Abstract

ESCUDE, Carlos. FROM TACITUS TO AMIA: A STUDY ON UNIVERSAL ANTI-SEMITISM, ARGENTINE ZIONISM AND THE TIMERMAN AFFAIR. rev.relac.int.estrateg.segur. [online]. 2016, vol.11, n.1, pp.123-145. ISSN 1909-3063.  https://doi.org/10.18359/ries.1371.

This paper uses empirical data emerging from a "participative action-research" project undertaken in early 2015, to test the hypothesis that the geopolitically-meaningful ancient mechanisms that were at work in Greco-Roman times, connecting the Jewish Diaspora with an active Jerusalemite center, continue to function today. Examples are drawn from recent Argentine and U.S. experiences. In one specific case related to the attempt to excommunicate Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman from Jewish institutions, the attitudes of members of the public were studied through a "voluntary online panel." The findings were linked to a major heuristic effort aimed at determining if the "Baron dialectic," so-called in honor of Salo W. Baron (the most important historian of the Jewish people of the World War II generation) is still at work. This dialectic can be summarized as the complex trans-historical sociological mechanism whereby the Jewish religion is reinforced by the Jewish nationality, whilst the latter is supra-nationally rooted through the Diaspora communities. This process is likely one of the long-term causes of anti-Semitism that concerned Hannah Arendt.

Keywords : AMIA; Anti-Semitism; Argentina; Salo W. Baron; Hannah Arendt; Eichmann; Israel; Seneca; Tacitus; Timerman.

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