Javier Milei Seems Intent on Embroiling Argentina in War, Whether in Ukraine or the Middle East (Or Both)

Argentina “cannot be neutral in the Third World War.”

When tensions between Tel Aviv and Tehran exploded this past weekend following Tehran’s retaliatory strike against strategic targets in Israel, most governments in Latin America struck a relatively neutral position, expressing their concern about a possible escalation of violence in the Middle East. Despite differences of opinion over who is most to blame for the rising tensions, there was almost unanimous agreement on the need for decisive measures to avoid further escalation.

But there was one striking exception: Javier Milei’s government in Argentina, which has expressed “solidarity and unwavering commitment to the State of Israel in the face of attacks initiated by the Islamic Republic of Iran.” To deal with the crisis, Milei cut short his international tour of the US and Europe, where he was scheduled to participate in an official ceremony to mark his government’s purchase of 24 almost 40-year old F-16 fighter jets from Denmark that the Danish government is retiring, prompting jokes that Milei’s government doesn’t have a peso to spare for Argentine pensioners but it has $300 million for Danish ones.

One of his first acts was to call a crisis committee to spearhead his government’s response to the Middle East conflict. The committee’s members included Argentina’s Defence Minister, Luis Petri, Vits ice President, Victoria Villarruel, and, controversially, Israel’s Ambassador to Argentina, Eyal Sela. Controversial because the meeting was supposedly intended to analyze the risks Argentina may face as a result of the escalating conflict in the Middle East, yet Sela represents the interests of one of the two countries directly involved in that conflict.

As veteran journalist Jorge Lanata put it, “it really doesn’t matter whether Milei is worried or not about Israel. What matters is that a foreign ambassador, whether from Israel or Belgium, I don’t care, is in a cabinet meeting in Argentina. It seems to me that there are basic standards to uphold.”

As the controversy grew around Sela’s participation in the meeting, the government tried to memory hole the whole debacle by claiming that the Israeli ambassador had not actually attended the meeting after all, as it itself had claimed just a day earlier, but had merely participated in a preliminary session before making his departure. This was despite multiple  official photos showing Sela sitting just two seats away from Milei.

Some sources even claim that Sela kicked off the meeting, as if he were its chair, with a summary of the current state of play in Israel, none of which would come as any great surprise. Once the meeting was over, Milei’s spokesman, Manuel Adorni, told a press conference that “Argentina emphatically supports the State of Israel in defense of its sovereignty.” He then handed the mike to Sela who thanked Milei on behalf of the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, and President Isaac Herzog “for his clear and resounding condemnation of Iran and for being on the right side of history and the facts.”

No Neutrality in a Third World War

Milei himself said in an off-screen comment that Argentina “cannot be neutral in the Third World War,” according to the veteran TV news presenter Nelson Castro. His government released the following official statement (translation my own):

The office of President Javier Milei expresses its solidarity and unwavering commitment to the State of Israel, in the face of the attacks initiated by the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The Argentine Republic recognises the right of Nation-States to defend themselves, and emphatically supports the State of Israel in the defence of its sovereignty, especially against regimes that promote terror and seek the destruction of Western civilization.

We recall that on Thursday April 11, the federal court of appeals ruled that the attacks against the Israel Embassy and the AMIA (Mutual Argentina-Israel Association) were perpetrated by Hezbollah under the aegis of Iranian State organisations.

As the President of the Nation has said, Argentina has adopted a new foreign policy that is based on the defense of Western values ​​and a common vision of the world in defense of life, liberty and private property.

The State of Israel is a bulwark of Western values in the Middle East and Argentina will always be at its side in the face of those intent on its extermination.

No Surprise

The Milei government’s unquestioning support of Israel, even as it has committed a host of war crimes in Gaza, including genocide, should not come as a surprise. On the campaign trail, foreign policy may have been overshadowed by economic concerns, but Milei made it abundantly clear where his geopolitical allegiances would lie if he won the election. He said he would cancel Argentina’s entry to the BRICS alliance, which he has done. He would also cool relations with Argentina’s two largest trade partners, Brazil and China, while emphatically aligning the country with the US and Israel. And he has done exactly that.

Since coming to power just over four months ago, Milei’s government has signed a memorandum of understanding with the United States allowing members of the US Army Corps of Engineers to operate along the Paraná-Paraguay Waterway, including large parts of the river Plata basin, upon which roughly 80% of all Argentine exports travel. A couple of weeks ago, he traveled 3,000 kilometres to meet up with General Laura Richardson, the commander of US Southern Command — someone of lower rank to him — in Ushuaia, on the southern tip of Tierra de Fuego. There, the two announced the establishment of a joint naval base that would allow Argentina and the US to control this key entry point to Antarctica.

As readers may recall, the director of the CIA William J Burns paid Buenos Aires a rare visit a few weeks ago. Senior Mossad agents have also apparently been in town, as too have members of the BND, or German intelligence. Out of these meetings between senior spooks and government officials came an agreement that Argentina will conduct intelligence on terrorism threats, primarily from Hezbollah, drug trafficking and the “Triple Frontier,” a tri-border area along the junction of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, where the Iguazú and Paraná rivers converge. It was also agreed that Argentina’s domestic intelligence agency would be subject to greater control by the military.

Jewish Heritage?

Milei, a Roman Catholic by upbringing, has a particular fondness for both Judaism and Israel. Not only does he want to convert to Judaism when he leaves politics, he recently claimed to have Jewish heritage. In February, he visited Israel where he wailed at the wall, danced and sang with Israeli settlers as Israeli bombs rained down on Gaza, and unveiled plans to move his country’s embassy to Jerusalem, making Argentina only the sixth country to do so after the US, Guatemala, Honduras, Kosovo and Papa New Guinea.

On the international trip he just cut short, Milei travelled with his sister, Karina, to Miami where they were both recognised as “International Ambassadors of Light” by the city’s Chabad Lubavitch community, largely because of their support for Israel. They then visited Tesla’s Giga Plant in Texas to meet with Elon Musk, who covets Argentina’s vast lithium deposits. Unlike in Bolivia five years ago, a coup was not necessary this time.

Milei has long had close ties to the Chabad Lubavitch movement, a highly influential branch of Hasidism, an orthodox transnational movement that emerged in Eastern Europe in the late 18th and early 19 centuries. As La Politica Online (LPO) reported in late November, just after he was elected president, Milei studies the Torah with Axel Wahnish, a Buenos Aires-based Lubavitch rabbi who is now Argentina’s ambassador to Israel, and has visited the tomb of “the Lubavitch Rebbe”, the leader of the Chabad Lubavitch dynasty, twice in the past year.

Milei’s government has rejected claims that its overt support for Israel will make Argentina a popular target for terrorist attacks such as those it suffered in 1992 and 1994, both of which have been attributed to Hizbollah and its primary backer, Iran.

“We do not believe that standing up to an international problem makes us a target or that it will change the situation in this country that has already suffered two attacks,” presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni told reporters. What Adorni fails to mention, as an article in Cronista notes, is that those two attacks, in 1992 and 1994, came after Carlos Menem’s government had cemented its alignment with the United States by sending two military frigates to participate in the US-led Gulf War. On the grand chessboard, these actions can have consequences.

At that time at least, Argentina was one of 30 countries taking part in the military campaign. By contrast, the Milei government’s full-throated, uncritical support of Israel is almost unique in the word today. While support for the Neyanyahu regime has plummeted in most quarters, Argentina under Milei has not only stopped voting in favour of a ceasefire in Gaza, it has stopped condemning any crimes Israel commits in the ravaged enclave, where more than 33,000 people — mainly women and children — have been killed, according to official figures.

Weapons, Or Even Troops, to Ukraine?

Milei is intent on embroiling Argentina not only in the escalating tensions of the Middle East, but also in the meat grinder that is Ukraine. For just over two years, Latin America has refused to fall in line with the Collective West’s demands on the Russia-Ukraine conflict, with just one country, Costa Rica, actually agreeing to apply the sanctions against Russia. For over a year, nine countries in the region, including Argentina, rebuffed the repeated exhortations from NATO members to donate or sell their Russian-made weaponry to Ukraine. But that is now over.

The new Daniel Noboa government in Ecuador recently offered to give up its Russian-made arms to Ukraine, only to furiously backtrack when Moscow threatened to stop buying Ecuador’s number-one export product, bananas. As for Milei, he plans to go to Ukraine during his tour of Europe in June, which would make him the first Latin American leader to visit the war-torn country since hostilities began. He has also been invited by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to participate in the G7 summit in Orgo Egnazia between June 13 and 15. From LPO:

In statements on the radio Milei said that “the governments are in contact, our Minister of Defense is in contact with the Ukrainian authorities. We are going to help them in any way we can.” In addition, he confirmed that “a forum is going to be held in defence of Ukraine in Latin America.”

But the Head of State went even further, saying they are evaluating sending weapons to Ukraine. “It is something that Defense Minister Luis Petri is discussing with the Ukrainian authorities to see what we can collaborate on,” he said.

“We are designing a trip and the idea is that we go through Ukraine. We have to travel to the G7, I thank President (Giorgia) Meloni for inviting me, I also have to go to Madrid to receive the Juan de Mariana award, then to Germany to receive the medal of honor,” he explained…

The possibility of direct government intervention in the war is considered highly risky among Argentine diplomats. It would be like declaring war on Russia just at a time that many of Ukraine’s allies are beginning to get cold feet.

In an interview with CNN Español’s Andrés Oppenheimer, Milei even mentioned the possibility of sending military personnel into the meat grinder, a proposal that enjoys the support of just 21% of the population, according to a survey by the consultant Gustavo Córdoba. Any decision to send troops would have to go through Congress first, an unnamed diplomatic source told LPO. The same, however, is not true of sending arms.

In other words, the Milei government could soon send a consignment of weapons — including quite possibly Russian ordinance — and other aid to Ukraine in the next few months, which, of course, will have next to no material impact on the course of the war. This it will do despite having virtually no money in the bank and depending on credit lines from the IMF and, ironically, a currency swap with China just to make ends meet. As Milei talks up sending weapons to Ukraine, his government is slashing public spending and subsidies across the board, including for food banks and soup kitchens at a time when public demand for them is surging as a result of the government’s crushing austerity and triple-digit inflation.