A series of statements by Javier Milei, in which he insisted on his plan to
move the Argentine embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem
, in addition to other specific definitions by the President about the risks of terrorism in Argentina, once again complicated the confirmation that He needs his friend and spiritual guide, Rabbi Axel Wahnish, in the Senate to be ambassador to the Jewish State.
It happens that a group of Senators, including
Martín Lousteau
- clearly opposed to Milei - are upset and even reluctant to approve Wahnish's document in the chamber, where the documents of five other political ambassadors appointed by the president must also be discussed.
Lousteau, head of the UCR, first refused to give his vote for the opinion that the six appointed in the
Senate Agreements Commission
had to go through , where Wahnish did not reach the necessary nine votes in what in the end ended up being a kind of first voting round. The other five did pass that stage: Gerardo Werthein to be ambassador to the United States; Mariano Caucino, to be in India; Ian Sielecki, to be ambassador to France; Guillermo Nielsen, to go to Paraguay; and Sonia Cavallo, to go to the OAS.
First, Senator K
Anabel Fernández Sagasti
and then Lousteau questioned Wahnish about the consequences for the Argentine claim of sovereignty over the Malvinas before the United Nations and other international organizations in the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, since the UN does not recognize it. , and therefore neither does Argentina, in compliance with the resolutions of the international organization.
But in the end, after a campaign by libertarians on the networks against Lousteau in which they declared him "anti-Semitic", a dialogue with members of the DAIA - who did not issue any statement in that sense against the Senator - and a commitment to Chancellor Mondino that the embassy would not be moved,
Wahnish was voted by the Commission
and his document was submitted for treatment on the Senate floor.
As Clarín wrote at the time, both Lousteau and the radical Maximiliano Abad ended up allowing the rabbi to have his opinion approved because there was a commitment that nothing Argentina does regarding the embassy will harm the claim to sovereignty. and in this way any possibility of transfer was frozen.
The other political ambassadors would currently have a parliamentary majority to have their documents approved.
What the President said on Monday
Rabbi Wahnish, as his designated ambassador to the United States, Gerardo “Gerry” Werthein, accompanied Milei on his trip to Miami to be awarded by an ultra-religious group of the Jewish community, which named the Argentine president as “Ambassador of the Light".
As Clarín learned from high sources in the Senate, there are several legislators who
will demand clarification from the Government before voting in the chamber
. These sources said that in a talk with Wahnish on Monday, he would have told them that he does not agree with the transfer of the Argentine headquarters and that he recognized the risks it puts Argentina in the face of the claim for the Malvinas and international terrorism.
This newspaper tried to speak with Wahnish to confirm his statements but did not receive a response. The person who had the original idea of moving the embassy is the economist, advisor and friend of Milei Julio Goldestein. Also an economist, Goldestein is the one who approached the rabbi to the current President a few years ago, but finally the religious convinced the president that he was the best option for the head of the Embassy.
"Do you think we are not already on the radar of the attacks?"
Javier Milei confirmed that he will move the Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and denied that this "increases the risk" of attacks: "The question is whether we are cowards or we stand down." https: //t.co/UgSv4IW2UV pic.twitter.com /d9XhAnrGK2
— Corta 🏆 (@somoscorta) April 9, 2024
“There are some who, I don't know if they do it out of ignorance or because they have bad intentions, we are going to move the Israeli embassy in Israel to West Jerusalem. That is Israeli territory. Which, let's say, is not a problem. "It has a whole meaning, let's say, to move it there," Milei told Radio Neura on Monday.
Milei also assured that Argentina is already “on the map” of being the target of terrorist attacks. “The difference is whether we are cowards or we stand on the side of good,” she said.
The special status of the “Holy City”
The international community does not recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. For this reason, no government, except that of Donald Trump in 2017 and also the government of Guatemala, agreed to send their representatives to that city and chose to keep them in Tel Aviv. Paraguay transferred her and then took her back to Tel Aviv.
In 1980, a fundamental law of Israel established the status of Jerusalem as the “capital of Israel and guarantees its integrity and union.”
On August 20, 1980, with the only abstention of the United States, the UN Security Council censured "in the strongest terms" the Jerusalem Law that established that city as the capital of Israel, considering it "a violation of the right "He considered that said law and all other legislative and administrative measures and acts adopted by Israel, "are null and void and must be revoked immediately."
In turn, in defending his nomination in the Senate Agreements Commission, the rabbi spoke of the right of “self-determination” of the States to decide where to install their capital. According to Lousteau, if Argentina used this recognition against Israel and then the United Kingdom put the supposed right of the inhabitants of the Malvinas to Self-Determination, the claim of sovereignty over the islands would be disarmed. This debate usually takes place year after year about the archipelago in the UN Decolonization Committee where a majority of countries agree with the Argentine argument that the islands do not have such a right as they are disputed territory subject to dialogue between the parties to find a peaceful solution.