For much of the twentieth century, Argentina was not “good for the Jews.” During World War II, Argentina remained officially neutral, but the country was crawling with Nazi sympathizers and spies; there was a large German population that was rooting for a Nazi victory. After the war, Juan Domingo Perón became president and ruled Argentina off and on into the mid-1970s; Perón helped supply papers to allow wanted Nazis to escape Europe and settle in his country. It became, famously, a refuge for Nazi war criminals; people used to joke, in allusion to that reputation, about someone doubtful being “alive and well and living in Argentina.” Ante Pavelic, the Croat mass-murderer of Jews and Serbs, was welcomed in Argentina. So was Josef Mengele, famous for his hideous medical experiments on Jewish children, especially twins, in Auschwitz-Birkenau; Mengele later moved to Brazil, where he enjoyed living within a loving loyal echt deutsche family, remembering the good old days with other Nazis, and receiving monthly checks from the family-owned business — farm machinery — back in Germany. Mengele died, maddeningly, of natural causes (swimming, heart attack). The most famous war criminal who ended up, and remained, in Argentina was Adolf Eichmann. In May 1960, Eichmann was taken from his house on Garibaldi Street in Buenos Aires by agents of Mossad, under the direction of Isser Harel, and flown back to Tel Aviv, where he was tried, convicted, and executed — the only person sentenced to capital punishment in the history of Israel.
During the period of the military junta’s rule in the 1970s and 1980s, Jews were regarded by the rightist generals as especially prone to support the left, and consequently their campaign against so-called “Communists and subversives” often focused on Jews.
At the same time a major Argentinean supporter of Israel — his views carried considerable weight — was the writer Jorge Luis Borges, who wrote several poems about Israel, including one celebrating Israel’s victory in the Six-Day War. Borges was consequential, the hub of a cultural wheel that included other writers and patrons of the arts such as Adolfo Bioy Casares and the Ocampo sisters, Victoria and Silvina, who founded and edited the leading literary periodical Sur. Borges is the most famous writer that Argentina has yet produced, even more famous than the nineteenth century writer José Hernandez, author of Martin Fierro, a pseudo-folk epic about a gaucho on the pampas (“Aquí me pongo a cantar. Al compás de la vigüela...”).
Now fast forward to today, and the brand-new presidential victory of the “right-wing” (it’s his Homeric epithet) Javier Milet, who makes no secret of his strong support of Israel. More on Milei can be found here: “Newly Elected Argentine President Javier Milei Says He Will Visit Israel in Advance of Inauguration,” by Ben Cohen, Algemeiner, November 20, 2023:
Javier Milei, the surprise victor in Argentina’s presidential election on Sunday, has said that he will visit both the United States and Israel in advance of taking office.
“I travel with some regularity to the United States. From New York I will go to Israel — we have already been talking to the Israeli Ambassador in Argentina,” Milei disclosed in a radio interview on Monday morning.
A populist maverick who defines himself as an “anarcho-capitalist” and has been dubbed “El Loco” (“The Crazy One”) by critics, Milei’s love of Judaism and strong support for Israel were central features of his campaign, demonstrated by the frequent appearance of Israeli flags at his campaign rallies.
The new Argentine leader studies Torah with Rabbi Shimon Wahnish, who is based in Buenos Aires, and has openly talked on several occasions about converting to Judaism — adding the caveat that doing so would be impossible if he was elected president, as the demands of the office would be incompatible with observing core Jewish practices like Shabbat, when observant Jews do not use telephones and electronic devices. His forthcoming trip to the US would be centered on spending time with his “rabbi friends” in New York, he said, explaining that his visit “has more of a spiritual connotation than anything else.”
Among the first individuals to meet with Milei following his triumph over his left-wing rival Sergio Massa — garnering 56 percent of the votes against 44 percent in the second round of the election — were the Israeli Ambassador in Buenos Aires, Eyal Sela, along with a delegation from the AMIA Jewish Center in the Argentine capital….
The Israeli government was also quick to congratulate Milei, with Foreign Minister Eli Cohen reminding the president-elect of his campaign promise to move Argentina’s Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to the capital Jerusalem.
“We look forward to working together with you to strengthen relations between Israel and Argentina and deepen ties between our peoples,” Cohen wrote in a post on X/Twitter. “I invite you to visit Israel soon, to continue our dialogue and inaugurate the Argentine Embassy in Jerusalem, the capital of Israel.”…
I don’t know or understand a thing about the Argentinean economy. But at a time of soaring anti-Israel animus in the world, and the spreading of that pathological condition known as antisemitism, it’s good to learn that the second largest country in South America will now be in the hands of someone who not only rejects antisemitism and anti-Israel attitudes, but is proudly, vocally, pro-Israel and philosemitic. It will be fascinating to see if Javier Milei can bring his countrymen along with him, and convince them to share his enthusiasm for the embattled Jewish state, especially now, with the unspeakably biased coverage of the war in Gaza. His promise to move the Argentinean embassy in Israel to Jerusalem will be his first test: can he persuade Argentinians to support such a move, when Arab states may threaten to stop buying meat from Argentina, which is an important export for the country? We won’t have long to wait to find out.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Javier Milei’s election is welcome, coming as it does as the start of a counter-trend towards the “pink wave” in the Americas. After Biden’s election, countries that previously had Right-leaning governments, like Colombia and Chile, elected left-leaning ones instead: hopefully, they’re not as permanent as Venezuela’s. But today, the only 3 countries in Latin America that have Right-leaning governments are El Salvador, led by Nabil Bukele, who’s turned things around and stopped El Salvador being the MS-13 capital. The other two are Guatemala and Paraguay
And now Argentina
I also hope that all these Latin American countries, regardless of whether they wanna go Libertarian or Socialist, cut ties w/ the Mid East, be it Palis, Iran, Hizbullah. These countries were thankfully never touched by islam, and hopefully should never be either!
maria says
congratulation Mr Milei and I hope you will the best president Argentina ever had
Dag Walker says
Milei will have a difficult time as president of Argentina in spite of a massive electoral win because his party has few seats in the Federal Government. All of his good ideas and good intentions might well be for nothing due to the opposition majority simply defeating everything he proposes. His election is a moral victory, however. Americans can perhaps use Milei as a showpiece to further erode the power of the left media, if nothing else. As usual, the left media is howling about “fascism.” Milei, a Mises-style economist is, according the Western Press, yet another fascist, and it is so obviously silly that when the same media on the same day makes the same claims about Geert Wilders in the Netherlands it tends to wear thin. Milei might be good only insofar as he wears out the media by being another punching bag.
Bukele, on the other hand, the world’s coolest dictator, as he calls himself, has serious political power in El Salvador, having forced the opposition into giving him power to crush the criminal gangs who destroyed what was left of the nation after twenty years of civil war. Now, Bukele is coming back for a second round, erasing those parts of the Constitution that stand in his way of completely transforming El Salvador for the better. Again, more press hysteria about “fascism.”
In both nations, the respective presidents are elected by large majorities of the public for the good of the average person. Both are libeled by the Western press as fascists, and both are smeared with the line, “Destroying democracy,” In Bukele’s case, the most popular Western headline is, “El Salvador Decimated Its Ruthless Gangs. But at What Cost?” New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/09/world/americas/el-salvador-gangs.html
At what cost? At the cost of Salvadorans being able to live without fear after decades of living in terror with one of the world’s highest per capita murder rates. Yes, Bukele has imprisoned roughly 73,000 people, or two per cent of the nation’s adult population. Yes, some few of them might not be guilty of serious crimes. And yes, some of those in prison have died. This is of no real concern to the left in America. Surely they understand that serial murderer members of one of the world’s most violent criminal gangs will, once inside prison, still attack guards and fellow prisoners and will not care if they die in the attack. Yes, some have been arrested without Soros-style prosecutions in court. At what cost? Democracy? No, this is all about and only about Donald Trump. The Western press does not care about democracy in El Salvador: they are concerned only to smear Trump by association with a Latin America “dictator,” one who is extremely popular at home because he has done and continues to do great things for his nation. If Bukele is successful, he is a great threat to the left in America because he could be a shining example of what good government actually can provide. it’s the last lesson the left in America want the American people to see. Thus, the howling about “Democracy,” that very complaint against Trump. “Our Democracy!”
Argentina’s election of Milei is not likely to show us what to expect in November next year if Trump is elected. Already, we see in Argentina a quiet Peronist response to Milei’s election. Let’s not assume any such thing if Trump is elected in Nov. next year. Nor, unfortunately, can we expect Trump to respond in a manner like Bukele. In America the fascist fury will rage out of control, and Trump will do his best while everything slowly burns to the ground. Milei will likely founder and bluster. But, El Salvador is safe and the beaches are wonderful– for those thinking of retiring in peace somewhere close to home.
aum says
Great News.