30 years after AMIA, the Iranian threat remains

This week, we commemorate the 30th anniversary of the worst terrorist attack against Jews until October 7, the AMIA bombing in Buenos Aires. The attack claimed the lives of 85 people and wounded more than 300 others. 

30 years ago, a suicide bomb was set off by a Hezbollah operative in the city, and, as is often true with Hezbollah, the Islamic Republic of Iran was responsible for the attack’s planning and implementation.

Over the years, many efforts were made to bring those responsible to justice, including an Interpol declaration identifying several Iranians it held responsible. Yet, over the years neither the Iranian regime nor those specific individuals were ever held accountable. And as we commemorate the 30th anniversary, we commiserate with the families of the many victims not only for their grievous losses, but for this failure of the international community to fulfill its obligation to bring the perpetrators and their supporters to justice.

This failure to deal appropriately with Iranian terrorism against the Jewish people led directly to the murderous events of October 7. As ADL’s lawsuit against three countries, including Iran, makes clear, October 7 would not have been possible without the Iranian regime’s material, technical and political support of Hamas. Had the world taken appropriate and continuous action against the regime after the AMIA terrorist attack, the Islamic Republic may not have assisted and enabled Hamas’s barbarous actions.

Despite this, the Iranian regime continues infringing on international law through their rhetoric and actions aimed at the destruction of the Jewish state.

And so, we see the escalation of Iran’s assaults against the Jewish people, rising from 85 dead in Argentina to some 1,200 on October 7 in Israel.

The price the Jewish people are paying for the world’s inaction is tremendous. It is time to reckon with the fact that if the world continues down this path of inaction and does not take the evil of the Islamic regime seriously, we could see far greater numbers of Jews targeted than we have yet witnessed.

This is surely the stated dream of the Iranians, and it is represented by the continuing distressing indifference to the fact that Iran is moving closer and closer to a nuclear capability. It is astonishing to see the same apathy the world exhibited after the AMIA bombing and leading up to October 7 in Iran’s destructive actions now being manifested in the lack of action addressing Iran’s destructive actions and its advancing nuclear capabilities.

Where is the sense of urgency?

Where is the wake-up call that should have transpired when Iran launched 300 missiles and projectiles at the Jewish state, clearly seen by Iran as a testing ground for something even deadlier down the road?  

Where is the outrage that the regime continues to call for Israel’s elimination in a post-October 7 environment that seems very different than before that day because there is a new sense of vulnerability about the Jewish state? 

Where is the sense that the world needs to take stronger measures to isolate the Islamist regime as the irrationality of the extremist version of Islam becomes more apparent every day?

These are all questions that should be priorities for the world.  

Without them, the phrase, “Never Again,” which symbolizes the commitment to preventing anything like the Holocaust from happening again, would be rendered meaningless.

As we commemorate the AMIA terrorist attack 30 years later, the most respectful thing we can do to remember the victims is to stand up powerfully against the same ruling party that was responsible 30 years ago.