Well, will wonders never cease? It turns out that Uruguay’s new president, Yamandú Orsi, is both left-wing (though not an America-basher like Maduro in Venezuela or Evo Morales in Bolivia or Miguel Diaz-Canel in Cuba) and, surprisingly, pro-Israel. He deserves to be better known. More on Orsi can be found here: “Uruguay’s new president-elect is left wing, yet not anti-Israel,” by Juan Melamed, JTA, November 27, 2024:
Like many of his fellow Latin American leaders, Uruguay’s new president-elect is left wing. But Yamandu Orsi, who narrowly won a runoff election on Sunday, stands out in at least one way: He has never attacked Israel.
Gustavo Petro in Colombia, Gabriel Boric in Chile, and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazil are all vehement critics of Israel; some have broken diplomatic ties with Israel over its war in Gaza. Jose “Pepe” Mujica, Uruguay’s former president and Orsi’s mentor, is also a harsh Israel critic.
Orsi, by contrast, expressed admiration for Israel’s multicultural society after visiting last year and reiterated those sentiments this month, shortly before the election, even suggesting that he could self-identify as a Zionist. He says he supports Israel’s right to exist while also backing calls for a Palestinian state.
“On the boulevard you see people of both faiths,” Orsi told an interviewer from the Jewish community in September 2023 in Tel Aviv. “That is what surprises me the most, honestly. There is a part of the reality here that is more about coexistence than the other. So it is possible.”…
Orsi’s campaign focused on the environment and the economy, and Israel was not a prominent part of the election discourse. But he discussed Israel at length just before the runoff election on air with a prominent Uruguayan radio personality.
The interviewer, Orlando Petinatti, is Jewish and pro-Israel; his show, “Bad Thoughts,” has aired since 1991 and is the most popular Uruguayan radio program. Orsi signaled that he agreed with Petinatti’s assertion that there is “no apartheid” in Israel, recalling how he watched Arab players on the Israeli team that Uruguay defeated in a game during his trip.
In Israel, seeing how Jews and Arabs intermingled, Orsi was not so much “mugged by reality” as he was “uplifted by reality.” His admiration for Israel has naturally infuriated the pro-Palestinian left of his party. Politically, he is out far and in deep, but he’s not about to keep quiet about his enhanced understanding of, and therefore sympathy for, Israel.
Orsi also said he would call himself a Zionist if the definition is as Petinatti articulated it: “in favor of the Jewish people having a state in the land of Israel.” Orsi added that that would need to come along with provisions granting equal rights to religious minorities.
Religious minorities in Israel — Muslims, Christians, Druze — already have equal rights under the law. So there’s nothing that need be done to achieve what has already been guaranteed since the beginning of the Jewish state. And one hopes that Orsi will eventually be able to modify the statement by Pettinati — “in favor of the Jewish people having a state in the land of Israel” to this: “in favor of the Jewish people having the only state in the land of Israel.” The Arabs who call themselves the “Palestinians” can have autonomy, but not a 23rd state whose existence would inevitably threaten Israel. Prime Minister Netanyahu has put it memorably: “I’m certainly willing to have them [the Palestinians] have all the powers that they need to govern themselves, but none of the powers that can threaten us.”
“I like Zionism and also like the Palestinian cause to have a state,” he said. “Having said that, I’m in favor of Israel’s right to exist, but I’m not always agreeing with the actions of the Israeli government.”…
When it comes to Israel, he’s not quite there yet. He’s a work in progress. Orsi went to Israel and liked what he saw. That mixed Arab-and-Jewish soccer team, those Jews and Arabs walking together on the streets. Perhaps he also saw the Arabs sitting in the Knesset. And no doubt his visit to Yad Vashem made a deep impression as well.. Now he needs to burn the midnight oil, and learn more about the 3500-year history of the Jews in the Land of Israel, and the express provisions of the Mandate for Palestine, and about the land intended to be included in that Mandate, and both when and why the “Palestinian people” were invented, and why it makes no sense to pressure Israel to be squeezed back within the 1949 armistice lines, with a nine-mile-wide waist from Qalqilya to the sea, in order to create a 23rd Arab state that would inevitably become a second Gaza, its population intent on destroying, with the help of other Arab states and Iran, the now much reduced, and therefore more vulnerable, state of Israel.
Yamandú Orsi of Uruguay is that rara avis, a man of the left who is nonetheless pro-Israel. In his sympathy for Israel, he joins two rightist political figures, Javier Milei of Argentina, and Santiago Pena of Paraguay, both of them firm supporters of the Jewish state. And all three have been elected in the last year and have many more years in office. Could things be looking up for Israel in Latin America?
Jo Alex SG says
My goodness, unique indeed, sharing right away, many thanks!
࿗Infidel࿘ says
When they say that he’s a Leftist, what exactly does that mean? B’cos it means something different since the 2010s, when Leftism and Globalism had a mind-meld, where Globalism embraced Leftism’s doctrine of World Revolution that used to be a Soviet hobby back in the day, and Leftism embraced Globalism’s doctrine of a class hierarchy, like there was in the Soviet Union. Has President-elect Orsi talked about nationalizing all private property & businesses, like Maduro or Morales?
Also, if he knew anything about islam, he’d know that there can’t be a 2 state solution, b’cos the Palis want a Palestinian state in place of Israel, not alongside it
I think the main objective of the US should be to get the bulk of Arab countries to sign the Abraham Accords and that too in the same spirit as Bahrein and Emirates, not Sudan, which can at best be described as a non-enemy of Israel, but w/ a policy identical to Egypt. Once Leftists worldwide see Arab support for the Palestinians collapse, there will be a much lower appetite to be hostile to Israel. Except maybe a few rogues like China
James Lincoln says
࿗Infidel࿘ says,
“…the Palis want a Palestinian state in place of Israel, not alongside it…”
Perfectly stated, my compliments.