US antisemitism envoy knocks Blinken statement on AMIA bombing that condemned Islamophobia

US antisemitism envoy Deborah Lipstadt appears to criticize the statement marking the 30th anniversary of the AMIA Jewish community center bombing in Buenos Aires issued by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

The statement condemned the bombing but also included a line panning “Islamophobia and all forms of hate.”

Asked about the statement in a briefing with reporters, Lipstadt first says she appreciated that such a senior US official weighed in on the matter in the first place. The statement also embraced the global guidelines for combating antisemitism, which Lipstadt led with over 30 other countries.

“I’m not going to talk about the internal process… You never want to know how the sausage is made, but in terms of the statement, it may not have been the way I would have phrased it,” she says.

“The most efficacious way of addressing it is to call something out by its name.

“I think it’s most efficacious to call out the specifics and then acknowledge, as the statement does, that a specific hatred doesn’t often stop with one group.”

“That’s really how I would have addressed the issues. But I think the statement in terms of its embrace, in the name of the United States Government, and its condemnation of the bombings, was very, very strong.”