'Fanatic of Israel': What is driving Argentina’s president-elect Javier Milei's obsession?

A day after Javier Gerardo Milei won Argentina's second presidential run-off last Sunday, the libertarian politician with an ultra-conservative political outlook and an extremely liberal economic agenda quickly announced a trip to the US and Israel before assuming office on December 10.

Milei, who has pledged to fix Argentina's deep economic woes by stopping the printing of currency notes and lowering public spending, said his trip to the US will hold "a spiritual connotation".

It is the next leg of his trip that has generated more interest.

"From New York, I will go to Israel - we have already been talking to the Israeli ambassador in Argentina," said Milei, who has spoken about his wish to deepen his knowledge of Jewish scriptures.

After Milei's campaign rival and economy minister, Sergio Massa conceded the presidential election, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen was quick to congratulate Milei. The Israeli official emphasised his country's desire to "strengthen" and "deepen" relations between Israel and Argentina.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, the Israeli official shared a photo of Milei before the crucial second-round vote. It shows the far-right politician raising the Israeli flag from his car and surrounded by a sea of supporters.

However, it is not the first time a Latin American politician has raised the Israeli flag.

Brazil's former far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro enjoyed strong backing from the country's influential Evangelical sector, following what research suggests is the Zionist push within Brazil's protestant movement — even raising the Israeli flag during campaign rallies.

But the act was not without controversy. It drew backlash from Brazil's Jewish community after Bolsonaro's brash remarks about COVID-19 restrictions and criticisms of state institutions. The Jewish Confederation of Brazil said it sent the wrong message concerning the Jewish community's pluralist nature.

In the past few weeks, four Latin American nations have scaled back diplomatic ties following Israel's relentless and indiscriminate bombing of Gaza, which has killed more than 14,000 Palestinians, including 5,600 children and 3,550 women. At least 1200 Israelis have been killed since Hamas' incursion into Israel on October 7.

Milei, known for his firebrand rhetoric, has been critical of outgoing President Alberto Fernandez's foreign policy amid Israel's onslaught in Gaza. He called it "too soft for the aberrant situation" and insisted "it leaves the door open to the terrorists. And you do not negotiate with terrorists."

Martin Alejandro Martinelli, a historian and author of Palestina e Israel, entre intifadas, resistencias y revoluciones(Palestine and Israel, between intifadas, resistance and revolutions), describes a "pattern of symbolic and material violence worldwide," since 1945, increasingly since 2001 amid the West's so-called "war against terrorism".

In raising the Israeli flag recently, according to international analyst Sebastian Schulz, Milei is seeking to reaffirm his "unconditional alignment" with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's policies. As such, he says Milei is pushing to bolster Argentina's foreign policy and to demonstrate it is in "sync" with Zionism worldwide.

"But at the same time (he is) openly demonstrating his detachment towards Middle Eastern countries that have been critical of the Israeli intervention in the Gaza Strip, many of whom are members of the BRICS or have been critical of the interventionist policies carried out by the United States," Schulz tells TRT World.

Milei and Judaism

On the campaign trail, Milei pushed a vehemently pro-Israeli agenda, even calling himself a "fanatic of Israel".

Despite being Catholic, Milei even floated the idea of converting to Judaism, insisting, "I aspire to become the first Jewish president in Argentine history." However, he cited observing the Sabbath — Judaism's day of rest on the seventh day of the week on Saturday — as "incompatible" with a busy presidential agenda.

Milei, who began life in a rock band, did a stint as a goalkeeper at Argentine professional Football Club Chacarita Juniors, and then pivoted to become an economist, has not shied away from potentially adopting Jewish scripture to drive his policy-making. He said his "spiritual guide", Chief Rabbi of Argentina's Jewish Sephardi Moroccan Community, Shimon Axel Wahnish, even instructed him to read the Torah from an economic perspective.

In addition, during the campaign race, Milei journeyed to New York's "Ohel", where the Chabad-Lubavitch Jewish movement is based. There, he donned the traditional kippah or hat and was seen carrying the Torah. His purpose was to visit the tomb of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson - or "the Lubavitch Rebbe" - the seventh leader of the Hasidic dynasty who passed away in 1994.

Across campaign rallies, Milei has even taken to the stage to the sound of the ram's horn or shofar, traditionally used at Rosh Hashanah or Jewish New Year.

Argentina is home to 250,000 Jewish people, but Milei is not so popular among all sectors.

Claudio Epelman, director of Latin America's Jewish Congress — an international organisation representing Jewish communities in the region — described Judaism as a "central component in the personality of Javier Milei" and a "key component in his campaign." But he admitted that such association with Milei pleases some of the community and leaves others uncomfortable.

In September, Milei also received strong pushback from more than 2,000 Jewish intellectuals, artists and students. They slammed Milei's political use and appropriation of Judaism, relating to its text and symbols. They launched a campaign, 'Not in our Name,' and a petition to end the association with Milei.

The signatories expressed concern regarding what they called Milei's expressions of hatred and his political use of Judaism. They accused Milei of making discriminatory and misogynistic remarks contrary to political plurality and democratic co-existence. They also condemned his verbal tirade against Pope Francis. The signatories called for "the notion of equality and social justice, the same one that Milei calls aberrant" and said Judaism stands diametrically opposed to Milei's political aspirations.

Nevertheless, last year, Milei reaffirmed how his foreign policy is aligned with the "West and Western values," referencing the US and Israel, who he called Argentina's "main ally."

Western alignment

On X, Cohen went on to invite Milei to "visit Israel as soon as possible, to continue the dialogue between us and to inaugurate the Embassy of Argentina in Jerusalem, the capital of Israel."

One of Milei's campaign pledges included following in the footsteps of previous leaders from the Americas and relocating Argentina's embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem - an area which, under international law, has been under Israeli occupation since 1967.

In 2017, the US, under then-president Donald Trump, became the first country to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Later in 2019, Brazil's then-president Jair Bolsonaro opened an Israel trade mission in Jerusalem, scaling back on ambitions of a full embassy move.

Schulz says such actions could potentially contribute towards "regional instability and generate tensions across the rest of the countries in the region, particularly following the (planned) accession of Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates to BRICS+".

Argentina is also expected to join BRICS+ next year, but Milei has already floated the idea of exiting the bloc of emerging nations. After Milei's alignment with Trump and Bolsonaro, who previously left international organisations, Martinelli explains Milei could leave BRICS too, which would be "short-sighted", or potentially he could boycott it.

Milei has also been outspoken against Argentina's biggest trade partners and BRICS+ members, including Latin America's largest economy, Brazil and superpower China. He labelled them "communists".

According to Schulz, Milei's arrival will likely worsen geopolitical relations with emerging nations such as China and Brazil. He cites Milei's "clear" decision to break any form of international rapprochement and to "unconditionally align" with the West and largely the US.

However, Schulz says Milei has floated the idea of breaking diplomatic relations without impacting "trade between private parties." But when it comes to Milei's policy-making, the international analyst accuses the far-right politician of seeking to "turn Argentina into a lackey of North American interests".

Schulz also describes Milei on the international stage as representing the neoconservative values of the far-right in the US Republican party. He says their objective is to rebuild a "New American Century," involving the US becoming a hegemonic power - with the dollar as the dominant currency and backed by the value of oil.

He explains this political ideology leads to the backing of Netanyahu's Israel, which is considered a "fundamental enclave for the interests of this group".

Shock therapy

Despite the religious posturing, critics suggest Argentina will likely experience a range of shock therapies, particularly slashing state subsidies and debt repayment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

In 2018, during the tenure of President Mauricio Macri, Argentina received a $57 billion IMF loan - the largest in the multilateral organisation's history. Three years later, at the 76th UN General Assembly, President Alberto Fernandez called it a "toxic and irresponsible loan".

For historians like Martinelli, Milei's privatisation will likely impact the poorest half of Argentina and prevent upward mobility for millions of people. He believes "support for Milei vindicates the darkest and most disastrous of our recent past."

Martinelli references the likes of Jorge Rafael Videla, the former Argentine dictator in charge of Argentina from 1976-81 and Carlos Menem, President from the late '80s who governed for around a decade, and Domingo Cavallo, the former Minister of Economy from the early to mid-90s. Menem's administration introduced the convertibility plan in the early nineties - pegging the peso at one-to-one against the dollar. The move worked initially but eventually led to a deep economic crash in 2001.

Referencing dollarisation, privatisation and the shrinking of state spending, Martinelli tells TRT World, "these are formulas that have failed in many countries, and our case is no exception."