On Monday in Buenos Aires, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began what has been dubbed a "historic" trip to three Latin American countries: Argentina, Colombia and Mexico. In Argentina, he will take part in two ceremonies in memory of the victims of the terrorist attacks there, one at the Israeli Embassy in 1992 and another at the AMIA Jewish community center in 1994, both widely attributed to Iran and Hezbollah. Argentina's controversial investigation into the 1994 attack, which has suspected links to the 1992 attack, has not yet concluded. Israel must remember the death of the special prosecutor to the case in January 2015, Jewish-Argentine Alberto Nisman, who was murdered hours before he was to present evidence exposing connections between former Argentine President Cristina Kirchner's government and the Iranians. Indeed, relations between Argentina and Israel have been characterized by ups and downs over the years: Argentine President Juan Peron offered sanctuary to several Nazi war criminals, the most famous being Adolf Eichmann, whom the Mossad abducted and brought to trial in Israel in May 1960. On the other hand, Argentina recognized Israel in 1949 and established diplomatic relations with it, even though it abstained from the U.N. vote on Nov. 29, 1947, to partition the British Mandate. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Argentina includes meetings with the Jewish community, the largest in Latin America, numbering 230,000, as well as signing agreements for defense, national security and the use of archives for Holocaust remembrance. In Colombia, he will meet with the country's President Juan Manuel Santos for a few hours. Colombia is very close to Israel, and not only in defense coordination and diplomacy it is also the only country in South America that does not recognize the so-called "State of Palestine" and that abstained from voting to upgrade the status of the Palestinians in the U.N. The last stop of the trip will be in Mexico, the second most important country in North America. Israel and Mexico share a wide range of economic connections, amounting to some $700 million in yearly commerce, as well as foreign investments. Netanyahu, however, must fix the misleading, negative impression he gave to Mexico after the unnecessary diplomatic incident when he praised U.S. President Donald Trump's intention to build a wall on the border between Mexico and the U.S. Israel and Mexico are expected to sign treaties on space, flight, communications and development. Netanyahu is most conspicuously leaving out Brazil in this flash tour, which even includes meeting Paraguayan President Horacio Cartes in Argentina. Brazil is the most economically and strategically important Latin American country, but it is also currently embroiled in an internal political crisis. Why has no Israeli president visited Latin America to this day? Even though relations between Israel and most Latin American countries have been characterized by stability and mutual empathy, and despite the fact that these countries played a deciding role in approving the Partition Plan in 1947 that paved the way for the establishment of Israel, the region has not been a strategic and economic focal point for Israel's foreign policy, which concentrated instead on North America and Europe. In recent years, there has been a trend in Israeli diplomacy to expand the circle of relationships, and Netanyahu accordingly visited and is visiting countries that no Israeli prime minister stepped in before (in Africa, Australia, Southeast Asia and now Latin America). It is difficult to predict a significant change in the stance of Latin American countries toward Israel and the Arab-Israeli conflict, but there is symbolic importance to the show of presence after leaders of Iran and the Palestinian Liberation Organization visited the region in recent years. Accordingly, the support for political, economic and security connections between Israel and some of these countries should be seen as a blessing. Arie Kacowicz is a lecturer in the International Relations Department at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
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