US senators push resolution to help Argentina probe 1994 Jewish center bombing

On 25th anniversary, bipartisan group calls for US to recommit to investigation on AMIA attack long blamed on Iran but whose perpetrators haven’t been caught

By Josefin Dolsten 18 July 2019, 9:05 pm Edit

Firemen and civilians walk over the rubble left after a bomb exploded at the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 18, 1994. (Ali Burafi/AFP/Getty Images/via JTA)

JTA — A bipartisan group of US senators introduced a resolution on Thursday to remember the bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires in 1994.

Bob Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat and Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, introduced the resolution on the 25th anniversary of the attack on the AMIA Jewish center. The bombing in the Argentine capital left 85 people dead and hundreds more injured.

The perpetrators have still not been brought to justice. Argentina and Israel have long blamed Iran and implicated several former Iranian officials and members of the Tehran-backed Lebanese terror group Hezbollah in the attack, in addition to the March 17, 1992 attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires that killed 29 and injured more than 200.

Menendez and Rubio were joined by four co-sponsors: Senators Ben Cardin, Ted Cruz, Tim Kaine and Todd Young.

US Senator Bob Menendez speaks during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on July 25, 2018. (Andrew CABALLERO-REYNOLDS)

“It is critical that the US recommit to helping the Government of Argentina in their investigation,” Menendez said in a statement. “The Argentinian people have waited long enough for answers.”

Rubio added that the lawmakers were recommitting “to helping the Government of Argentina seek justice for the victims and their families.”