Argentina is a very large country on the southeast of South America, running from the polar south to the tropical north. The population is very European in ancestry, with roughly half being pure-European in background, and another large section being mostly European in background.
It has a large Arab population (9±%), but which is intermarried and assimilated into the country’s larger demographic This is because it is heavily Maronite (Catholic) Lebanese who assimilate well.
Interestingly, Argentina has around 180,000 Jews – the seventh largest Jewish population in the world – and they can be politically active.
The cultural trade went both ways. Apparently, the Arabs in Lebanon and Syria picked up a love of Yerba Mate – a South American Herbal Tea – from those Arabs who moved to South America. Word got back to the Mideast and the rest in history.
Yerba Mate grows in the subtropical jungles of Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil, however it has become loved all over the continent – and apparently in the Mideast, as well.
Sometimes you have to wonder if the safe assumption is that people are generally idiots, because this next story is proof that people will believe the most ridiculous things.
Worse yet, this idiocy is being pushed by Iran’s HispanTV. HispanTV is a propaganda outlet which, sadly, has influence in South America.
Patagonia is the southern most region of South America, split between both Argentina and Chile. It was settled – by white governments – very late in history, only by the last quarter of the nineteenth century.
Until then, it was very sparsely populated – chiefly by native Mapuche and Tehuelche people – and up for grabs. Indeed Chile and Argentina vied for the area. They only agreed to split it around 1879, when Chile was at war with Peru and Bolivia.
So to Europeans, it was considered available for the taking, not really settled by anyone.
THE ORIGINAL ZIONISTS CONSIDERED ARGENTINA?
When Herzl published THE JEWISH STATE in 1896, his goal was to set up a state for the Jewish people, as an ethnic group … an ethnostate, where Jews would be safe. The security of the Jewish people was the primary issue. The location of this Jewish State was of secondary concern. Since the Holy Land was then controlled by Ottoman Turkey, Herzl pondered if areas of Argentina (which was then sparsely populated, even by whites) would make an agreeable area for a Jewish state.
Shall we choose Palestine or Argentine? We shall take what is given us, and what is selected by Jewish public opinion. The Society will determine both these points.
Argentine is one of the most fertile countries in the world, extends over a vast area, has a sparse population and a mild climate. The Argentine Republic would derive considerable profit from the cession of a portion of its territory to us. The present infiltration of Jews has certainly produced some discontent, and it would be necessary to enlighten the Republic on the intrinsic difference of our new movement.
However, even though Patagonia was not spelled out as the specific area in mind, it surely was considered.
It was true that Argentina was in debt and could use the money. It was true that Argentina was sparsely populated and could have spared a province or two.
Indeed, a Jewish philanthropist, Baron Maurice de Hirsch, had already set up a Jewish community [old video from 2011] in the Sante Fe Province of Argentina, in the subtropical pampas, northwest of Buenos Aires. He claimed to have secured promises from Argentine authorities to set up an autonomous province.
On 14 August 1889, 130 Jewish families fleeing antisemitism and persecution in the Russian Empire arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to restart their lives and begin a Jewish community. While the 824 Russian Jews were not the first Jews to arrive in Argentina, they were the first to establish a Jewish agricultural settlement in South America.
ARGENTINA WAS DISCUSSED AT THE FIRST ZIONIST CONGRESS
At the First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland, in 1897, the idea was brought up.
[Baron Hirsch] claimed that the Argentinean government acquiesced in this project and would cooperate fully in creating a Jewish autonomous state in Argentina. The representative of Baron Hirsch spoke for three and a half hours explaining the plan and pledging the resources of Baron Hirsch to its fulfillment. At midnight, after Hirsch’s representative finally finished his presentation and sat down, an old, stooped figure arose. He was Rabbi Shmuel Mohilever, the rabbi of Biyalistok and one of the founders of Chovevei Tziyon. He said: “May the Lord bless Baron Hirsch for his interest and endeavors and grant him long life and success. But we are going only to the Land of Israel.” And that statement ended the meeting.
However, the delegates at that Zionist Congress insisted on returning to the Holy Land. They would accept nothing less. The idea of a Patagonian Jewish state should have died then and there, but not among conspiracy theorists.
There is a belief among some anti-semitic South Americans, as well as among some Palestinian-Chileans, that Israel still wants to set up a Jewish state in Patagonia (both in Argentina and Chile), as a backup plan, should Israel ever fall.
In 2013, a Chilean senator, Eugenio Tuma, of Palestinian extraction, accused Israel of mapping out Southern Chile, with an eye to taking over Patagonia.
The irony is that it is NOT Jews, but rather Arabs, which have flooded into South America.
Yet, the Andinia Plan, which sounds like lunacy to American ears, can get real consideration in South American cicles. The idea may be preposterous, but people still believe it.
This has led to this:
Posted on YouTube: September 7, 2022
The documentary above is generally considered to be antisemitic in nature, yet there is a constituency in South America that still believes it.
This may be a sad commentary on human beings in general.
Even were someone antisemitic, reason alone should lead one to recognize Plan Andinia as preposterous.
November 16, 2023 – Edited: Had to get a new video for the Andinia documentary.
January 18, 2024 – Edited: Noted that this idiotic propaganda is being pushed by Iran.
This is such a great video that – even though I posted it elsewhere – I am re-posting it here.
The number of Jews used to be 300,000. Now it is around 180,000. The author of the video notes that towards the end. However, Wikipedia says there are 300,000 if you allow for part-Jewish people, who may not be practicing, or may not be considered Jewish by the rabbis.
There has been a massive immigration to Israel, starting under the dictatorship of the 1970’s, and later on – even after democracy was restored – because of economics.
