Timerman, a journalist who extensively covered government atrocities during the Dirty War, became the single most famous political prisoner of the entire Dirty War following his arrest and imprisonment. Timerman was eventually released, largely as a result of US and Israeli diplomatic pressure, and was expelled from Argentina. He lived in Israel until the junta fell. Israel had a special agreement with the Argentine military government to allow Jews arrested for political crimes to immigrate to Israel, citing an Argentine law that allowed Argentine citizens in prison to emigrate if another country was willing to take them in. Israeli diplomats in Argentina helped organize the emigration of Jewish dissidents who had been arrested. This included leftist activists whose arrests had had nothing to do with their Jewish origins. As well as official Israeli government efforts to secure the release and emigration of imprisoned Jews, many Israeli embassy personnel also took extensive independent efforts to rescue Jewish prisoners. The number of Argentine Jews emigrating to Israel greatly increased throughout the period of the junta. Some Jews also emigrated to Spain , other European countries and the United States. American-Jewish organizations began preparing for a mass exodus of Argentine Jewry. The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society secured a promise from the government of Brazil to provide temporary asylum for the 350,000 Jews of Argentina if it became necessary, and in 1976, the US State Department promised Rabbi Alexander Schindler of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations that it would issue 100,000 visas for Argentine-Jewish refugees if it became necessary. During the 1982 Falklands War, around 250 Jewish soldiers served in the Falkland Islands and strategic points in Patagonia. During their service, they suffered antisemitic attacks by officers. The Argentine government allowed five rabbis to visit them: these were the only chaplains permitted to accompany the Argentine Army during the conflict and were the only non-Catholic chaplains ever permitted to serve. According to the author Hernán Dobry, the rabbis were permitted to visit Jewish soldiers because Argentina had been buying arms from Israel, and did not want to risk the relationship "for the sake of five rabbis". Return to democracy and the terrorist attacks In 1983, Raúl Alfonsín was democratically elected as president of Argentina. Alfonsín enjoyed the support of the Jewish population and appointed many Jews in high positions. When Carlos Saul Menem, who was of Syrian descent, was elected president in 1989,