BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — On the base of the sacred Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Outdated Metropolis, President Javier Milei of Argentina gave the impression to be in a non secular trance.
With head and arms pressed towards the traditional stone, he prayed with the Orthodox rabbi who launched him to Judaism three years in the past. Though born and raised Roman Catholic, Milei has more and more proven public curiosity in Judaism and even expressed intentions to transform.
Stepping again from the wall, Milei broke down. He hugged Rabbi Shimon Axel Wahnish shut, sobbing onto his shoulder.
“In that second, I felt proud that we now have such decided chief, with such deep non secular values,” Wahnish advised The Related Press in a current interview, recalling their state trip to Israel in February.
For a lot of Argentines, that pleasure was fraught with peril.
Breaking many years of coverage precedent, Milei has gone additional in his assist of right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government than maybe every other world chief as Israel faces growing isolation over its bombardment and invasion of Gaza that has killed over 36,000 Palestinians and pushed the enclave to the brink of famine.
His posture couldn’t stand in starker distinction to most of Latin America — the place Bolivia and Colombia have severed ties with Israel and a minimum of 5 regional nations, most recently Brazil, have pulled ambassadors from Tel Aviv.
“Amongst nice nations that needs to be pillars of the free world, I see indifference in some and worry in others about standing on the aspect of reality,” Milei advised Jewish neighborhood leaders at an occasion final month commemorating the 81st anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto rebellion. It was a veiled swipe at Western powers — including the United States — for criticizing Israeli navy conduct.
The gang leapt to its ft in applause.
The president’s supporters insist his newfound Jewish fervor has no bearing on his overseas coverage. However Milei’s infatuation with Judaism and outspoken assist for Israel has generated fears and uncovered fissures inside Argentina’s Jewish neighborhood, among the many greatest on the planet, and roiled relations with its neighbors.
Argentine Jews stay deeply scarred by a pair of deadly bombings focusing on Israel’s embassy in 1992 and the Argentine Jewish Mutual Affiliation, a community center identified by its Spanish acronym AMIA, in 1994. Authorities allege Iran plotted the assaults and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group carried them out. Nobody has been held accountable. Argentina’s investigation has been mired in controversy.
“Milei has a messianic thoughts, and that is fairly harmful,” mentioned Diana Malamud, whose husband was among the many 85 individuals killed within the AMIA assault. “His insurance policies cannot solely stoke conflicts on the worldwide stage … but in addition generate anti-Semitism inside our nation.”
Milei’s curiosity about Judaism started as a sort of penitence in 2021, when he confronted accusations of harboring pro-Nazi sympathies and wished to show in speech that he bore no animus towards Jews. He related with Sephardic chief Rabbi Wahnish to have “a chat that was speculated to final 10 minutes and ended two hours later,” Wahnish mentioned.
As Milei advanced from TV pundit to “anarcho-capitalist” president, Wahnish guided him by the research of Torah. In search of frequent floor between his imaginative and prescient of radical libertarianism and the prophecy of the Outdated Testomony, Milei’s informal curiosity morphed into a daily non secular apply.
Wahnish, not too long ago appointed Argentina’s ambassador to Israel, declined to touch upon Milei’s conversion.
“In Judaism and Moses, Milei sees a cultural and non secular revolution towards freedom,” Wahnish mentioned. Since childhood, he added, Milei “felt Moses was his idol, his hero.”
Milei, who owns 4 clones of his lifeless canine Conan, has by no means been the most conventional occupant of Argentina’s highest workplace. Nonetheless, his foray into Judaism has come as a specific shock.
On the marketing campaign path, Milei quoted the Torah, made a number of Brooklyn pilgrimages to the tomb of influential Hasidic leader Menachem Mendel Schneerson and sounded the shofar, the ram’s-horn trumpet blasted in the course of the Jewish Excessive Holy Days, to shut his electoral marketing campaign.
Forward of Milei’s victory, practically 4,000 Argentine Jewish intellectuals signed a petition voicing concern over Milei’s “political use of Judaism.”
“It’s perverse … to make use of the shofar, which is performed throughout non secular ceremonies, to announce himself,” mentioned Pablo Gorodneff, secretary-general of the progressive Argentine Jewish Enchantment group. “It makes me very annoyed, very unhappy.”
As combating raged in Gaza, Milei flew to Israel for his first overseas go to and praised Netanyahu with out reservation. Following within the footsteps of former U.S. President Donald Trump, he pledged to maneuver Argentina’s Embassy from a beachfront bastion close to Tel Aviv to the contested capital of Jerusalem — aggravating an emotional concern on the heart of the conflict. Netanyahu known as Milei “an amazing good friend.” Hamas known as him “a associate of the Zionist occupier.”
Final month, Milei’s authorities upended Argentina’s conventional recognition of Palestinian statehood, becoming a member of the U.S. and Israel to vote towards Palestinian membership at the U.N.
His overseas coverage shift has thrilled Jewish neighborhood leaders, but in addition left them on edge.
“If Milei’s supposed protection of Israel is an assault on Palestinian rights, it places the Jewish neighborhood in Argentina in danger,” mentioned Héctor Shalom, director of Argentina’s Anne Frank Middle. “The many years of impunity for previous assaults present our vulnerability.”
The 1994 bombing, Argentina’s most infamous chilly case, nonetheless spreads unease. After Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, the temper within the Jewish neighborhood went from worried to alarmed.
Jewish excessive faculties requested that college students cease sporting their uniforms, in order to not determine as Jewish. Authorities jacked up safety at synagogues. Two bomb scares emptied out the AMIA constructing.
“Safety ranges have at all times been excessive however now there’s a a lot higher sensitivity,” mentioned Amos Linetzky, head of AMIA.
Authorities officers have additionally grown anxious, lashing out at Iran and warning that the Israel-Hamas war has stoked the embers of Islamic militancy and blown all of them the best way to Latin America.
Upon information of the primary Iranian assault on Israeli territory April 14, native media reported Milei’s pro-Israel stance had made him a goal. He reduce his state go to to Denmark brief and flew house to convene a disaster committee alongside the Israeli ambassador.
Milei’s hardline safety minister, Patricia Bullrich, singled out left-wing neighbors Bolivia and Chile as Islamist hotbeds, ordering reinforcements to Argentina’s northern border.
“We’re on excessive alert,” Bullrich mentioned, alleging that Bolivia — which final 12 months struck a defense agreement with Iran — teems with Iranian Revolutionary Guard operatives. “Politically appropriate messages like calling for peace will not be Argentina’s place.”
With out offering proof, Bullrich additionally claimed that Chile — house to the largest Palestinian population exterior the Arab world — hosts Hezbollah.
The accusations, decried as baseless by Bolivia and Chile, prompted each governments to tug their ambassadors from Buenos Aires.
On Saturday, the Group of Islamic Cooperation, a 57-member group describing itself as “the collective voice of the Muslim world,” issued a livid denunciation of what it described as Milei’s anti-Islamic rhetoric.
For years, U.S. and Argentine intelligence providers have subjected the Triple Frontier, the place Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay meet, to intense surveillance, scouring the big inhabitants of Lebanese and Syrian immigrants for Islamist sympathies.
“One of many issues I don’t assume will get sufficient consideration is how lengthy Hezbollah has had a presence in our hemisphere,” Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, advised a Senate International Relations Committee this spring.
Washington claims Hezbollah funds its actions by drug traffickers within the space. The U.S. Treasury has sanctioned dozens of people in South America over alleged ties to Hezbollah, most recently last fall. Authorities have reported thwarting assaults, with Israel’s Mossad spy agency serving to Brazil arrest alleged Hezbollah recruits final November.
Hezbollah denies working operations within the area.
“What would Hezbollah need with Latin America?” the group’s spokesperson, Rana Sahili, requested the AP. She accused Milei of enjoying free with info to attain factors in a “political sport.”
Specialists say the true risk lies someplace within the center.
“Some say Hezbollah’s presence in Latin America is an entire fabrication, whereas others say the group makes use of the area as a base and we’re doomed,” mentioned Fernando Brancoli on the Federal College of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.
“Neither is appropriate.”