What is the Isaac Accord and why is Javier Milei aligning Argentina with Israel?

Argentina's President, Javier Milei, arrived for a high-profile state visit to Israel from April 19 to April 22. This was his third trip since taking office in 2023. On the first day of the state visit, he arrived at the Western Wall (Kotel) in Jerusalem, where he was seen praying and visibly emotional. The visit was centred around the signing of the “Issac Accords”. The Accord was signed later in the day during a ceremony which was attended by US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, hinting at the trilateral nature of the arrangement between the US, Israel and Argentina. A move that has created a potential recalibration, a pivot of Argentina's foreign policy from "third-worldism" toward the "western world," specifically the US and Israel, which many fear is a dangerous ideological gambit in a region which remained non-aligned for the longest period.

What is the Isaac Accord?

Issac Accord plans to normalise diplomatic, economic, and strategic relations with Latin American democracies and to build a transcontinental alliance based on shared Judeo-Christian values, innovation, and security between Israel and Argentina. It is being framed by the Israelis as a successor to the Abraham Accords. Netanyahu praised Milei as “a great friend of Israel,” and praised him for his “moral clarity”. Argentine President Javier Milei termed the relationship between the two nations is of “moral, spiritual, and political unity.” The so-called Isaac Accord seeks to link Israel with Latin American democracies, starting with partners like Uruguay, Panama, and Costa Rica. It includes a memorandum of understanding on the sharing of security tech and intelligence. Milei also confirmed the launch of the first direct flight between Buenos Aires and Tel Aviv, to be operated by El Al starting in November, and committed to shifting the Argentine embassy to occupied Jerusalem.

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Why is Javier Milei pushing for normalisation with Israel?

The Argentine President is trying to frame the Accord (which has not been ratified yet) as one of shared security concerns and political conformity. For decades, Argentina maintained a "grey zone" of neutrality, but this seemingly innocuous move is more like a personal ideological mission than a diplomatic realignment. Javier Milei has expressed his desire to convert to Judaism and has appointed his personal rabbi, Axel Wahnish, as Argentina’s Ambassador to Israel. He sees Jerusalem as the spiritual capital of Israel.

“The announcement alongside Benjamin Netanyahu of the so-called ‘Isaac Accords,’ inspired by the Abraham Accords, appears more like a political construct than a response to real needs in Latin America,” said Julia Argentina Perié, President of the International Relations Observatory of the VICTORIA Foundation. She described this as "personalising" his nations' foreign policy by elevating relations with Israel to a high-level strategic partnership, bypassing traditional diplomatic caution, closely resembling the personal ideological affinity of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the Israeli Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Perié described the process as the import of the geopolitical agenda of the West, or specifically the US. Further, Milei wants to polarise the continent of South America and oppose Brazilian Lula da Silva's image as the leader of the Global South with his image as the leader of freedom and primary partner for a "Trumpian" US foreign policy in the region. At the same time, domestically modernise and potentially privatise internal security functions, using "counter-terrorism" as a justification to monitor domestic opposition.

While Milei is "Trumping" around in his own ideological and political motivation, some historical facts are extremely disturbing for the Argentinian national sovereignty. Theodor Herzl, the father of Political Zionism, in his 1897 pamphlet Der Judenstaat or The Jewish State, flirted with the idea of a Jewish state in Argentina. While the movement ultimately chose Palestine for colonisation, a group of people bought land and created massive agricultural colonies or “Jewish Gauchos” in Argentina. Eventually, they shifted to cities like Buenos Aires. Herzl is not just a footnote, a central figure who ties the history of Zionism to Argentina and one of the reasons the Latin American country has the largest Jewish population on the continent.