BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) – At the base of the holy Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City, President Javier Miley from Argentina appears in a spiritual trance.
With his head and hands pressed against the ancient stone, he prayed with the Orthodox rabbi who introduced him to Judaism three years ago. Despite being born and raised a Roman Catholic, Milei had a growing public interest in Judaism and even expressed his intention to convert.
Backing away from the wall, Milei collapsed. He hugged Rabbi Shimon Axel Wahnish tightly, crying on his shoulder.
“At the moment, I feel proud that we have a determined leader, with deep spiritual values,” Wahnish told The Associated Press in a recent interview, recalling a state trip to Israel in February.
For many Argentines, that pride is fraught with danger.
Breaking with decades of policy precedent, Milei has been more supportive of right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government than any other world leader as Israel has been increasingly isolated by the bombing and invasion of Gaza that has killed more than 36,000 Palestinians and prompted the attack. enclave to the brink of famine.
The posture could not be more different from that of most of Latin America – where Bolivia and Colombia have severed ties with Israel and at least five regional countries, most recently Brazil, have pulled their ambassadors from Tel Aviv.
“Among the great countries that should be pillars of the free world, I see indifference in some and fear in others about standing on the side of truth,” Milei told Jewish community leaders at an event last month to commemorate his 81st birthday. the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. . It is a veiled swipe at Western powers – including the United States – to criticize Israel’s military actions.
The crowd jumped with applause.
The president’s supporters insist the new Jewish spirit has nothing to do with foreign policy. But Milei’s infatuation with Judaism and outspoken support for Israel has created fear and exposed fissures in the Jewish community of Argentina, among the largest in the world, and roiled relations with its neighbors.
Argentina’s Jews remain deeply scarred by a pair of deadly bombings that targeted the Israeli embassy in 1992 and the Argentine Jewish Mutual Association, a community center known by its Spanish acronym AMIA, in 1994. Authorities say Iran planned the attack and the Lebanese Hezbollah militant group carry out the attack. . No one is responsible. Argentina’s investigation has been mired in controversy.
“Milei has a messianic mind, and this is quite dangerous,” said Diana Malamud, whose husband was among the 85 people killed in the AMIA attack. “His policies not only lead to conflict at the international level … but also breed anti-Semitism in our country.”
Milei’s curiosity about Judaism began as one of penitence in 2021, when he faced accusations of harboring pro-Nazi sympathies and wanted to prove in a speech that he had no hatred for Jews. He connected with Sephardic leader Rabbi Wahnish to “have a conversation that was supposed to last 10 minutes and ended two hours later,” Wahnish said.
As Milei evolved from a TV pundit to an “anarcho-capitalist” president, Wahnish led her to study Torah. Finding common ground between the vision of radical libertarianism and the prophecies of the Old Testament, Milei’s frivolous interests turned into regular religious practice.
Wahnish, newly appointed Argentina’s ambassador to Israel, declined to comment on Milei’s conversion.
“In Judaism and Moses, Milei saw a cultural and spiritual revolution toward freedom,” Wahnish said. From childhood, he added, Milei “felt Musa as her idol, her hero.”
Milei, who has four clones of her dead dog, Conan, has never been the most conventional occupant of Argentina’s highest office. Still, his participation in Judaism has been a special surprise.
On the campaign trail, Milei recited the Torah, made several Brooklyn pilgrimages to the tomb of influential Hasidic leader Menachem Mendel Schneerson and sounded the shofar, the ram’s horn trumpet blown on the Jewish Holy Day, to close the election campaign.
Before Milei’s victory, nearly 4,000 Argentine Jewish intellectuals signed a petition expressing concern about Milei’s “political use of Judaism.”
“It is perverse … to use the shofar, which is played during religious ceremonies, to announce itself,” said Pablo Gorodneff, secretary-general of the progressive Argentine group Banding Jewish. “It makes me very frustrated, very sad.”
As the war raged in Gaza, Milei flew to Israel for his first foreign visit and praised Netanyahu without reservation. Following in the footsteps of former US President Donald Trump, he pledged to move Argentina’s embassy from its coastal stronghold near Tel Aviv to the contested capital of Jerusalem – adding to the emotional issues at the heart of the conflict. Netanyahu called Milei “a good friend.” Hamas calls them “partners of the Zionist occupiers.”
Last month, Milei’s government revoked Argentina’s traditional recognition of Palestinian statehood, joining the US and Israel in voting against Palestinian membership in the UN.
His foreign policy changes have pleased the leaders of the Jewish community, but they are also absent.
“If Milei is supposed to call Israel an attack on Palestinian rights, it puts the Jewish community in Argentina at risk,” said Héctor Shalom, Argentine director of the Anne Frank Center. “Decades of impunity for past attacks show our vulnerability.”
The 1994 bombing, Argentina’s most notorious cold case, still spreads uneasiness. After the October 7 attacks by Hamas, the mood in the Jewish community turned anxious.
Jewish high schools ask students not to wear uniforms, to avoid being identified as Jews. The authorities maintained security in the synagogue. Two bomb scares evacuated the AMIA building.
“The level of security has always been high but now there is greater sensitivity,” said Amos Linetzky, head of AMIA.
Government officials are also increasingly concerned, attacking Iran and warning that the Israel-Hamas war has fueled Islamic militancy and spread it as far as Latin America.
Following news of the first Iranian attack on Israeli territory on April 14, local media reported Milei’s pro-Israel stance had made him a target. He cut short a state visit to Denmark and flew home to hold a crisis committee together with the Israeli ambassador.
Milei’s hardline security minister, Patricia Bullrich, singled out left-wing neighbors Bolivia and Chile as Islamist hotbeds, ordering reinforcements to Argentina’s northern border.
“We are very vigilant,” Bullrich said, noting that Bolivia – which last year approved a defense agreement with Iran – was teeing up with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard operations. “A politically correct message like asking for peace is not Argentina’s position.”
Without providing evidence, Bullrich also claimed that Chile – home to the largest Palestinian population outside the Arab world – hosts Hezbollah.
The accusations, which Bolivia and Chile consider unfounded, have prompted both governments to withdraw their ambassadors from Buenos Aires.
On Saturday, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, a 57-member group that describes itself as the “collective voice of the Muslim world,” issued an angry denunciation of what it described as Milei’s anti-Islamic rhetoric.
For years, the US and Argentine intelligence services have implemented the Triple Frontier, where Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay meet, under intense surveillance, torturing the large population of Lebanese and Syrian immigrants for Islamic sympathies.
“One of the things I don’t think is enough is how long Hezbollah has been in our hemisphere,” Sen. Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this spring.
Washington claims Hezbollah finances its activities through drug traffickers in the region. The US Treasury has sanctioned dozens of individuals in South America for their links to Hezbollah, most recently last fall. Authorities have reported a disturbing raid, with Israel’s Mossad spy agency helping Brazil arrest a suspected Hezbollah recruit last November.
Hezbollah denies operating in the region.
“What does Hezbollah want with Latin America?” the group’s spokesperson, Rana Sahili, asked AP. He accused Milei of playing with reality to score points in the “political game”.
Experts say the real threat lies in the middle.
“Some say Hezbollah’s presence in Latin America is a complete fabrication, while others say the group uses the region as a base and we are doomed,” said Fernando Brancoli at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.
“None of that is true.”
