On the Way to Golem Zionism in Latin America?

by Alexander Markovics

Alexander Markovics explores the interplay of politics, Zionism, and personal convictions in Latin America, examining the paths of politicians like Javier Milei and Daniel Noboa Azin, whose staunch support for Israel and the United States marks a significant shift in the region’s political landscape.

During campaign events, he recites the Torah. At events, he lights Jewish menorah candles instead of extinguishing them like Grzegorz Braun. He stands unwaveringly by Israel’s side and calls Vladimir Zelensky his friend. His name is Javier Milei; he is a self-proclaimed ‘anarcho-capitalist’ and intends to convert to Judaism after his presidency.

He faithfully stands by the United States and shows unconditional solidarity with Israel. He advocates a turbo-capitalism that prioritises the exploitation of his countrymen for trade relations with the US. His name is Daniel Noboa Azin, and he is the newly elected president of Ecuador, a country sinking into a drug war.

America’s South as Israel’s New Proxy?

What do these two politicians have in common? They were brought to power in the predominantly Catholic continent of Latin America with Western support and are both fanatical Zionists. But how did it come to this, and what role do the extremist Jewish sect Chabad Lubavitch and the globalist George Soros play?

Milei’s Connections: From the WEF to Chabad Lubavitch to George Soros

Argentina is home to the largest Jewish community in Latin America, with more than 250,000 Jews. Among them are two confidants of Javier Milei: Eduardo Elsztain and Julio Goldstein. As Argentine journalist Martin Sivak revealed, Goldstein was at the beginning of Milei’s turn towards Judaism. Similar to the former Austrian FPÖ (Freedom Party) leader Heinz-Christian Strache, the current Argentine leader Milei was in the crosshairs, as President Alberto Fernandez compared him to Adolf Hitler. Goldstein facilitated his contact with Rabbi Shimon Axel Wanish. He gave Milei a long lecture, which eventually turned into a kabbalistic meeting, imposing a mission on Javier Milei: the liberation of Argentina. Since then, Judaism in the extremist Sabbatian interpretation of the sect Chabad-Lubavitch occupies a large place in Milei’s personal worldview.

Another indicator is that he visited the grave of the Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson in New York immediately after taking office. Followers of the sect attribute special spiritual significance to the gravesite. On this trip, he was accompanied by Eduardo Elsztain, a Jewish businessman with connections to George Soros. Soros is also connected to the Lubavitchers and significantly influences Jewish youth work in Argentina with donations. Elsztain is the chairman of Argentina’s largest real estate firm IRSA, which manages Buenos Aires’ most significant shopping centres. Gerardo Werthein, another Jewish-Argentinian businessman, is rumoured to be considered for the position of Argentine ambassador to Washington. Thus, all three men hold important positions in Milei’s personal network.

Milei’s Faith: Predator Capitalism as the ‘Natural Order of Things’

Milei sees himself, inspired by the zeal of the convert, in the succession of Moses as the great liberator of the Argentine people. In his anarcho-capitalist interpretation of Judaism, God is a libertarian who does not mind if people sell their internal organs or their own children to alleviate their misery. In his view, this represents ‘the natural order of things’. Yet, his first public appearances since taking office suggest that his real loyalty might lie with another state than Argentina. At the public lighting of a menorah, he proclaimed his ‘unwavering commitment to the State of Israel’, which likely refers to Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza. He follows the apocalyptic worldview of many evangelical Christians, who are becoming increasingly numerous in Latin America and see Israel as the ‘bearer of light’ in the fight against darkness. However, Milei is not the only politician in Latin America who holds such a worldview.

Daniel Noboa Azin: Washington’s Man in Ecuador

Elected on 15 October 2023, Daniel Noboa Azin took over from his conservative predecessor Guillermo Lasso. While Lasso stumbled over corruption allegations and a constitutional crisis, Azin now has to pick up the pieces left behind. Like Ecuador’s history — the country became one of the first banana republics in the literal sense through the use of American capital — Azin’s career is closely tied to the fate of the US. He studied in the US, including at the University of New York, where he also made contacts with US political and economic circles. These circles, like Azin, whose family owns one of the largest banana companies in the country, are little interested in social and economic reforms.

The US wants to continue extracting the state’s resources and keep a hand on its foreign policy, with politicians like Azin receiving a portion of the dividends. The status quo includes not only unconditional support for Israel but also Ecuador’s continued existence as a hub for drugs from Peru and Colombia, which then make their way to the US. The chaos not only favours a brutal rule by cartels, making it one of the most dangerous countries in the world since 2019, with more than 4,200 people murdered there in 2023, but also the continued military presence of the US. Ordinary Ecuadorians, of course, pay the price as they see their country slide further into civil war.

Claudia Sheinbaum: A Jewish Presidential Candidate Can Be Different

On the political left in Latin America, the former mayor of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbaum, the former Mayor of Mexico City born in 1962, is poised to become the president of Mexico, a country with 129 million people that has been deeply affected by drug-related violence. The non-practicing Jew, with a PhD in physics and a candidate of the leftist Morena party, is significantly ahead in the polls. She does everything not to be associated with Judaism and Israel, to the extent that the Jewish community predominantly turns to her opponent Xóchitl Gálvez. The majority of Mexico’s centre-right Jews long for a Bolsonaro or Milei, an evangelical/Jewish-influenced Christian who radically supports Israel, not an atheist Jew who maintains equidistance from her religion and heritage to satisfy the majority population.

The left-wing populist advocates a social agenda and the fight against escalating drug crime in Mexico, having reduced it by more than half in the capital, thereby winning the hearts of Mexicans. In public, she always wears traditional Mexican attire — and does not stand for unconditional solidarity with Israel but for a two-state solution in the Middle East. Sheinbaum’s example thus shows that a different policy is possible for Latin Americans.

Golem or Sovereign? The Fate of Latin America

Both in Latin America and Europe, we can observe a type of right-wing populist politician who declares US and Israeli interests as the raison d'état, sacrificing the geopolitical interests of their own country. Strache, Pazderski, and Gauland now find their tragic counterparts at the other end of the world in Milei and Azin. The motivation is the desire for recognition by demonised politicians, as well as economic dependencies and/or philosemitism. What increasingly sounds absurd has roots that reach deep into Western occultism: in the Jewish-Kabbalistic mysticism of the early Middle Ages, we find the figure of the Golem.

This is a human-like figure created from clay through magic, often with immense powers, serving its Jewish master as a will-less proxy. The theme was processed, among others, by the Austrian writer Gustav Meyrink in his novel The Golem. Today, more and more politicians from Europe and Latin America are made into such golems through blackmail and dubious promises — Strache from Austria is a tragic example of how such politicians ultimately end. The path of the Polish politician Grzegorz Braun shows us that patriotic politics against Zionism is possible.

(translated by Constantin von Hoffmeister)