When Javier Milei addressed the Israeli parliament in June 2025, he stood at the podium and closed with three words in Hebrew: Am Yisrael Chai — "The people of Israel live." It was the first time an Argentine president had ever spoken before the Knesset. For Milei, it was not a diplomatic courtesy. It was a statement of identity.
The short answer: Milei has made Israel one of the two pillars of Argentina's foreign policy — alongside the United States — framing the relationship in explicitly ideological and religious terms. He has moved Argentina's embassy to Jerusalem, helped launch the "Isaac Accords" as a Latin American extension of the Abraham Accords, and declared Iran a regime that Argentina actively opposes. At home, critics argue that his all-or-nothing, good-versus-evil rhetoric goes beyond foreign policy and reflects an autocratic style of politics that undermines democratic norms.
Why Did Milei and Israel Become Such Close Allies?
Most Argentine presidents maintained cautious, transactional relationships with Israel — formally supportive but careful not to antagonize trading partners or the broader Arab world. Milei threw that playbook out on day one. From December 2023, he declared Israel — alongside the United States — Argentina's most important strategic partner, a stance rooted in a worldview where global politics is a battle between Western civilization and what he describes as a coalition of collectivism, terrorism, and moral relativism.
In that framing, Israel is not just an ally. It is, in Milei's words, the only democracy and bastion of Western values in a hostile region.
There is also a personal dimension. Argentina is home to the largest Jewish community in Latin America and the seventh largest in the world. The country was among the first nations to recognize the State of Israel in 1948. Buenos Aires still carries the scars of two devastating terrorist attacks: the 1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy, which killed 29 people, and the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center, which killed 85. Both attacks have been linked to Iran-backed Hezbollah operatives, though no convictions were ever secured.
For Milei, those attacks are not ancient history. They are part of an ongoing story.
What Did Argentina Actually Do to Strengthen Ties With Israel?
The policy steps have been concrete and, by the standards of Argentine foreign policy, unusually bold.
First, Milei declared Hamas a terrorist organization — a designation Argentina had previously resisted. His government also classified Hezbollah and Iran's Revolutionary Guard in the same category.
Second, Argentina expelled the Iranian chargé d'affaires from Buenos Aires — a pointed diplomatic signal that the previous government's accommodation of Tehran was over.
Third, and most symbolically, Milei announced in his Knesset speech that Argentina would move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in 2026, fulfilling a promise he had made during his campaign. Jerusalem's status is one of the most contested issues in Middle East diplomacy — most countries keep their embassies in Tel Aviv precisely to avoid taking sides. Moving to Jerusalem is a political act that aligns Argentina explicitly with the Israeli government's position and, more broadly, with the Trump administration's approach.
Fourth, Milei signed a "Memorandum of Freedom and Democracy in the Fight Against Terrorism and Antisemitism" with the Israeli government during his June 2025 Knesset visit. The document formalized the strategic partnership.
What Are the Isaac Accords, and Why Do They Matter for Latin America?
Perhaps the most ambitious foreign policy move came in April 2026, when Milei launched the "Isaac Accords" in Jerusalem alongside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with the backing of U.S. President Donald Trump.
The name is a deliberate echo of the Abraham Accords — the 2020 agreements brokered by the Trump administration that normalized relations between Israel and several Arab states, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco. The Isaac Accords are conceived as the Latin American chapter of that same coalition-building project.
The goal, as Milei explained at a subsequent conference of Latin American legislators organized by the Israel Allies Foundation in Buenos Aires, is to build a regional alliance against antisemitism, terrorism, and the financing networks — including drug trafficking — that he says sustain Iran's influence in the Americas. Argentina became the first South American country to chair the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), a diplomatic positioning Milei has used to anchor the initiative.
Think of it as a values-based coalition: member states commit to designating Iran-linked groups as terrorist organizations, passing anti-terrorism-financing legislation, and standing alongside Israel diplomatically.
The geopolitical stakes are real. By 2026, the conflict involving Iran had drawn in the United States militarily, rattling markets across the developing world. Argentina's country-risk premium climbed above 600 basis points at the peak of the hostilities. Milei's alignment with Washington and Tel Aviv meant Argentina was positioned — or exposed, depending on one's view — on a very specific side of that confrontation.
How Does Milei Frame the Argentina-Israel Alliance in Religious Terms?
This is where Milei's approach diverges most sharply from conventional diplomacy — and where domestic criticism has been loudest.
In his Knesset speech, Milei quoted the Book of Maccabees, compared Argentina's economic "exodus" to the Jewish people's flight from Egypt, and invoked King David — framing both nations as partners in a shared, spiritually grounded struggle between good and evil.
At Bar-Ilan University, where he received an honorary doctorate in April 2026, Milei went further — describing Karl Marx as "satanic," equating capitalism with a divine mechanism for reaching paradise, and arguing that the Torah served as a historical antidote to left-wing ideology. He also called journalists who criticize him "forces of evil." Referring to Iran and its proxies, he drew his starkest line:
"With certain cultures, we simply cannot coexist. We defend life, and they will want to kill us." — Javier Milei, President of Argentina, Bar-Ilan University, April 2026.
This kind of language — mixing theology, economics, and combat metaphors — is deliberate. It mirrors the rhetorical style of Trump-aligned populism globally, where political conflict is recast as a spiritual war between civilization and barbarism.
What Are the Risks of Argentina's One-Sided Foreign Policy Toward Israel?
Argentine political commentators have raised two distinct objections.
The first is substantive: by casting every critic of Israeli military operations as a moral coward or a tool of terrorism, Milei forecloses Argentina's ability to play any constructive diplomatic role in a region that matters for global stability and trade.
The second is structural. Commentators across the political spectrum — including center-right voices not sympathetic to the left — note that calling journalists "forces of evil" echoes the reasoning of leaders who gradually erode institutional checks. At Bar-Ilan, comparing investigative journalism to demonic forces was not a one-off; it fits a pattern.
A third concern comes from practical foreign policy: Argentina is the only country in Latin America that has openly backed the U.S.-Israeli position on Iran. Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico have all either criticized the military operations or maintained neutrality. This isolation may cost Argentina in multilateral forums and complicate trade relationships across the region.
Whether the Isaac Accords become a durable regional architecture or a symbolic gesture that fades when Argentina's political winds shift is still an open question. Milei has moved fast and broken with decades of Argentine foreign policy tradition. The bet he is making is that the world is in fact divided between two clear sides — and that being loudly on one of them is better for Argentina than hedging. His critics are betting the opposite.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the AMIA bombing and why does it still matter to Argentina's foreign policy? The AMIA attack in 1994 killed 85 people at the Buenos Aires Jewish community center and remains the deadliest terrorist attack in Argentine history. Argentine and international investigations concluded that Iranian officials ordered the attack, carried out by Hezbollah. No one has been extradited or convicted. For Milei, the unsolved case is a standing argument that engagement with Iran is not just diplomatically unwise but morally untenable.
What are the Abraham Accords, and how do the Isaac Accords relate to them? The Abraham Accords, signed in 2020 under the first Trump administration, normalized diplomatic relations between Israel and several Arab states — a historic shift given that most Arab countries had refused to recognize Israel since 1948. The Isaac Accords are Milei's attempt to build a parallel coalition in Latin America: not a peace agreement with former adversaries, but a values-based alliance of countries committing to oppose terrorism, antisemitism, and Iranian influence in the region.
Why did Milei move Argentina's embassy to Jerusalem? Jerusalem's status as Israel's capital is internationally contested. Most countries keep embassies in Tel Aviv to signal neutrality on whether Jerusalem belongs to Israel alone. Moving an embassy to Jerusalem is a politically loaded act. Milei sees it as correcting what he calls a global double standard — and as honoring a campaign promise. It also aligns Argentina with the Trump administration's 2017 decision to make the same move for the United States.
Is Argentina's relationship with Iran relevant to its relationship with Israel? Yes, directly. Argentina's left-leaning governments of the 2000s and 2010s signed a memorandum with Iran that Argentine courts later declared unconstitutional — critics said it was designed to shield Iranian suspects in the AMIA bombing from prosecution. Milei's sharp turn toward Israel is, in part, a deliberate reversal of that legacy. Where previous governments sought accommodation with Tehran, Milei has chosen confrontation.
