MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Mrs. Kirchner approach to Malvinas issue infuriates Jewish community

President Cristina Fernandez: “Mixing apples and pears in Doha”

Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner strong lobbying for support from the Arab League in its dispute with Britain over the Falkland Islands is proving to be a short lived pyrrhic victory since she involved Argentina in the Palestine question and infuriated the Jewish community.

In the joint statement from the II South America/Arab countries leaders’ summit (ASPA) in Qatar, Argentina managed a few lines of support for its sovereignty claim over the Falklands. But in her speech to the conference Mrs. Kirchner argued that countries with strong economic power do not abide United Nations resolutions and went on to emulate, from that angle, the Palestine question and the Falklands/Malvinas conflict.

Basically that the UN resolutions on the two issues have been or remain ignored by the “powerful”.

From Doha and before leaving for the G-20 summit in London, Mrs. Kirchner called for the “re-creation of a global multilateral, multi-polar order”

“The UK has an inadmissible colonial enclave in the XXI century in our Malvinas islands, and must abide by the United Nations resolution”, she said underlining that the resolution calls for the “resumption of sovereignty talks on the Islands”.

Following on the argument Mrs. Kirchner strongly criticized “the unfulfilled UN resolution regarding the recognition of a Palestine state and the Middle East conflict” when the UN has recognized the right of the Palestinian people to have their own state.

Finally she thanked “deep from the heart” all leaders present at Qatar for the inclusion of the Malvinas question in the Doha Declaration.

Mrs. Kirchner’s statements as reported by the Argentine press triggered an immediate barrage of reactions from the local Jewish community and Israeli officials from the embassy in Buenos Aires.

“The remarks by the President do not pertain and surprise us”, said Iftai Curiel said the Culture attaché of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires who added with a degree of irony: “it is clear to me now that (according to the Doha summit) Israel is to blame for all the Arabs problems. What I did not know was we reached as far as Malvinas”.

Aldo Donzis president of one of the most influential Argentine Jewish community organizations said he felt “it was a terrible confusion to match such different situations: comparing a colonial situation such as the British in Malvinas with Israel that does not occupy an inch of Palestine territory, in Gaza or in the West Bank”.

Furthermore the Jewish community leader marked “differences between the people of Israel which agrees to the creation of a Palestine state, and the Islanders who with to be British”.

“Israel and the people of Israel want a Palestine state, and that has nothing to do with colonialism or occupation”, insisted Mr. Donzis.

Carlos Frauman from the Argentine Zionist Organization indicated there’s no way the two issues can be compared and “the (Argentine) president was wrong on comparing a colonial enclave with a state like Israel recognized by the UN”.

Sergio Widder from the local branch of the Simon Wiesenthal centre said that it must be remembered that “in 1948 as currently Israel accepts the existence of a Palestine state and who boycotted the creation of the Palestine state are the Hamas terrorists”.

Apparently in private comments were even harsher, “it’s like comparing apples with pears; who’s advising the President on these issues?”

Argentine Foreign Affairs minister Jorge Taiana said he was most satisfied with the South American/Arab League summit support for Argentina’s Malvinas sovereignty claim and praised the intervention of Mrs. Kirchner at the conference.

However he admitted “we are not naïve on addressing the issue, but sincere when we support the objective of two states for two peoples, living in peace and in secure conditions”.

He insisted that only “multilateralism” could solve the conflict and called for “Israel and Palestine to find a joint path in the framework of the principles recognized by the Security Council, the UN General Assembly and the Madrid agreements or the Arab peace initiative”.