Book claims Israel armed Argentina in Falklands War

Argentinian journalist says Menachem Begin supported military junta to avenge the 1947 hanging of Irgun fighter Dov Gruner.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Begin 311 (photo credit: The Jerusalem Post archives)
Begin 311
(photo credit: The Jerusalem Post archives)
A new book claims that Israel supplied weapons to Argentina during the 1982 Falkland Islands War, The Telegraph reported on Thursday.
Operation Israel: The Reaming of Argentina During The Dictatorship, by Argentine journalist Hernan Dobry, reveals that then-prime minister Menachem Begin struck a deal with the military junta that had invaded the Falkland Islands and was fighting the British.
RELATED:Etzel Museum -Tales from the undergroundIsrael, Argentina face crisis over alleged deal with Tehran
Dobry claims that Begin saw the deal as revenge for the hanging of Irgun fighter Dov Gruner by the British in 1947.
Israel Lotersztain, a salesman for Isrex, an Israeli defense company, reportedly said that during a meeting with Begin, the prime minister said: "Is this going to be used to kill the English? Go ahead."
Begin "hated the English above all. Everyone had forgotten the British occupation, but not him," Lotersztain was quoted as saying.
The weapons were reportedly sent to Peru before reaching the Argentinians so that the British would not know that the junta was being armed by Israel.
However, Lotersztain said that the British "were aware of the whole operation to the extent that sometimes when we discussed whether some supplies had arrived we would say 'let's ask the English.'"