From the outset, Israel's relations with Argentina were characterized by mistrust. Argentina abstained from voting on the United Nations Palestine Partition Plan of November 1947 and accorded official recognition to Israel only in 1949. Early efforts to enhance bilateral relations were complicated by the capture in Buenos Aires of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann by Israeli agents in 1960 and by long-standing allegations that after World War II, Argentina became a haven for other Nazi war criminals. A subtle positive change in the relationship began to occur in the second half of the 1970s and the early 1980s, typified by Argentina's opposition to the United Nations' "Zionism Is Racism" resolution (November 1975; see UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY RESOLUTION 3379) and by Israeli sales of military hardware to Argentina. In 1991, Carlos Menem became the first Argentinean head of state to make an official visit to Israel. Menem sought to mediate Syrian-Israeli negotiations over the Golan Heights and offered his assistance in uncovering information about the status of Israeli soldiers missing in action in neighboring Arab countries.
In the early 1990s, bilateral relations with Argentina were severely compromised by two terrorist attacks in Buenos Aires: the 17 March 1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy, which left 29 dead and some 230 others wounded; and the 18 July 1994 bombing of the Argentine Jewish Mutual Agency center that killed 86 and wounded 200. These attacks — and the apparent laxness of Argentinean officials to identify, arrest, and prosecute the culprits — caused considerable anxiety on the part of the country's 300,000 Jews. On 25 October 2006, Argentina's attorney general presented the results of the special investigation into the attack, which determined that the attack was carried out by Hezbollah with the support of the leaders of the Iranian government.
Historical Dictionary of Israel. Bernard Reich David H. Goldberg. Edited by Jon Woronoff..