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Antisemitism and Iranian Influence in the Americas

All eyes are on the geopolitical hot zone created by Iran’s direct attack on Israel Saturday, during which some 300 ballistic missiles and drones were launched at and intercepted by Israel with help from the United States and others. Questions abound regarding what actions either state may take next. But there is another aspect to the attacks and counterattacks in this part of the Middle East, which is how Iran foments antisemitism elsewhere—including in far-away Latin America.

As tensions grew last week over Iran’s looming strike against the Jewish state, anticipated as retaliation for Israel’s April 1 bombing of the Iranian consulate in Damascus that killed two IRGC generals and five officers, an invite-only event was held at the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington, DC. Organized by the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) and B’nai B’rith International, the symposium offered a sober assessment of the rise in antisemitism in Latin America and of Iran’s—and its proxy Hezbollah’s—influence there.

“After the horrific attacks on Israel on October 7, there has been an explosion of antisemitism in Latin America,” said Rep. Maria Salazar of Florida, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Western Hemisphere Subcommittee. In her prepared remarks, she noted that after the war in Gaza started, Colombia, Honduras and Chile recalled their ambassadors from Israel; Bolivia cut diplomatic ties with the Jewish state; and in Brazil, antisemitic incidents skyrocketed “1000 percent.” Salazar called out Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva specifically for remarks he made in February comparing Israel’s campaign in Gaza to Adolf Hitler’s killing of Jews.

In his remarks, Dr. Matthew Levitt of the Washington Institute spoke of Hezbollah surveilling both synagogues and the Israeli embassy in Brazil and the terrorist group’s presence in other South American countries such as Venezuela. “Hezbollah plots make no distinction between Israel and Jews,” he said.

One especially notable area of concern in Latin America is what’s known as the Triple Frontier, the tri-border area where Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay meet. Catalan journalist Pilar Rahola (above, middle) described it as a nexus for drug traffickers, arms dealers and Islamic terror groups supported by Iran, including Hezbollah. Days after October 7, The Buenos Aires Times reported that “members of Hezbollah and Hamas operating from the Triple Frontier have joined drug dealing clans to fund their attack missions in Israel and targets in the rest of the world.” Calling Latin America “virgin territory for imperialist interests,” Rahola said that an attack there by Iran, in response to Israel’s activities, is likely. “No one is preparing for this,” she warned.

She and another speaker, Aaron Keyak of the U.S. State Department (he’s the deputy envoy, under Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, to monitor and combat antisemitism), referenced the 1994 bombing of a Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, that killed 85 people and injured more than 300. After close to 30 years, numerous theories have circulated about who was responsible and why, and the accused suspects have never been tried. Coincidentally, on the same day as the OAS event, April 11, Argentina’s highest criminal court ruled the bombing a crime against humanity and found Iran responsible for planning the attack and Hezbollah for carrying it out. As reported by AP, the court held that the deadly hit on the Jewish community center, known as the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina, was retaliation against Argentina for backing out of nuclear cooperation agreements with Iran in the 1980s. 

“Malicious actors including Iran and its proxies continue to weaponize antisemitism to advance their aims,” Keyak said in his remarks at the Organization of American States.

The event was also held to honor the secretary general of the OAS, H.E. Luis Almagro (above, second from left). He was presented with the Global Leadership Award by the Combat Antisemitism Movement in recognition of his “commitment to combating antisemitism, extremism, and hatred across the Americas.”

Almagro has been in the position since 2015. Born in Uruguay in 1963, he got his law degree before joining the Uruguayan Foreign Ministry. In his two-plus decades there he represented his country in Iran, Germany and China. In 2019, as the head of the OAS, he oversaw the adoption of the IHRA working definition of antisemitism and in 2021 created the position OAS Commissioner to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism. 

Standing under a dramatic grouping of 34 tall flags, representing the 34 member states of the OAS, Almagro expressed his concern about autocratic regimes in Latin America with ties to Iran and its proxies. He pressed the idea, which had been voiced by many of those who spoke before him, that antisemitism corrodes democracy and that combating antisemitism is about protecting both democracy and human rights.

“Hate speech reawakens phantoms,” Secretary General Almagro said through an interpreter, noting that such speech is often disguised as attacks against the State of Israel and must be condemned to the necessary extent. “Spread the words you heard today.”

 If you want to learn more about Iran’s presence in the region, here are some books and articles to check out: Iran’s Strategic Penetration of Latin America (2016); Edited by Ilan Berman and Joseph M. Humire; the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Report on the Americas #23, ​Iran in Latin America: Threat or “Axis of Annoyance”?; and “In the Party of God” by Jeffrey Goldberg, The New Yorker, 2002. —Jennifer Bardi

How Nuance Can Save Us

by Nadine Epstein

Since October 7, the American Jewish conversation seems to have become stuck in an infinite loop that circles between fear for the Jewish future and finger-pointing in all directions. I’d like to suggest another way of looking at the frightening upturn in antisemitic language and incidents, which could help extricate us from this infinite loop. What if antisemitism is a symptom—albeit a terrible one—and not the disease? What if the disease is the instability resulting from the wild polarization now consuming our democracy and fueling hate of all kinds—in particular, the old, reliable anti-Jewish kind?

If so, there’s good news—but first, the bad. Now that the crazy extremes that have always lingered on the fringes have gushed into the heart of American civil discourse, they’re dividing us at a rapid rate. I’ve written before about “polarization portals,” such as July 2, 2016, the day that then-presidential candidate Donald Trump tweeted a meme of his rival Hillary Clinton, with antisemitic imagery, accusing her of corruption. Through that portal has poured far-right streams of white supremacism with Christian roots, entwined with the belief that Jews control the world, à la The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. A more recent portal is October 7 and the long days, weeks and months since Hamas invaded Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking hostages, triggering a traumatic war as well as a tsunami of anti-Israel hate that has, at times, spilled over from legitimate protests against the horrific loss of lives in Gaza into outright antisemitism.

From this portal, the mainstream has been flooded with far-left antisemitic propaganda fed by old-school Arab nationalism, Islamic fundamentalism and the mistaken belief that colonialism and oppression are the only lens through which to understand the Israeli-Palestinian conflict—and everything else too. Recent history is riddled with portals like these, which also awaken deep fears and primal instincts from deep within our human psyches.

Ours is not the only era during which instability and polarization have manifested as antisemitism in the United States. In the long lead-up to World War II, for example, outright antisemites such as radio evangelist and Catholic priest Father Charles Coughlin, aviator Charles Lindbergh and industrialist Henry Ford commanded large audiences and roiled the nation, as documented most recently by Rachel Maddow in her well-researched book Prequel. I would argue that our current fragmentation is more dangerous than in that previous era owing to, among other things, the collapse of shared news sources, our vulnerabilities to social media and the effects of artificial intelligence.

As in the 1930s, polarization is also being stoked from abroad. Back then it was the Nazis’ propaganda machine expending huge sums to influence American leaders and the public; now it’s geopolitical players who have been diligently working for decades to foment divisions within the West and promote their own interests, among them Vladimir Putin’s Russia, China and the Islamic Republic of Iran. The biggies have company: Hamas, with its long game of isolating and eradicating Israel, is banking on its ability to splinter the West. And enemies are not the only ones engaging in this: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has spent years playing and arguably worsening U.S. partisan politics.

If polarization is indeed a big part of the problem, we continue to let it fester and spread in the United States at our peril. Not just at Jewish peril, but at the peril of everyone who wants a strong tripartite democracy that includes an independent judiciary. And if this is so, then what’s happening in the United States now is not all about Jews. That doesn’t mean we can ignore it. In fact, as I see it, antisemitism is now more treacherous than in the past. We now have two distinct swollen rivers of right and left antisemitism rushing side by side. At times their tributaries and branches intertwine, and their beliefs wash into one another. These rivers have more in common than at first visible: They both promote the idea that Jews are controlling some part of or all of the world.

Here’s the good news. When we begin to treat the disease of polarization, those rushing rivers will start to recede. The first step is to recognize that there are remedies. They are not easy ones by any definition, but knowing this can go a long way toward lowering our adrenaline and cortisol levels so we can think clearly. On the global front, we need to investigate and disrupt cyberattacks and other influence campaigns, deploy the still-powerful American weapon of cultural and economic soft power and, when possible, forge personal bonds as citizens.

At home, there are plenty of ways to push back against polarization. In addition to keeping in mind that we have a democracy worth saving, we must remember that our brains are wired for simple narratives. No matter how much our neurons squawk, we can resist binary thinking by digging into complexity. In complexity lies nuance, and in nuance, we find humanity.

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SELECT INCIDENTS

Germany, April 6
Incendiary device thrown at door of a synagogue in Oldenburg, Germany.

Belgium, April 2
Rideshare driver charged with hate crime for punching rider at San Francisco International Airport after asking him if he was Jewish or Israeli.

Spain, March 30
Rideshare driver charged with hate crime for punching rider at San Francisco International Airport after asking him if he was Jewish or IsraeliIn one Spanish town, the “Kill Jews” cocktail is popular during Holy Week.

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Female, Funny and Fabulous
with Felicia Madison, Ellen Sugarman and Jennifer Bardi

On March 26, MomentLive! presented, “Female, Funny and Fabulous,” featuring stand-up comedians Felicia Madison and Ellen Sugarman. They were joined by Moment Deputy Editor Jennifer Bardi to talk about how they got into comedy, how women can find laughter and fulfillment in so-called second acts, and if they’ve experienced antisemitism in the comedy scene. The following excerpt has been lightly edited for clarity.

FELICIA MADISON: I have two very stereotypical Jewish jokes, and I will say, of late, I’ve been very uncomfortable saying them. And I’ve also noticed that the audiences have been very uncomfortable hearing them. So, I try to stay away from those two little ones. 

Are you specifically talking about post-October 7?

FM: Yes.

ELLEN SUGARMAN: When we get into our head about something, that translates so quickly on stage. So I feel the same way—I stay away from Jewish jokes a bit more right now because it makes other people uncomfortable. They’re not sure if they should laugh, or they’re looking around to see if anybody is looking at them for their reaction.

Have either of you experienced direct antisemitism in your comedy career?

ES: A wise woman once said something to me when I said about a group of comics, “I don’t think those people like me. I don’t think they’re going to book me.” She said, “Oh, Ellen, don’t worry about it. They’re never going to say it to your face.” And she was right. And I think when it comes to being Jewish, very few people are going to be overtly [antisemitic]. They aren’t going to come up to me and be like, “God, I hate Jews. Blech!” 

FM: I think in comedy, if you’re funny, it just speaks to everything. But there are differences between pre-October 7 and post-October 7. I’ve had people say they don’t want to come to my club because I’ve been very vocal with my political opinions. We’re in unprecedented and difficult times right now.

There is a certain element to comedy that is about pushing boundaries. Would you say it’s up to the individual comedian whether they want to make people laugh and feel good or if they want to make people uncomfortable?  

ES: Hey, look, there are some really good jokes out there right now. Not about what happened on October 7—there’s no joke about that. But about the current situation in Israel. I’ve seen people tell them. And if it’s a well-written joke, it should make you think—about both sides. I myself am not able to write that joke.

FM: You’re either a political comedian or you’re not. I’m not a political comedian. But certainly one purpose of comedy is to take complex situations and put them in a comedic setting that makes people more open to thinking about it in a way that’s not threatening. Tragedy + time = comedy, isn’t that what they say? We just need a little more time.

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