By: Fern Sidman – Jewish Voice News

When Argentina’s President Javier Milei formally inaugurated the Isaac Accords last week in Buenos Aires alongside Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, the moment was more than ceremonial. As The Algemeiner reported on Monday, Milei’s announcement marked a decisive geopolitical pivot—one that aims to realign Israel’s diplomatic, security, and ideological partnerships across Latin America at a time of rising global hostility toward the Jewish state.

Modeled after the Abraham Accords, the groundbreaking U.S.-brokered normalization agreements that reshaped Israel’s relations with key Arab states beginning in 2020, this new framework—named for the biblical patriarch shared by Jews and Christians—seeks to expand cooperation across political, economic, cultural, and counterterrorism spheres.

Milei, whose affinity for Judaism has been well documented and often described as fervent, presented the Isaac Accords as both a moral statement and a strategic blueprint. During his address at the 90th anniversary celebration of the Delegation of Argentine Israelite Associations (DAIA), Argentina’s primary Jewish umbrella group, he made clear that his government views support for Israel as a matter of national principle rather than political convenience. “While the vast majority of the free world decided to turn its back on the Jewish state, we extended a hand to it,” he said. “While the vast majority turned a deaf ear to the growth of antisemitism in their lands, we denounced it with even greater fervor, because evil cannot be met with indifference.”

Those remarks, as reported by The Algemeiner, captured the ideological core of Milei’s foreign policy: unambiguous solidarity with Israel as a moral imperative, and a commitment to reorienting Latin American diplomacy away from decades of automatic alignment with anti-Israel blocs at the United Nations. The Isaac Accords, as envisioned by Milei and Saar, are intended both to operationalize this shift and to expand it throughout the hemisphere.

Saar, who has spent the past week on a whirlwind regional tour, praised Milei as “a double miracle, for Argentina and for the Jewish people,” a formulation that underscores the near-messianic enthusiasm that many Israeli officials have expressed about the Argentine president’s arrival on the diplomatic stage. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu echoed this sentiment, telling The Algemeiner that Milei embodies “moral clarity, vision, and courage”—qualities he said will usher in “a new era of common sense, mutual interests, and shared values between Israel and Latin America.”

The first phase of the Isaac Accords will focus on Uruguay, Panama, and Costa Rica—countries with which Israel already maintains cordial relations and where the groundwork for enhanced cooperation in technology, security, and economic development is already taking shape. According to the information provided in The Algemeiner report, early discussions have centered on Israeli-led innovation projects, joint security training initiatives, and expanded commercial partnerships designed to deepen cultural and economic ties.

That phase will accelerate in February, when Argentina’s Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno travels to Israel for high-level meetings with Netanyahu and Saar to refine the operational contours of the Accords. Milei also reaffirmed his pledge to relocate Argentina’s embassy to Jerusalem—an explosive move in regional politics and one that would place Argentina among a select group of nations, including the United States, Guatemala, Paraguay, Honduras, and now Ecuador, that have formally recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

The shadow of October 7, 2023—the date on which Hamas militants massacred civilians across southern Israel—looms over every diplomatic development in the region. Less than a year after the attacks, Argentina became the first Latin American country to formally designate Hamas as a terrorist organization. Paraguay followed shortly afterward, signaling a shift away from the region’s historical tendencies to give rhetorical or political shelter to groups aligned with Iran or opposed to Israel.

As The Algemeiner report noted, one of the explicit goals of the Isaac Accords is to encourage partner governments to designate both Hamas and Hezbollah as terrorist organizations—a move that would not only align regional legal frameworks with international counterterrorism standards but also disrupt financial and logistical networks that have flourished in parts of South America for decades. Argentina’s own tragic history with Iranian-backed terrorism—most notably the 1994 AMIA bombing that killed 85 people—has positioned Milei to speak with unusual credibility on the matter.

The Isaac Accords’ architects are equally committed to shifting longstanding anti-Israel voting blocs at the United Nations. Latin America has, for decades, supplied a reliable stream of automatic anti-Israel votes in U.N. forums, a dynamic that Netanyahu and Saar have sought to change by appealing to shared democratic values, economic interests, and the region’s growing concerns over Iranian activity.

In parallel with the launch of the Isaac Accords, Saar announced a series of bilateral breakthroughs that signal a broader regional recalibration. One of the most symbolic occurred in Ecuador, where President Daniel Noboa authorized the opening of an additional diplomatic mission in Jerusalem. Writing on X, Saar described the move as “another milestone on this important path,” emphasizing that Guatemala, Paraguay, and Honduras have already relocated their embassies to the Israeli capital. The Algemeiner report framed the Ecuadorian shift as part of a widening trend of regional governments adopting more assertively pro-Israel stances.

Meanwhile, Bolivia—long considered one of Latin America’s most antagonistic governments toward Israel—has moved unexpectedly toward reconciliation. Saar announced that Bolivia has lifted visa requirements for Israelis, enabling renewed tourism and cultural exchange after years of rupture. The policy change follows the election of President Rodrigo Paz, a center-right leader whose victory closed the chapter on years of left-wing, anti-Israel governance that had severed diplomatic ties.

Saar’s diplomatic tour began in Paraguay, where he signed a memorandum on security cooperation with President Santiago Peña. At the joint press conference—covered by The Algemeiner—Saar praised Peña as “one of the most impressive leaders on the international stage today.” Israel views Paraguay as a strategic anchor for expanding defense cooperation throughout the hemisphere. “Paraguay is developing major defense capabilities,” Saar noted. “Israel’s defense industry has experience and capabilities that we want to share with you.”

Peña, who was already aligned with Israel before assuming office, restored his country’s embassy to Jerusalem immediately upon taking power, reversing the decision of a previous administration. His government’s willingness to integrate Israeli expertise into its national security architecture demonstrates how the Accords are likely to unfold: as a web of bilateral agreements reinforced by multilateral commitments under a shared ideological framework.

The potential of the Isaac Accords lies in their capacity to build on overlapping currents reshaping hemispheric politics. The rise of centrist and center-right governments in countries like Argentina, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay, El Salvador, and Guatemala has opened diplomatic and ideological territory that was largely closed during the era dominated by Hugo Chávez, Evo Morales, Daniel Ortega, and other leftist leaders who aligned with Iran and the Palestinian Authority.

Experts quoted by The Algemeiner have emphasized that the Accords could function not only as foreign policy but as a strategy to combat the rising tide of antisemitism worldwide. Milei himself framed the initiative as a moral obligation: “Evil cannot be met with indifference,” he declared at the DAIA anniversary ceremony. His invocation of moral clarity stands in sharp contrast to the trend elsewhere in the Western Hemisphere, where sectors of civil society and government have embraced narratives that demonize Israel while minimizing or denying the atrocities of October 7.

As the Isaac Accords take shape, the contours of a new regional order are emerging—one defined not by ideological uniformity but by shared strategic goals, mutual admiration, and a recognition that Israel’s technological, economic, and security expertise can help transform Latin American societies. The success of the Accords will ultimately depend on the political durability of leaders like Milei, Peña, Noboa, and Paz, as well as the strength of institutional mechanisms designed to anchor these partnerships beyond the tenure of individual administrations.

For now, however, Israel appears to be entering a moment of unparalleled opportunity in Latin America. If the Abraham Accords forged new pathways between Israel and the Arab world, the Isaac Accords may well become their Western Hemisphere counterpart—a diplomatic architecture rooted in realism, shared values, and an unflinching commitment to confronting antisemitism and terrorism in all its forms.

As The Algemeiner report indicated, the emergence of this new framework is not merely a symbolic gesture but a concrete shift in the hemispheric balance. Whether it becomes a defining pillar of 21st-century diplomacy will depend on the political will of its architects and the endurance of the transformational vision that brought it into being.