Argentina’s President Javier Milei (R) cries with Rabbi Shimon Axel Wahnish during a visit to the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City on February 6, 2024. (Ronald Schemidt/AFP via Getty Images)
(JTA) — A canceled flight on his way to assume his new job might well have added urgency around one of Rabbi Axel Wahnish’s first big breakthroughs as Argentina’s ambassador to Israel: direct flights between Tel Aviv and Buenos Aires.
Wahnish, the personal rabbi of Argentine President Javier Milei, was originally scheduled to depart from Buenos Aires on Aug. 14, 2024, to begin his tenure in Israel. But his Air Europa flight — which included a connection in Europe — was canceled due to a surge in tensions between Iran and Israel.
As most commercial airlines scrapped their Tel Aviv routes amid the turmoil, only El Al, Israel’s national carrier, and its subsidiaries reliably stayed in the air. Now, Wahnish has announced that El Al will begin flying between Argentina and Israel, in both a powerful symbol of the countries’ alliance and a practical boon for travelers like him.
El Al has not yet confirmed the flight, which Wahnish said on X would be formally announced next week, when Milei, a noted philosemite and Zionist, visits Israel for the second time.
But Wahnish — the first rabbi ever to be appointed an ambassador to Israel — told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency back in August, when he was waiting to leave Buenos Aires, that he saw a direct flight as both a cause and a result of improved relations.
“It’s a question similar to the debate about which came first, the chicken or the egg,” he said. “As an ambassador, I plan to work on both fronts — collaborating with airlines to make the route, while also fostering commercial, cultural, artistic, sporting and educational exchanges.”
Milei’s three-day state visit is set to start on June 9 and to include meetings with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a speech before the Knesset, the acceptance ceremony for the Genesis Prize, a visit to the Western Wall and a meeting with relatives of the hostages taken during the Oct. 7 attacks. Milei is the first non-Jew to be awarded the Genesis Prize.
As part of the trip, Milei and Netanyahu will sign a “Memorandum of Freedom and Democracy Against Terrorism, Antisemitism, and Discrimination.”
The memorandum formalizes a major shift in Argentina’s foreign policy following the election of Milei, a self-proclaimed “anarcho-capitalist,” in 2023 after years of left-wing leadership. In 2013, Argentina signed a memorandum of understanding with Iran, and for much of the past two decades, the country maintained close ties with Iran and frequently criticized Israeli military actions.
Under Milei, Argentina has pivoted toward a stronger alliance with Israel, openly supporting its right to self-defense and its war in Gaza. At times, Argentina has stood nearly alone among nations in supporting Israel, and Milei has not joined in as other allies of Israel, including with right-leaning leaders, have urged Netanyahu to end the war.
“It is a deep honor and a historic privilege to express our strong alliance against terror, standing close to the Israeli democracy that is defending itself from terrorists,” Wahnish said in the August interview.
Wahnish told JTA that his rabbinic background is a bonus in his work as the ambassador — but not his main qualification.
“First and foremost, I’m an Argentine citizen, a human being. If someone has expertise in a particular area, whether as a physicist, engineer or any other skill, can that be a disadvantage? … No,” he said. “The same applies to being a rabbi. I think it is a plus. I have an ethical and moral background, a philosophical knowledge, it is like an extra skill.”
But he added, “The strong alliance between our country and Israel is not rooted in religion. It’s based on values of democracy and freedom.”
At the time, he declined to say when Milei planned to fulfill his stated intention to relocate the Argentine embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a move the United States made during President Donald Trump’s first term in 2018.
The embassy move has not been formalized, with conventional wisdom in Argentina being that Milei may be waiting until after midterm elections in October to follow through on his promise.
But Wahnish appears to have succeeded in pressing forward on the direct flights, which he said on X in February were a “dream of my administration.” At the time, he said he had advocated for the flights in a direct conversation with Netanyahu, in which they also discussed Milei’s visit, the memorandum and the Israeli hostages still being held in Gaza, who include Argentine dual citizens.
A direct flight between the two countries was previously announced in 2016, but it was never implemented. If the new El Al route becomes a reality, there is only one precedent — and it hardly offered a model of strong diplomatic relations. It was also not nonstop, on a route that is estimated to require 16 hours of flight time from Tel Aviv.
On May 19, 1960, a special Israeli delegation arrived in Buenos Aires on an El Al flight to attend the 150th anniversary of Argentine independence. Their visit had a secondary purpose: The following day, the Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, whom Mossad agents had apprehended in Argentina, was disguised as a crew member and returned to Israel on the same plane. The aircraft stopped to refuel in Dakar, Senegal, and landed in Israel on May 22, where Eichmann was arrested. He was later convicted of crimes against humanity and hanged in 1962.
