Zionist by Proxy

WHAT THIS POST IS -- AND ISN'T

• This post is not an analysis of contemporary or historical Argentinian politics, aside from the country’s Jewish history.
• This post is not an analysis of the validity (or lack thereof) of any World Cup results involving Argentina or any other team.

I am qualified in neither of the above.

• Instead, I am interested in exploring how anti-Argentina narratives in the World Cup have come to demonize Argentina as a proxy for Zionism, what that says about the state of antisemitism and antizionism today, and how this trend exposes the moral inconsistencies of the antizionist movement, especially on the left.

 

ARGENTINA AND ITS JEWS

Argentina has the largest Jewish population in Latin America, with an estimated 180,000-250,000 Jews. It also constitutes the fourth largest Jewish Diaspora in the world. 

Like virtually all countries in Latin America, Argentina traces its earliest Jewish presence to the 16th century, with the arrival of crypto-Jews, or Jews who were forcibly converted to Christianity but continued practicing Judaism in secret, who sought respite from the brutal torture of the Spanish Inquisition.

Because the Inquisition was established in Latin America shortly thereafter, no Jewish community existed openly in Argentina until after the country’s independence from Spain in 1853. 

However, large scale Jewish presence in Argentina was actually set into motion later, at the end of the 19th century, when thousands of Jews arrived with the help of the Jewish Colonization Association*, fleeing rising violence across the Russian Empire.

*As I’ve mentioned ad nauseam in my posts about Zionism, in the late 19th century, the word “colonization” had a much different connotation than it does today. It was used to refer to the migration and establishment of new communities, regardless of their political arrangement or association — or lack of association — with a colonial enterprise.

 

MOISES VILLE

Moisés Ville, translating to “Moses’ Village,” is a small town in Argentina, established in the late 19th century by Jews fleeing the pogroms of the Russian Empire. It was the first Jewish agricultural settlement in South America.

Moisés Ville was primarily settled through the efforts of Baron Maurice de Hirsch and his nonprofit organization, the Jewish Colonization Association, which purchased land, built infrastructure, and covered travel costs for Jews fleeing violence in Eastern Europe.

Jews in Moisés Ville coexisted peacefully with local gauchos, or horsemen, and, in fact, became gauchos themselves.

At its height, some 5,000 Jews lived in Moisés Ville. Most eventually moved to the bigger cities, particularly Buenos Aires, and today, only an estimated 100 Jews remain out of a total population of 2,000.

 

EL PLAN ANDINIA

The viral discourse that links Argentina’s performance in the World Cup to a Zionist conspiracy has its roots in a 1970s neo-Nazi and far-right antisemitic conspiracy.

The conspiracy, known as El Plan Andinia or Andinia Plan, purports that there is a secret Jewish or Zionist plot to establish a Jewish state in the Patagonia region of South America, which includes both Argentina and Chile.

Like many antisemitic conspiracies, El Plan Andinia distorts legitimate historical events to advance its narrative. For example, it misrepresents the nature of Moisés Ville and early 20th century statements from sectors of the Zionist movement as definitive proof for this alleged plot.

In 1971, an anonymous leaflet was circulated among Argentina’s army which accused Jews of plotting to seize Patagonia. The same claim was published in Argentinian neo-Nazi media, and the Andinia Plan conspiracy came to be accepted by the Argentinian military as fact. During the junta dictatorship (1976-1983), Jewish prisoners of the Argentinian forces were tortured for information on this so-called plan.

 

A PAINFUL HISTORY OF ANTISEMITISM

Despite — or because of — the fact that Argentina has the largest Jewish population in Latin America, it is also the Latin American country with the most extensive history of antisemitism.

• Early 20th century conspiracies about so-called Judeo-Bolshevism culminated in a week of riots and massacres in January 1919, known as the Semana Trágica, or the Tragic Week. The Argentine Patriotic League targeted Jewish neighborhoods, and 700 people were killed, including over 100 Jews, in the Americas’ first pogrom.
• In the 1930s, Argentina’s conservative intellectuals and military establishment were pro-Nazi, and after World War II, Juan Perón’s government actively facilitated the escape of Nazi war criminals, turning Argentina into a safe haven for Nazis escaping justice.

• In the 1970s and early 1980s, during Argentina’s junta dictatorship, Jews were disproportionately kidnapped, tortured, and forcibly disappeared as part of the Dirty War.

  Imprisoned Jews were subjected to torture and questioning that was antisemitic in nature, often drawing from Plan Andinia conspiracies. For example, Argentinian Jewish journalist Jacobo Timerman was interrogated about the IDF.

• In the 1990s, the Islamic Republic of Iran, via its proxies, bombed the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires (1992), killing 29, and the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina, or AMIA (1994), the largest Jewish community center in Argentina, killing 85. The Argentinian Jewish community has long accused the government of complicity, due to a 2013 Memorandum of Understanding between Argentina and the Islamic Republic, in which then-president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner agreed to “jointly” investigate the attack with the Islamic Republic. One day before his scheduled testimony on this collusion, prosecutor Alberto Nisman, who was Jewish, died under mysterious circumstances. It has since been ruled a murder.

 

TURBULENT RELATIONS

The current Israeli and Argentinian governments have a close relationship. But Israeli-Argentina bilateral relations haven’t always been so positive and instead have exhibited ups and downs.

• Argentina voted in favor of Partition and recognized Israel in 1949.
• However, during the era of Nazi hunting, in the 1950s and 1960s, relations soured significantly, especially after Israel captured Adolf Eichmann in 1960. In fact, the event led to a diplomatic crisis between the two countries, culminating in United Nations Resolution 138, in which Israel was condemned for violating Argentina’s sovereignty.
• During the Falklands War, Israel indirectly supplied Argentina with weaponry. However, contrary to the misinformation circulating on social media, British intelligence reports found that Menachem Begin’s government did so out of Begin’s bitterness over Britain’s crackdown on the Irgun during the Mandate period, rather than out of ideological alignment with the junta dictatorship.
• In the aftermath of the Islamic Republic-mandated 1990s bombings, relations once again grew turbulent, ranging from counterterrorism and intelligence cooperation to Israeli frustration and condemnation over Argentina’s 2013 Memorandum of Understanding with the Islamic Republic.

 

ARGENTINA AS SOMEHOW EXCEPTIONALLY RACIST

To demonize Argentina as a Zionist-by-proxy state, many pro-Palestine, left-wing, or so-called “decolonial” accounts are preying on their followers’ ignorance about the history and contemporary politics Latin America to portray Argentina as somehow exceptionally racist among a sea of brown countries, which is not so different from how Israel is portrayed in the context of the Middle East.

So let’s get the facts straight:

• There is no country in Latin America without a long history of state-sanctioned racism, even after their independence from Spain (or Portugal), including those with majority Indigenous or Afro-Latino populations.
• Racism is still a major issue in all of Latin America.
• Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, and Paraguay all harbored Nazis, some of whom took positions advising those governments.

 

SOME OBSERVATIONS

As far as I can tell, the viral online discourse that demonizes Argentina as some sort of proxy for the State of Israel or Zionism really emerged in the aftermath of the controversial Egypt-Argentina match. In a prior game, the Egyptian coach had waved the Palestinian flag. After Egypt lost the Argentina match, the coach accused FIFA of politicizing the game, and Internet users ran with the conspiracy that the “Zionists” allegedly controlling FIFA had preplanned the result as punishment for the Egyptian team’s solidarity with Palestine.

• It’s rather rich of the Egyptian coach to accuse FIFA of politicization when he himself politicized the Egyptian team’s performance when he waved the flag of a third party.
• If the Zionists controlled FIFA, you’d think Israel would have at least made it to the World Cup. Alas, it did not. Israel hasn’t qualified to the World Cup since 1970.
• The absurd idea that Zionists or the State of Israel are “the man behind the curtain” or the “puppetmaster” nefariously manipulating World Cup results is a copy-paste of some of the oldest, most damaging antisemitic conspiracies. The fact that this conspiracy has gone viral with zero evidence to back it up whatsoever is a painful indictment of the state of global antisemitism today.

• As antisemitic and antizionist conspiracy theorists do, proponents of this conspiracy are using the most tenuous associations — such as Lionel Messi’s visits to Israel (including a 2013 visit for a “Peace Tour”) as definitive proof of this alleged plot. Never mind that a long list of World Cup players from different countries, including Mbappé and Neymar, have all visited Israel too.

  It should go without saying, but professional athletes generally travel around the world for their work.

• Soon enough, any real or alleged racist behavior on the part of Argentina’s players, fans, or even the country itself got turned into definitive proof that Argentina’s success is a Zionist project.

  The implications here are laughable. Racism existed long before Israel and the modern Zionist movement. Not to mention that Argentina is hardly the only country in the world with a history of racism.

  The implicit idea, though, is evident: the Jewish movement for national self-determination has been turned into a shorthand for global racism. Or, in other words, the Jews are ultimately behind evil around the world. That’s quite the Nazi-esque conspiracy that millions have come to accept as fact.

• Likewise, Argentina’s Nazi-harboring past has been interpreted as proof of its Zionist associations. There’s so many levels to the absurdity here: (1) the Nazis saw Zionism as a nefarious Jewish plot for world domination, something that is not so different from the contemporary anti-Argentina discourse as it pertains to the World Cup and (2) Argentina was hardly the only country in the world to harbor Nazis, and, in fact, in Egypt, Nazi war criminals rose to the highest levels of government under Nasser.
• Argentinian President Javier Milei’s close alliance with Benjamin Netanyahu has also been cited as definitive proof of this alleged plot. I hate to break it to these people, but Argentina is hardly Israel’s only contemporary ally. If Israel was giving its allies a leg up, you’d think the United States would have made it much further.

• We’ve said, time and time again, that what starts with the Jews never ends with the Jews. Here you are seeing that kind of destructive, hateful behavior in motion.

  You ignore us at your own risk.

• Even so, I’ve seen posts demonizing Argentina as a proxy for Zionism still bothering to make the distinction between the Argentinian government and the Argentinian people. Must be nice.
• The idea that Egypt is a proxy for Palestine and Argentina is a proxy for Israel in the World Cup is all the more absurd considering that Egypt maintains ½ of the blockade of the Gaza Strip and has kept Palestinian civilians trapped inside over the past three years. Argentina, meanwhile, is literally half a world away.