Argentina’s Javier Milei Marks October 7 with Hebrew-Language Message: ‘BRING THEM HOME NOW’
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Argentine President Javier Milei posted a message on social media in Hebrew to mark the anniversary of the Hamas invasion of Israel on October 7, demanding the return of Israel’s hostages to freedom.
Milei’s message was both a declaration of support for Israel as it continues its self-defense operations against the Hamas jihadist organization in Gaza and its allies in Lebanon and a reminder to the world that Argentina lost citizens to the mass abductions that took place on October 7. At least seven Argentines are believed to be among the 101 people abducted from Israel on October 7, 2023, who remain in captivity today. Among those Argentines is one of the most high-profile cases of abductions, that of the Bibas family, including the youngest captive, Kfir, believed to currently be one year old, and five-year-old brother Ariel. Israel documented the abduction of 251 people a year ago on Monday, some of whom have been rescued or killed in the ensuing months.
Milei wrote his message on both Twitter and Instagram, reading, in English, “BRING THEM HOME NOW.” In Hebrew, the message reads, “Our hearts are captive in Gaza”:
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Milei’s presidential office, the Pink House, separately issued a statement on Monday.
“A year after the cowardly terrorist attack against the people of Israel, we do not forget, we do not forgive, and we demand freedom for all the hostages,” the Pink House said:
In the early morning hours of October 7, 2023, terrorists belonging to the Iran-backed Hamas terrorist organization invaded Israel from their stronghold in Gaza, massacring entire families in their homes, gang-raping women at a local music festival, and abducting dozens of people. The Israeli government estimates that Hamas terrorists killed about 1,200 people, some as young as infants, and took about 250 people hostage. In some cases, Hamas terrorists killed children, the elderly, and disabled people and used the dead victims’ phones to film themselves desecrating the corpses. Some of those videos were later uploaded to the social media pages of the dead victims.
Israel declared war on Hamas the next day and has engaged in a multi-front war against the terrorists and other Iran-backed allies, most notably Hezbollah, which has displaced tens of thousands of Israelis in the north of the country.
Contrary to several Iran-allied Latin American states, most prominently Cuba and Venezuela, the administration of right-wing Argentine President Milei has aggressively stood by Israel in its attempts to eliminate the threat of an attack similar to October 7 in the future. Milei traveled to Israel in February, his first official state visit since taking office in December. On that occasion, Milei met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and toured one of the communities most devastated by the Hamas attack, Kibbutz Nir Oz, where the Bibas family lived:
“We not only condemned the terrorist actions by Hamas, but also express our solidarity with the State of Israel, and have continued to support Israel’s right to legitimate self-defense in this context,” Milei proclaimed in his meeting with Herzog.
Milei also used his time in Israel for spiritual stops, including one at the Kotel, or Western Wall, shortly before his departure:
Milei formally designated Hamas an international terrorist organization, a move that prior socialist Argentine governments had yet to make. His administration has also taken measures to curb the influence of Hezbollah in the region, which benefits significantly from its alliances with the governments of Cuba and Venezuela.
Argentina is among the nations that have suffered the most from Hezbollah terrorism. Buenos Aires was the site of the deadliest terrorist attack in the history of the Western Hemisphere prior to September 11, 2001: the 1994 Hezbollah bombing of the Argentine-Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA), which killed 85 people. Hezbollah previously conducted a deadly suicide bombing against the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992.
After years of avoiding taking Hezbollah, and its patrons in Iran, to task for the bombings, the Argentine government under Milei has taken legal steps to hold both responsible at home and in international legal venues. Milei’s Security Minister, Patricia Bullrich, has also taken steps to contain Hezbollah’s influence in South Africa.
“Argentina has suffered two attacks and is in an area where there is an active presence of two forces that are allied to Iran, which are from Hezbollah that is in the triple border of Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina,” Bullrich said in April. “There has also been a presence in Iquique, in the north of Chile, last year in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and a few weeks ago in Peru. And last year two people from Hezbollah were arrested in Sao Paulo.”
“We are investigating if there are people who do not speak Spanish and have Bolivian passports,” she noted.
Both Milei and Bullrich have been vocal in discouraging leftist governments in the region from expanding ties to Iran and its terrorist allies.
FLASHBACK: Argentinian President Javier Milei Prays and Weeps at the Western Wall in Jerusalem
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