like,
whose wages re indexed to the c st of living, have
managed to 'de the inflation escalator nd make decent
gains in is period The industrial w ker's greatest
hedge ainst inflation in the last decade as not been
amps, antiques, real estate, or baseb cards, but
ong trade union
gold,
as
ue-collar workers in weaker unions or in industries
t have been hard hit by imports�textile, garment,
Peal Blumberg teaches sociology at the City University of
New York His book, The Future of Inequality in an Age of
Dedine, will be published next year by Oxford Universi-
ty Press
Orcetcliff 1, 1979
shoe workers�either have seen their living standards
fall or barely are holding their own The same is true of
practically all white-collar workers, most of whom are
non 'lionized A few high-level executives (such as
feder
non-u
profess'
barely k
done the
relatively h
pushed the
clearest exam
average, their
dropped 95 pe
percent after taxes
as much ground,
welfare, who suffere a
between 1967 and
Because the wa
by strong cost-o
more rapidly
not so prote
striking gai
decade T
earnings
vanou
cruct
to t
sal nes of white-collar workers at all le Is Compared
to low-level clerical and retail sales workers,
managers) have made modest gains, b
onized white-collar clerical, sa
nal workers are slipping back
eping up White-collar work
orst are those who started
most
s, and
rd or are
s who have
e period with
h incomes Their sal y' increases have
into sharply highe tax brackets The
le is that of fu r professors On the
eal salaries tween 1967 and 1978
ent befo taxes and about 175
The o y other large group to lose
ortionally, was families on
16 5 percent loss of income
lue-collar workers protected
wing al wances are rising so much
n the salan s of white-collar workers
ed, these Indus ial workers have made
s on most salarte employees in the last
le II illustrates th by comparing the
f automobile workers ith the earnings of
white-collar employees t illustrate these
income shifts The wages of toworkers, tied
e cost of living, have dramatica outpaced the
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