Editing Jacobo Timerman (section)

==Israel==
Upon arriving in Israel, Timerman took up residence in [[Ramat Aviv]] (a neighborhood of [[Tel Aviv]]). He was given Israeli citizenship. The military had confiscated all his assets in Argentina, but he still owned a summer home in Uruguay, which he sold.<ref name=Williams />

He made an agreement with ''[[Maariv (newspaper)|Ma'ariv]]'' to write six articles on his imprisonment. These were to be syndicated internationally. Timerman was dissuaded from publishing the articles by Foreign Ministry director [[Yosef Chechanover]]. He met with him in October 1979 and argued that an exposé would endanger "disappeared" Jews and their families in Argentina.<ref>Rein & Davidi, "Exile of the World" (2010), p. 17. "At that meeting, Chechanover asked him not to publish the articles at the request of Argentines living in Israel whose children were [[desaparecidos]] and who worried that their children, as hostages of the military junta, would be endangered if Timerman went ahead with the project".</ref>

Seeking to maintain good relations with Argentina to avoid reprisals against political prisoners, the Israeli government downplayed the significance of Timerman's imprisonment. The Foreign Ministry pressed for relocation of the ceremony on 25 May 1980, when Timerman was to receive the [[Golden Pen of Freedom Award]], from the [[Knesset]] to a room in [[Hebrew University]]. [[Yitzhak Shamir]], the minister of foreign affairs, passed over the ceremony in favor of a holiday reception at the Argentine embassy. Prime Minister [[Menachem Begin]] did not attend either, although organizers had at first expected him.<ref>Rein & Davidi, "Exile of the World" (2010), pp. 17–18. Quote: "The ceremony was slated to take place in the Knesset, in the presence of government representatives, and would even include a short speech by Prime Minister Menachem Begin. At the last moment, however, pressure by the government (which feared reprisals by the Argentine junta) forced the Knesset speaker's office to move the celebration to a hall at the Hebrew University, where the highest-ranking dignitary present was the mayor of Jerusalem, [[Teddy Kollek]].”</ref>

===Press===
Two weeks after Timerman's release, [[Nissim Elnecavé]] editorialized in ''La Luz'' (a conservative Jewish Argentine newspaper) that the journalist had been a subversive. He said the publisher had been released because of (not in spite of) his Judaism. This editorial was reprinted in ''[[La Prensa (Buenos Aires)|La Prensa]]'', another conservative pro-regime newspaper, on 14 October. Two days later the Argentine ambassador [[Jorge Aja Espil]] had it delivered to each member of the U.S. Congress.<ref>Rein & Davidi, "Exile of the World" (2010), p. 14. "According to Elnecavé, under Timerman's direction 'La Opinión' had employed a group of subversives, and he ended his article by asserting that Timerman had escaped precisely because he was Jewish".</ref>

===''Prisoner Without a Name''===
In Tel Aviv, Timerman wrote and published ''Prisoner Without a Name, Cell Without a Number'' (1981), a memoir about his experience in Argentina, which also covered the larger political issues. The book gained instant international popularity. Timerman was invited to lecture about his experience in Israel, Europe, Canada, and the United States, which increased his international recognition and publicized the human rights situation in Argentina.<ref name=Curtiss />

The book weaves together different narratives, discussing Timerman's imprisonment, his biography, and larger topics of Argentine politics. ''Prisoner Without a Name''' provided new details to the world about the Argentine military dictatorship. For instance, it described a weekly lecture called "The Academy" held for police and military officers, who were taught that they were fighting a "World War III" against left-wing terrorists. The book describes anti-semitism and anti-intellectualism within the military regime.<ref name=Lewis1981 /> In 1983, it was made into a television film, ''[[Jacobo Timerman: Prisoner Without a Name, Cell Without a Number]]''.

====Responses====
The book was published first in English, by [[Alfred A. Knopf|Knopf]] in the United States with [[Ashbel Green (editor)|Ashbel Green]] as senior editor.<ref>McDowell, Edwin. [https://www.newspapers.com/image/609407083/ "New books: fetching cats, vexing politics"], ''The Sunday Paper'', ''[[Berkeley Gazette]]'', Berkeley, California, volume 106, number 53, October 17, 1982, page 12 {{subscription required}}</ref> ''Ma'ariv'' was slated to publish a Hebrew version in Israel but pulled out of the project. Domino published it instead.<ref>Rein & Davidi, "Exile of the World" (2010), p. 18.</ref> [[Amos Elon]] noted in an editorial in ''[[Ha'aretz]]'' that "one of the main shareholders of ''Ma'ariv'' has close business ties with Argentina […] Timerman put many people in a bind in this country and at ''Ma'ariv'' by criticizing the [[Menachem Begin|Begin]] government's internal and external policy. The dignitaries and public figures who welcomed him at the airport have distanced themselves from him. We can guess why".<ref>Rein & Davidi, "Exile of the World" (2010), pp. 18–19.</ref>

The Canadian [[Patrick Martin (journalist)|Patrick Martin]] compared ''Prisoner Without a Name'' favorably to works by [[Arthur Koestler]], [[Alexander Solzhenitsyn]], and [[Elie Wiesel]], writing: "But this book is important because the writing is lyrical, even in its horrific detail; because the author is skilful in providing historical respites as the reader travels along the edge of revulsion. It is important also because the events happened today, in this hemisphere. It has never seemed so real".<ref name="Martin1981">[[Patrick Martin (journalist)|Patrick Martin]], "Argentine 'disappearances' never seemed so real", ''Globe and Mail (Canada)'', 30 May 1981.</ref>

President Videla complained to a newly appointed Israeli ambassador in 1980 that Timerman was "orchestrating a campaign to defame Argentina around the world".<ref>Rein & Davidi, "Exile of the World" (2010), p.&nbsp;14–15.</ref> The Argentine government maintained that Timerman had been arrested mostly because of his involvement with David Graiver.<ref name="Rein 2010 p. 15"/> Argentine diplomats continued to pressure Israel on the topic, saying that Timerman "takes the name of the Holocaust in vain by comparing Argentina today with Nazi Germany". Israel reduced its official discussion of Timerman, retracting from the ''Southern Cone'' a pamphlet that discussed awards he received in Israel.<ref>Rein & Davidi, "Exile of the World" (2010), pp. 15–16.</ref>

In 1982, Colonel [[Ramón Camps]] (the Buenos Aires Police Chief who had been directly involved in torturing Timerman) wrote, with assistance from ''La Prensa'' publisher [[Máximo Gainza]], ''Caso Timerman: Punto final'', a response to ''Prisoner Without a Name.''<ref>Knudson, "Veil of Silence" (1997), p. 99. "One index of the close ties between the oligarchical press and the ruling military was that Máximo Gainza, a fourth-generation publisher of ''La Prensa'', collaborated with Colonel Camps in writing the book ''Caso Timerman: Punto final (The Timerman Case: Full Stop)'' in 1982."</ref> He wrote that Timerman "was destroying the bases of society" with ''La Opinión'', particularly its "cultural supplements and section on international politics". He called Timerman a "champion" of [[Marxism]], "the heresy of modern times".<ref name="Rein 2010 pp. 3"/>

=== Lefever nomination and Kirkpatrick Doctrine ===
In 1981, Timerman publicly opposed U.S. President [[Ronald Reagan]]'s nomination of [[Ernest W. Lefever|Ernest Lefever]] as [[Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs]].<ref>Daniel Southerland, ”[http://www.csmonitor.com/1981/0520/052044.html Ex-Argentine torture victim decries Lefever nomination]”, ''Christian Science Monitor'', 20 May 1981.</ref> When Timerman attended a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee pertaining to Lefever, his presence brought additional attention to the issue of human rights in Argentina. Timerman had praised [[Patricia M. Derian|Patt Derian]], who had held the Human Rights position during his imprisonment. During the hearing, Senator [[Claiborne Pell]] asked if Lefever would speak against "disappearances" as Derian had done; Lefever responded, "I believe my job is to help sensitize the entire foreign policy establishment to the concern for human rights rather than play a [[Sir Galahad]] role going around the world on personal missions".<ref>Guest, ''Behind the Disappearances'' (1990), p. 285.</ref>

As a foreigner, Timerman was not allowed to testify at the hearing. He spoke to reporters in the hall outside, commenting that "a quiet diplomacy is a silent diplomacy […] Nations maintained a silent diplomacy with Hitler, and you see what happened".<ref name=Williams>Christian Williams, "The Torture of Jacobo Timerman; Witness to Torture; The Agony & the Witness of the Journalist & the Jew", ''Washington Post'', 22 May 1981; accessed via Lexis Nexis Academic, 30 May 2013.</ref> He continued, discussing human rights and US foreign policy:<ref name=Williams />
<blockquote>Do you expect to change a government with a policy? No, if you want to change the government you have to send in the Marines. What a human rights foreign policy does is save lives. And Jimmy Carter's policy did. How many? I don't know. Two thousand? Is that enough? But that policy is even more important to you than to us. It builds up a democratic consciousness in the United States. It is more important for the United States that Lefever be defeated than for Argentina.

I am very disappointed in President Reagan. A new administration is entitled to change an approach, to change a strategy, but not to change a policy. The policy of human rights belongs to United States history. This administration is not changing a strategy, but an ideology.</blockquote>Timerman's opposition is credited with ensuring the failure of the Lefever nomination.<ref>Guest, ''Behind the Disappearances'' (1990), p. 285. "It also put the final nail in Lefever's coffin and to this day Lefever remains bitterly angry".</ref><ref>[[Rowland Evans]] and [[Robert Novak]], ”Timerman Sealed Lefever's Fate", ''Press-Courier'', 15 June 1981.</ref>
 
Conservative US critics, such as [[William F. Buckley, Jr.|William Buckley]], [[Norman Podhoretz]], and [[Irving Kristol]], criticized Timerman's comments and noted that he had a relationship with the indicted, late banker [[David Graiver]], accused of laundering funds for leftist guerrillas.<ref>Guest, ''Behind the Disappearances'' (1990), p. 286. "Now the gloves came off. On 29 May, during a recess in the Lefever hearings, Irving Kristol wrote a long column in the ''Wall Street Journal'' which accused Timerman of covering up his connection with Graiver. Two days later Buckley himself reported that [[Simon Weisenthal]], the Nazi-hunter, had questioned Timerman's integrity during an 26 April interview with a Uruguayan journalist. Weisenthal was quoted as saying that Timerman was a 'leftist' who had exaggerated the extent and nature of anti-Semitism in Argentina and had hindered Weisenthal's hunt for [[Josef Mengele]], the Nazi camp doctor, with premature disclosures".</ref><ref>Martin Schram, "Timerman's Charges Angers Jews in Argentina, U.S.; Neo-Conservative Figures Attack His Positions on Human Rights; Neo-Conservatives in U.S. Attack Timerman; U.S. Group Including Jews Campaigns to Discredit Former Editor", ''Washington Post'', 22 June 1981, p. A1; accessed via Lexis Nexis Academic, 30 May 2013. "The neo-conservatives set their ideological sights on Timerman after he appeared in the audience of a Senate hearing on the nomination of Earnest Lefever, then President Reagan's choice to be assistant secretary of state for human rights, and received a rare ovation from committee members and spectators".</ref> Kristol used the Graiver connection to explain the inaction of the Jewish community in Argentina, suggesting that it had "implicitly vindicat[ed] the Reagan administration's prudent policy on human rights".<ref name=Lipsky2009 />

On the other hand, Timerman's experiences were used as good reason by some to oppose the [[Kirkpatrick Doctrine]]—a key concept under the [[Reagan Administration]] for maintaining diplomatic relations with regimes that were classified as "authoritarian", not "totalitarian".<ref name=Lewis1981>{{cite news |last1=Cox |first1=Robert |title=TIMMERMAN SHOWS THAT 'AUTHORITARIAN GENERALS' ARE KEEPERS, CAPTIVES OF |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/06/09/opinion/timmerman-shows-that-authoritarian-generals-are-keepers-captives-of.html |work=The New York Times |date=9 June 1981 }}</ref>

The failure of the Lefever nomination disappointed the Argentine government. Aja Espil, the Argentine ambassador in Washington, wrote to his government that "it must be analyzed not as an isolated incident, but in conjunction with a resurgence in the campaign against the Argentinian government, exacerbated by the publicity over Timerman and his book".<ref>Guest, ''Behind the Disappearances'' (1990), p. 287.</ref> Timerman became the object of increasing political controversy in the US. As his high-profile alarmed the Argentine military government, it responded by releasing interrogation transcripts suggesting a connection between Timerman and the discredited Graiver.<ref>Guest, ''Behind the Disappearances'' (1990), pp. 288–289.</ref>

===''The Longest War''===
Soon after completing his prison memoir, Timerman and other journalists were taken to Lebanon to see Israel's 1982 war up close.<ref name=Curtiss/> In response, he wrote a book titled, ''The Longest War: Israel's Invasion of Lebanon'' (1982). He was deeply disturbed by the [[1982 Lebanon War]] although he had been an ardent Zionist for most of his life.<ref name=Curtiss/>

Timerman was also disappointed by Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory. He wrote: "And I'm angry, too, with us, with the Israelis who by exploiting, oppressing, and victimizing them [the Palestinians] made the Jewish people lose their moral tradition, their proper place in history."<ref name=Curtiss /> The book describes Timerman's decisions: still recovering from having been tortured in prison, he advised his son Daniel to accept a jail sentence rather than do military service in Lebanon.<ref name=Martin1982 /> Daniel was sentenced to prison.<ref name=Curtiss/>

Described by some critics as "a polemic" and "unabashedly pro-Palestinian", the book identifies Israel as the aggressor in the 1982 conflict. Timerman compared Israel's treatment of Palestinians to South Africa's treatment of Blacks under [[Apartheid in South Africa|Apartheid]].<ref name=Martin1982 /> He also criticized the U.S. policy in the Mideast: "History will not forgive the United States for not having taken a hand in the conflict long before 1973, as would have been proper for the leading power at the time."<ref name=Curtiss />

Timerman included an epilogue about the [[Sabra and Shatila massacre]], a mass slaughter of Palestinians in Lebanon refugee camps that occurred in September 1982. He held the [[Israel Defense Forces]] and the government's foreign policy responsible.<ref>Rein & Davidi, "Exile of the World" (2010), p. 19. "After the massacre of Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps just outside Beirut, he added an epilogue containing serious accusations against the Israel Defense Forces and the government's foreign policy.</ref> [[Conservative Judaism|Conservative]] Rabbi [[Arthur Hertzberg]] "found [Timerman's] criticism of the Israel Army exaggerated."<ref name=Curtiss />

Timerman was one of the earliest and most outspoken Israeli critics of the war, and his status as a Zionist human rights advocate made his opinion difficult to discount.<ref>Rein & Davidi, "Exile of the World" (2010), pp. 19–20. "Timerman's book met with a cool reception and even open hostility. He was among the first to raise his voice against this war and used harsh words to criticize the Israeli leadership. For many Israelis who justified the war, it was hard to digest such criticism from someone who was generally regarded as a Jewish fighter for human rights".</ref> But his position was not popular among Israelis, who justified the war to themselves. "Jacobo Timerman is asking for trouble", wrote Canadian journalist [[Patrick Martin (journalist)|Patrick Martin]], then the Middle East correspondent for ''[[The Globe and Mail]].'' "He has been in Israel for less than three years and has written a book which attempts to purge the Jewish state of its hatred for Palestinians".<ref name="Martin1982">[[Patrick Martin (journalist)|Patrick Martin]], "A cri de coeur. A polemic more than a political book. It will definitely be attacked", ''Globe & Mail'' (Canada), 18 December 1982; accessed via Lexis Nexis Academic.</ref> In addition, his book received little coverage by the Jewish press and others in the United States.<ref name=Curtiss/>

In 1982 deputy foreign minister [[Yehuda Ben Meir]] said on the United States news program ''[[60 Minutes]]'': "We got him out of Argentina. Now he attacks and denigrates Israel. Any rational person can understand that his book is a collection of calumnies and lies arising from his own self-hatred".<ref>Rein & Davidi, "Exile of the World" (2010), p. 20</ref> Timerman was shunned by some Israelis and American Jews after his criticism.<ref name=Smith /> Later many of his obituaries in the Israeli and US press downplayed or omitted this period of his life to avoid acknowledging his criticism of Israel.<ref name=Curtiss />