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Newly Elected Argentine President Javier Milei Says He Will Visit Israel in Advance of Inauguration
Argentina’s president-elect Javier Milei greets supporters in Buenos Aires. Photo: Reuters/Cristina Sille
Javier Milei, the surprise victor in Argentina’s presidential election on Sunday, has said that he will visit both the United States and Israel in advance of taking office.
“I travel with some regularity to the United States. From New York I will go to Israel — we have already been talking to the Israeli Ambassador in Argentina,” Milei disclosed in a radio interview on Monday morning.
A populist maverick who defines himself as an “anarcho-capitalist” and has been dubbed “El Loco” (“The Crazy One”) by critics, Milei’s love of Judaism and strong support for Israel were central features of his campaign, demonstrated by the frequent appearance of Israeli flags at his campaign rallies.
The new Argentine leader studies Torah with Rabbi Shimon Wahnish, who is based in Buenos Aires, and has openly talked on several occasions about converting to Judaism — adding the caveat that doing so would be impossible if he was elected president, as the demands of the office would be incompatible with observing core Jewish practices like Shabbat, when observant Jews do not use telephones and electronic devices. His forthcoming trip to the US would be centered on spending time with his “rabbi friends” in New York, he said, explaining that his visit “has more of a spiritual connotation than anything else.”
Among the first individuals to meet with Milei following his triumph over his left-wing rival Sergio Massa — garnering 56 percent of the votes against 44 percent in the second round of the election — were the Israeli Ambassador in Buenos Aires, Eyal Sela, along with a delegation from the AMIA Jewish Center in the Argentine capital.
A separate statement from the DAIA, the representative body of Argentina’s 180,000-strong Jewish community, congratulated Milei on his victory, highlighting a fresh opportunity to “fight against antisemitism, discrimination, and xenophobia”; as with many other countries around the world, antisemitism has surged in Argentina in the wake of the Hamas pogrom in southern Israel on Oct. 7 and Israel’s military response.
The DAIA statement also invoked the more than 240 hostages seized by Hamas terrorists during their onslaught, pointing out that their number includes 21 Argentine citizens. “We want the Argentine authorities … to use all available resources to obtain the freedom of the hostages and their prompt return home,” the statement declared. On the campaign trail, Milei had been critical of the previous Argentine government in this regard, asserting that its “position is too soft for this aberrant situation. It does not advance the definitions in a concrete way and leaves the door open to terrorists. And with terrorists there is no negotiation.”
The Israeli government was also quick to congratulate Milei, with Foreign Minister Eli Cohen reminding the president-elect of his campaign promise to move Argentina’s Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to the capital Jerusalem.
“We look forward to working together with you to strengthen relations between Israel and Argentina and deepen ties between our peoples,” Cohen wrote in a post on X/Twitter. “I invite you to visit Israel soon, to continue our dialogue and inaugurate the Argentine Embassy in Jerusalem, the capital of Israel.”
The victory of Milei — an economist and TV pundit — comes at a time of extreme economic hardship in Argentina, where annual inflation has risen to 143 percent with 40 percent of the population living below the poverty line. His election suggests that the majority of Argentines want to break the mold of their country’s politics, opting to take a risk on a candidate who blames Argentina’s central bank for the current financial crisis and advocates replacing the peso, the national currency, with the US dollar. An ardent admirer of former US President Donald Trump, Milei is an unabashed social conservative, opposing abortion, supporting the liberalization of gun ownership laws, and expressing skepticism about climate change.
The post Newly Elected Argentine President Javier Milei Says He Will Visit Israel in Advance of Inauguration first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Italian Port Blocks Arms for Israel as Worker Protests Mount
Illustrative: Demonstrators participate in a pro-Palestinian protest in Piazza Duomo in Milan, Italy, on Nov. 23, 2024. Photo: Alessandro Bremec/NurPhoto via Reuters Connect
The Italian Adriatic port of Ravenna on Thursday refused entry to two trucks said to be carrying arms to Israel, as protests mount among Italian dockworkers and other labor groups against the offensive in Gaza.
The center-left mayor of Ravenna, Alessandro Barattoni, told reporters the port authority had accepted the request from him and the regional government to deny access to the lorries carrying explosives en route to the Israeli port of Haifa.
“The Italian state says it has blocked the sale of arms to Israel but it is unacceptable that, thank to bureaucratic loopholes, they can pass through Italy from other countries,” Barattoni said in a statement.
He did not provide details on where the containers had come from or provide evidence of their contents.
Similar action to block arms shipments to Israel has been taken by dockworkers in other European countries such as France, Sweden, and Greece.
Ravenna’s decision reflects growing mobilization in Italy against Israel‘s military campaign and in support of an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to the Palestinians.
A spokesperson from the Israeli embassy in Rome said they did not have sufficiently detailed information about the case and so declined to comment. Israel‘s government sometimes accuses Europea nations of bias against it and swallowing propaganda by the Hamas terrorist group whom it is fighting in Gaza.
On Friday Italy’s largest trade union body, the CGIL, will hold a national half-day strike and marches in Rome and other cities, while on Sept. 22 two other unions will halt work and try to block activity in the large ports of Genoa and Livorno.
“We won’t let a single pin through the port,” said Riccardo Rudino from the Calp dockers’ union in Genoa.
Israel launched its offensive after Hamas-led terrorists attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing more than 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.
The CGIL said its protests were aimed at generating pressure on Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government “to suspend all commercial and military cooperation agreements with Israel, lift the humanitarian embargo, and recognize the State of Palestine.”
Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on Thursday Italy would support EU sanctions against violent Israeli settlers and Israeli ministers who have made “unacceptable” comments on Gaza and the West Bank, and was open to considering trade sanctions.
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Israeli Tanks, Infantry Advance in Gaza City Offensive as Enclave Hit by Telecoms Blackout
Smoke rises following Israeli strikes during a military operation, in Gaza City, Sept. 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ebrahim Hajjaj
Israeli tanks were advancing on Thursday in two Gaza City areas that are gateways to the city center, while internet and phone lines were cut off across the Gaza Strip, a sign that ground operations were likely to further escalate imminently.
Israeli forces control Gaza City’s eastern suburbs and in recent days have been pounding the Sheikh Radwan and Tel Al-Hawa areas, from where they would be positioned to advance on central and western areas where most of the population is sheltering.
In separate developments, Israel attacked Hezbollah military targets in southern Lebanon, while two Israelis were killed at Allenby Crossing between the West Bank and Jordan, in what the Israeli military called a “terror attack.”
INFANTRY, TANKS, ARTILLERY ADVANCING TOWARDS INNER CITY
Israeli army spokesperson Nadav Shoshani said Israeli forces had been operating in the periphery of Gaza City for several weeks but since the night of Monday to Tuesday large numbers of troops had begun moving towards the inner city.
He said a combination of infantry, tanks, and artillery was advancing, backed up by the air force, and that it was a gradual process that would increase as time went on.
“The strategy right now is to defeat Hamas and apply pressure on Hamas, which can lead to a deal or can lead to rescue missions [to free hostages],” Shoshani told Reuters on the Israeli side of the border with Gaza.
A total of 48 hostages captured during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, remain in Gaza and Israeli officials believe around 20 are still alive.
Hostage families have been imploring Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stop the offensive on Gaza and instead negotiate a ceasefire with Hamas to free their loved ones, but Netanyahu says military victory will bring them home.
The armed wing of Hamas said on Thursday the hostages were distributed throughout the neighborhoods of Gaza City.
“The start of this criminal operation and its expansion means you will not receive any captive, alive or dead,” it said in a written statement.
MANY FLEEING AMID TELECOMS BLACKOUT, MANY MORE STAYING PUT
The Palestinian Telecommunications Company said in a statement that its services had been cut off “due to the ongoing aggression and the targeting of the main network routes.”
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have fled Gaza City since Israel announced on Aug. 10 it intended to take control, but a greater number are staying put, either in battered homes among the ruins or in makeshift tent encampments.
The military has been dropping leaflets urging residents to flee towards a designated “humanitarian zone” in the south of the territory, but aid agencies say conditions there are dire, with insufficient food, medicine, shelter, and basic hygiene.
The World Health Organization warned on Thursday that critical shortages of blood in Gaza hospitals could see key services grind to a halt within days.
FAMILIES WITH BELONGINGS EVACUATE TOWARDS THE SOUTH
Along the coastal road, an unbroken column of every type of vehicle from carts and beaten-up cars to vans designed to carry goods was moving south, heavily laden with mattresses, gas cylinders, and entire families perching on their belongings.
“We are heading to go sleep on the streets towards the beach, like this, barefoot, we don’t know where to go,” said Yasser Saleh, speaking as he stood on the edge of a rickety trailer being pulled by a car.
The war was triggered by the Oct. 7 attacks, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage.
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Syria’s Foreign Minister in Washington, a First in 25 Years
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani speaks during a press conference in Moscow, Russia, July 31, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov/Pool
Syria’s foreign minister arrived in Washington on Thursday, the first official visit at that level in more than 25 years as the US makes a pro-Damascus policy push, lifting sanctions and mediating between the new Islamist rulers and Israel.
Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani will meet US lawmakers to discuss the lifting of remaining US sanctions on his country, Senator Lindsey Graham was quoted as saying by Axios. Two sources familiar with the trip confirmed the visit to Reuters.
It comes after some senior US diplomats focused on Syria were abruptly let go from their posts amid Washington‘s pivot, as the US seeks to integrate its longtime Syrian Kurdish allies with the central administration of President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
The United States has also been mediating between Israel and Syria. Sharaa, who is due to visit New York next week for the UN General Assembly, said negotiations to reach a security pact with Israel could yield results “in the coming days.”
The United States had placed crippling sanctions on Syria since 2011 after former President Bashar al-Assad, an ally of Iran and Russia, cracked down protests against him that triggered an almost 14-year civil war.
After he was toppled by Sharaa’s forces in a quick sweep in December, Washington and Damascus have been working to warm up ties, with US President Donald Trump announcing that he would move to lift the sanctions after meeting Sharaa in May.