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Paraguay’s election has implications for its Israeli embassy — and its relationship with Jerusalem
(JTA) — The question of where countries keep their embassies in Israel has become a debate that perpetually attracts controversy around the globe. In Paraguay, ahead of a national election on Sunday, the question is far from decided.
Since former President Donald Trump moved the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in 2018, a few other countries have followed suit, agreeing with much of Israel’s political establishment that the latter city, despite international and Palestinian opposition, is Israel’s sole capital. Israeli conservatives, such as those currently in power, have looked to court more countries to move their embassies and have counted each example as a historic victory.
The government of Paraguay, a country of around seven million people sandwiched in between Brazil and Argentina, has been back and forth on the Israel embassy issue. Shortly after Trump’s move, Paraguay’s president at the time, Horacio Cartes, moved his embassy as well. That year Guatemala did the same, and a few years later, Honduras and Kosovo followed suit.
But only one month after being elected, in September 2018, Cartes’ successor Mario Abdo announced he would be moving the country’s embassy back to Tel Aviv. Despite being a member of the same conservative party as Cartes, Abdo felt that for “broad, lasting and just peace” among Israelis and Palestinians, Paraguay’s embassy should be in Tel Aviv. Critics of Trump’s decision say declaring Jerusalem as Israel’s sole capital hurts the chances of a two-state solution, as the Palestinians would look to claim part of Jerusalem as their future state capital.
Abdo’s move quickly resulted in pushback. In Paraguay, pro-Israel protesters demonstrated outside the president’s residence in Asuncion. Former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence “strongly encouraged” Abdo to reconsider his decision, and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu went beyond rhetoric: he closed Israel’s embassy in Paraguay. It hasn’t reopened since.
Election day on Sunday could bring the debate back to the fore.
One of the two leading presidential candidates is 44-year-old economist Santiago Peña of the Colorado Party, Paraguay’s right-wing political party which has ruled the country for nearly 80 consecutive years (save for the period between 2008 and 2013). The party has been plagued by corruption allegations, and Peña has been tied to these scandals: he was finance minister under Cartes, who was recently sanctioned by the United States for undermining Paraguay’s democracy by “making cash payments to officials in exchange for their loyalty and support.”
Thanks in part to those corruption allegations, a non-Colorado candidate now has a serious shot of winning the presidency this year. Efraín Alegre is a more centrist candidate from Concertación, a coalition of political parties who came together to oppose Colorado’s domination. Earlier this month, polling from Encuesta Atlas had Alegre leading by a few percentage points, though other polling has found Peña in the lead.
In March, in a meeting with the Paraguayan-Israeli chamber of commerce, Peña announced that if he wins the election, one of his first actions as president will be to order the move of the Paraguayan embassy to Jerusalem. He said that Paraguay “recognizes that city as the capital of the State of Israel.”
Efraín Alegre’s last statement on the issue of Paraguay’s embassy came in 2018, shortly after Paraguay initially moved its embassy to Jerusalem. Alegre argued that the move would fuel the conflict.
In a statement provided exclusively to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Alegre confirmed that he would keep Paraguay’s embassy in Tel Aviv.
“Fundamentally, Paraguay is a country that respects international law. In its resolutions 181 of 1947, 478 of 1980, and 2334 of 2016, the United Nations Security Council has made clear the status of Jerusalem, not accepting its annexation or its declaration as the capital of Israel. This position is shared by all nations with only a few exceptions,” he wrote. “There is great potential for exchange and cooperation between Paraguay and Israel, and Paraguay will continue to defend Israel’s right to a peaceful existence. In fact, there is a long relationship of friendship between our nations. Paraguay’s vote at the United Nations in 1947 was the one that gave the majority for the recognition of Israel as an independent state. These close ties were not, nor are they now, subject to the status of Jerusalem.”
The Comunidad Judía del Paraguay, an organization which encompasses all the Jewish institutions in the country , remains apolitical but fervently Zionist, similar to Jewish organizations in other Latin American countries. The community of around 1,000 Jews is mostly affiliated with the Conservative movement and is concentrated in Paraguay’s capital of Asuncion. The city contains a local chapter of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement, a Jewish day school and a Hebrew Union that organizes religious and athletic activities.
“We as a community have maintained very good relations with all governments and we will continue to work with whoever is elected,” said Mariano Mirelman, executive director of the Comunidad Judía del Paraguay.
But it is possible that if Peña is elected and moves the embassy, the topic of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will re-enter public discourse in Paraguay. And this has the potential to fuel antisemitic attitudes, according to research by the Latin American Jewish Congress (or LAJC), an arm of the World Jewish Congress.
In Paraguay, serious antisemitism incidents are rare, but according to the LAJC, antisemitism in Paraguay does appear online, especially related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In a yet-to-be- released 2022 study by the LAJC’s Observatorio Web program of more than 42,000 tweets in Paraguay related to Jews, Israel or the Holocaust, 6.45% of them were antisemitic and included making comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany, which constitutes antisemitism according to the LAJC.
If Paraguay’s embassy does move back to Jerusalem, that would mean that more than half of the embassies in Jerusalem are from Latin America, joining Honduras and Guatemala.
According to Bishara Bahbah, author of “Israel and Latin America: The Military Connection,” it’s not an accident that the majority of these countries are from Central and South America. Although ideologically they may not feel strongly about the embassy issue, they know they can curry favor with the United States by strongly supporting Israel.
“Latin American countries view Israel’s special relationship with the United States as a critical element of their relationship with Israel,” Bahbah tells JTA. “Because if they are in need of U.S. support in one or two or three areas, they tend to lean on Israel to convince the U.S. government to provide them whatever they are seeking.”
Due to its size and lack of regional power, Paraguay’s potential decision to move its embassy to Jerusalem will likely not have a domino effect, Bahbah said. Further, although the Biden administration has left the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem, it has shown no signs of pressuring Latin American countries to move their embassies the way the Trump administration did.
Regardless of what happens with Paraguay, Netanyahu has not given up in his fight to have Jerusalem recognized as Israel’s capital worldwide. As he said while visiting Italy last month: “I believe the time has come for Rome to recognize Jerusalem as the ancestral capital of the Jewish people for three thousand years, as the United States did with a gesture of great friendship.”
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Israeli High-Tech Funding Rises to Nearly $16 Billion in 2025, Report Says
A NVIDIA logo appears in this illustration taken Aug. 25, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
Israeli high–tech companies raised $15.6 billion in private funding in 2025, up from $12.2 billion in 2024, Startup Nation Central said in a report on Monday citing preliminary data.
The tech sector, regarded as one of the largest in the world, accounts for about 20% of GDP, 15% of jobs and more than half of Israeli exports.
It has proved resilient, despite the war in Gaza, which began in 2023, when total funding was $10 billion.
Global giants, such as Nvidia, in 2025 said they would increase their physical and talent presence in Israel.
The number of funding deals, at 717, was the lowest in the last decade, but the deals were higher value. The median private deal, SNC said, reached a record $10 million – up 67% over 2024.
The year 2025 “was not about a return to business as usual; it was a pivot toward high-conviction maturity,” said Avi Hasson, CEO of SNC.
M&A activity reached a record $74.3 billion in value, spread over 150 deals, the data showed.
It was led by Alphabet’s $32 billion purchase of cyber firm Wiz and Palo Alto Networks’ $25 billion acquisition of cyber rival CyberArk.
SNC said the level of M&A in Israel reflected multi-nationals’ efforts “to secure critical innovation.”
“These companies are effectively turning to Israeli startups into their next generation of R&D engines, laying the groundwork for additional acquisitions,” it said.
Funding for tech startups in 2024 was led by $5.2 billion for mid-stage rounds, followed by early-stage investments of $3.9 billion and $2.5 billion for later stages, SNC said.
A number of Israeli companies went public, raising more than $10 billion.
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Turkey Claims Kurdish-Led SDF Does Not Intend to Advance Integration With Syrian State
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during an interview with Reuters at the 23rd edition of the annual Doha Forum, in Doha, Qatar, Dec. 6, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa
The Kurdish–led Syrian Democratic Forces in Syria appear to have no intention of honoring a commitment to integrate into the state‘s armed forces by a year-end deadline, Turkey‘s foreign minister claimed on Monday.
Turkey views the US-backed SDF, which controls swathes of northeastern Syria, as a terrorist organization and has warned of military action if the group does not honor the agreement.
Last week, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Turkey hoped to avoid resorting to military action against the SDF, but that its patience was running out.
‘NO INTENTION’
“We see the SDF has no intention to make too much of an advance [toward integration],” Fidan said on Monday in Damascus after talks between a high-level Turkish delegation and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani, and others.
“The SDF is running some of its operations in coordination with Israel, [and this] is actually a major obstacle to ongoing negotiations with Damascus,” he said.
The visit to Syria’s capital by the Turkish officials, who included Turkey‘s defense minister and intelligence chief, came amid efforts by Syrian, SDF, and US officials to show some progress with the deal.
Turkey has accused the SDF of stalling ahead of a year-end deadline and Israel of resorting to “destabilizing” policies in Syria and of causing security risks in the country’s south.
There was no immediate comment on Fidan’s remarks from the SDF or Israel.
Ankara says the SDF presence along its southern borders poses a security threat to both Turkey and Syria, and that the Damascus government must address this. It has said any integration must ensure the SDF is disbanded – in line with a disarmament process between outlawed Kurdish PKK militants and the Turkish state – and its chain of command broken.
DAMASCUS MAKES NEW PROPOSAL TO SDF
Sources have previously told Reuters that Damascus sent a proposal to the SDF expressing openness to reorganizing the group’s roughly 50,000 fighters into three main divisions and smaller brigades as long as it cedes some chains of command and opens its territory to other Syrian army units.
Shibani said Damascus did not see “any initiative or serious will” from the SDF to implement the agreement but had recently proposed to the Syrian Kurds another way to advance the process.
“We received a response yesterday and this response is currently being studied,” he said.
Turkey has conducted cross-border military operations against the SDF in the past.
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Homemade Bombs Thrown Before Bondi Mass Shooting, but Failed to Detonate, Police Tell Court
A CCTV footage shows Naveed Akram and his father, Sajid Akram, both suspects in the shooting attack during a Jewish Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach on Dec. 14, carrying items wrapped in blankets, while exiting 103 Brighton Avenue, Campsie, New South Wales, Australia, in this still image taken from a court document released on Dec. 22, 2025. Photo: NSW Police/Handout via REUTERS
Australian police say homemade pipe and tennis ball bombs were thrown at a crowd at Bondi Beach before a mass shooting but failed to detonate, according to court documents released on Monday.
Fifteen people were killed and dozens injured in the mass shooting at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration at Bondi on Dec. 14. The attack has shocked the nation and sparked calls for tougher gun laws and heightened efforts to stop antisemitism.
One of the alleged gunmen, Sajid Akram, 50, who was shot dead by police, owned six firearms. His 24-year-old son Naveed Akram has been charged with 59 offenses, including murder and terrorism, according to police.
The alleged gunmen had planned the attack for several months and visited the Bondi beachside park for reconnaissance two days prior, said a police fact sheet released by the court.
Pictures included in the police report showed the father and son allegedly training with firearms in an isolated rural part of New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state which includes Sydney.
Police found a video taken in October on one of the gunmen’s mobile phone showing them sitting in front of an image of an Islamic State flag and making statements in English about their reasons for the attack, while condemning the acts of Zionists.
Just after 2:00 am (1500 GMT) on the day of the attack, the men were captured on CCTV video carrying long and bulky items wrapped in blankets from a short-stay rental house in the suburb of Campsie to a car, said the police report.
They later drove to Bondi around 5:00 pm (0800GMT).
Police believe the items wrapped in the blankets were two single-barrel shotguns, a Beretta rifle, three pipe bombs, a tennis ball bomb, and a large improvised explosive device.
Police allege the men threw the pipe bombs and tennis ball bomb at the crowd in the Bondi park before they began shooting, but the explosive devices did not detonate, according to the statement tendered to the court.
Police said that they later found 3D printed parts for a shotgun component at the Campsie house, bomb making equipment, and copies of the Quran.
TOUGH NEW GUN LAWS
The parliament of New South Wales state was recalled on Monday to vote on proposed new laws that would impose major curbs on firearm ownership, ban the display of terror symbols, and restrict protests, following the mass shooting.
The state legislation would cap the number of firearms a person can own at four, or up to 10 for certain groups, such as farmers.
Although Australia has some of the toughest gun control laws in the world after a 1996 shooting that killed 35 people, the Bondi shooting has highlighted what authorities say are gaps.
In New South Wales, there are more than 70 people in the state who own more than 100 guns, a police firearms registry shows. One license holder has 298 guns.
The proposed legislation would also give police more powers to remove face coverings during protests or rallies. The state government has vowed to ban the chant “globalize the intifada” which it says encourages violence against Jews and Israelis worldwide.
New South Wales Premier Chris Minns told reporters outside parliament that he expected opposition to the legislation, which includes restrictions on public assemblies in the aftermath of a terrorism event, but said it was needed to keep the community safe.
“We have got a responsibility to knit together our community that comes from different races and religions and places from all over the world. We can do it in a peaceful way,” he said.
‘I AM SORRY’ PRIME MINISTER SAYS
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has faced mounting criticism from opponents who argue his government has not done enough to curb a rise in antisemitism. He was booed by sections of the crowd during a memorial event in Bondi attended by tens of thousands of people on Sunday, one week after the shooting.
A poll conducted for the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper among 1,010 voters released on Monday found Albanese’s approval rating slumped 15 points to -9 from +6 at the beginning of December, the lowest since his resounding election win in May.
Albanese on Monday said he understood that some of the anger in the Jewish community in the aftermath of the attack was directed toward him and pleaded for national unity.
“As prime minister I feel the weight of responsibility for an atrocity that happened whilst I am prime minister and I am sorry for what the Jewish community and our nation as a whole has experienced,” he told reporters in Canberra.
Albanese’s government says it has consistently denounced antisemitism and highlighted legislation passed over the last two years to criminalize hate speech and doxxing. It also expelled Iran’s ambassador earlier this year after accusing Tehran of directing antisemitic attacks in Sydney and Melbourne.
Further measures to stop hate speech proposed by Albanese’s government on Monday include a new offence of adults seeking to influence and radicalize children.
Authorities on Monday started clearing flowers, candles, letters, and other items placed by the public at Bondi Beach.
The tributes would be preserved for display at the Sydney Jewish Museum and the Australian Jewish Historical Society, authorities said.
Thirteen people remain in hospital, including four in critical but stable condition, health officials said.