Argentina’s President Milei is controversial with his right wing economic policies, but even more controversial with his unequivocal support for Israel during this Gaza War.
Argentina’s new President Javier Milei, who has recently embraced Orthodox Judaism, said Friday he would visit Israel as he condemned Hamas’ actions in an address to the Jewish community in Buenos Aires.
“In the coming weeks, I will be traveling to the Holy Land,” Milei said in a speech at the Holocaust Museum in Argentina’s capital, evoking a “new chapter in the brotherhood of our two nations.”
He condemned as “atrocious and unforgivable,” the October 7 attack by Islamist group Hamas on Israel which resulted in the deaths of some 1,140 people, most of them civilians according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Chile is turning against Israel, thanks to a left-wing government, with a left wing president, Gabriel Boric, with a powerful Palestinian-Chilean community.
However, Argentina has just elected a center-right politician, Javier Milei, who is thoroughly fascinated with both Israel and Judaism.
Presidente Milei supports Israel.
So let’s go over some basics.
– There are 46 million Argentines.
– There are roughly 4 million Argentines with a degree of Arab ancestry. However, many of them are attenuated in their Arabness, being only one-half, one-quarter, one-eighth Arab, and so on.
– Most of the Arab-Argentines are Christian. They were descended from Syrians and Lebanese whose ancestors fled Muslim tyranny. These Lebanese and Syrian Arab Christians did not often have an anti-Israel prejudice, per se, as they often view the Mideast through a Christian vs. Muslim lens. Whereas Chile’s Arab tend to be Palestinians, who, even though mostly Christian, are hostile to Israel.
– Contrary to official statistics. the few Muslims who made it to Argentina, tended to convert, marry out, or lapse in their Islamic observance. Hence the official numbers for the Muslims in Argentina are grossly exaggerated.
The Jewish community in Argentina is about 180,000, the seventh largest Jewish community in the world. It tends to be centered in Buenos Aires. There was also an agricultural community in Moisés Ville.
They have had a massive effect on Argentina’s history, culture, and music. A lot of tangos were written by Jews.
So while Chile, and much of Latin America, is turning against Israel, the Argentine government is not. The dynamic is interesting to follow.
The problem is that Chile is a very successful country, a first world country, and a leader in South America, while Argentina, though bigger – and with a much greater potential – has a history of instability and poor government.
But here is an interesting aside of a video, which describes the Villa Crespo neighborhood in Buenos Aires as an Argentine Shtetls (Jewish towns).
Posted on YouTube: September 1, 2022
The video can be auto-translated, using the settings options.
As important as the Jews are in Argentina, they were once more powerful. During the dictatorship, from 1976-83, in Argentina, many Jews fled to Israel. The population dropped from approximately 300,000 to 180,000.
However, that number may not include the children of intermarriage, who might have a Jewish father, but a Christian mother. And if one includes the Christian relatives of these Jews, the numbers would still be around 300,000, or a little under 1% of the country.
Apparently, with the power of Palestinians in Chile, particularly Daniel Jadue, who is a leftist mayor of Palestinian descent, in the capital district, Jews are somewhat uncomfortable.
In the context of the horrific scenes broadcast from Gaza and Israel, it would not have been surprising to hear Jadue speak of “Zionists,” also a misconstrued word. But what he said was that being a Jew is “incompatible” with being progressive. This affirmation attempts to unite ideology and religion, distorting the biblical concept of a chosen people as an ideology. This tendentious statement, expressed by an important public figure and transmitted infinitely by social networks, is a dangerous precedent that attacks, not only Jews, but “the other.” Jadue’s words are not precisely addressed to “my left-wing Jewish friends,” they dig at the core of a dangerous discourse within Chilean society. As Theodore Adorno warned in 1950, one type of discrimination is associated with others, and anti-Semitism leads to xenophobia.
Politicians in the USA tend to favor pro-Israel groups. The opposite is true in Chile, where the Palestinian community rules the day.
As noted elsewhere on this site, the Palestinian-Chileans – Chilestinos – are the power bloc of note in Chile.
Particularly of note is that the leftist president of Chile, Gabriel Boric, has said the Gaza is worse than Berlin in 1945.
So the Jews of leftist persuasion feel sort of betrayed by their fellow progressives in Chile.
Chile has a stable democratic government, but its views on the Mideast have been hijacked by the powerful Chilestino bloc, some members of whom are at the forefront of a Red-Green Alliance.
Posted on YouTube: December 31, 2023
The show is called: Window on Palestine Warning: HispanTV is an Iranian-Venezuelan propaganda outlet
Of course, in politics, Red usually stands for leftist extemism. Green usually stands for Islamic extremism. One would think they would be at opposite ends of the political spectrum.
In Chile, they are mixing.
Why?
Because Chile has the largest community of Palestinians outside the Arab world. They are called Chilestinos, and almost all of them are Christian. They number 500,000 and are roughly three times the number of Christians left in the Holy Land.
And they have a hero: Daniel Jadue, a leftist politician in Recoleta, a neighborhood in the capital province of Santiago, Chile.
Jadue was born into a Palestinian Christian Chilean (Chilestino) family. And, most notably, he is strongly anti-Zionist.
Big deal, one might say, but he is one of Chile’s most powerful politicians and media personalities. He has made a name for himself.
In the year 2020, the Simon Wiesenthal Center listed his behavior as one of the ten worst antisemitic incidents of the year.
For your knowledge (and horror), HispanTV, which is an Iranian-Venezuelan propaganda outlet is broadcasting and netcasting the political exploits of this Daniel Jadue.
Architect Daniel Jadue is the mayor of Recoleta, part of Santiago, the capital. Jadue, a member of the Communist Party, is a national figure and mentioned as a potential future President. Using municipal funds to finance pro-BDS and antiIsrael activities, Mayor Jadue targets the Jewish community with pernicious smears echoing The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
He charges Jews control of the media and dual loyalty: “It is an insult that the State of Israel through its agents here in Chile wants to import the strife” … “they have to learn and define if they are Chilean citizens.” Last year, Recoleta’s Municipal Council passed a resolution stating, “Palestinian people have been the victim of a deliberate plan of violence and terror by armed Zionist groups …” Jadue insists, “… The leaders of the Jewish community in Chile act on behalf of the State of Israel in Chile…,” adding, “I get along very well with the Jews, with the Zioniist I have certain problems.” Jadue is always referring to Chile’s Jews as the “Zionist” community of Chile.
… Read More
Iran’s HispanTV (which operates out of Venezuela) is lionizing Jadue in some recent reports and trailers.
Think about it. A Chilean politician landed on the Simon Weisenthal’s Top Ten List of Antisemitic Incidents.
In the USA, this guy’s career would be over in a heartbeat. In Chile, Jadue actually ran for president and was a serious contender in 2021, in spite of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s condemnation of his behavior.
Recently, he got into more trouble with the Jewish Community in Chile.
The group also criticized the position of Minister Camila Vallejo, who during the morning assured that it was “not up to the government” to enter into this controversy. “The spokesperson is wrong, this is not an ‘international’ issue, because we are talking about Chileans of Jewish origin, not the Middle East conflict,” she noted.
Un abrazo a todos y todas y que el próximo 2024 sea un año de mayor conciencia, fraternidad y trabajo con la comunidad. Tengo plena certeza de que seguiremos avanzando para terminar con los abusos y las injusticias. Y no olvidemos a Palestina 🇵🇸! #AñoNuevo
This is no minor politician in Chile – which is now a first world country.
This guy is a major player in Chilean politics, much bigger than the squad in American politics. This guy has a brain, and a power base. And the Chilean Jewish community is not happy with him.
We have no one like this in American politics – at least not this strong.
Posted on YouTube: June 24, 2021
(Even after he was listed as antisemitic)
Now, it is true that there is a conservative element that is presently resisting this, but for how long?
And yes, the JEWISH COMMUNITY IS VERY UPSET WITH THIS.
So why isn’t the Jewish community fighting back?
They are trying to, but the Palestinians in Chile outnumber the Jews about 25 to 1. Though Chile has a large community of Jews for South America, they only number around 20,000 to the Chilestino’s numbers of approximately 500,000.
Moreover, the Palestinian community in Chile is rich and well off.
