Argentina’s new foreign minister sworn in on Torah
Intro
At Gerardo Werthein's inauguration, President Javier Milei referenced the weekly Torah portion, suggesting it's a divine sign to follow Abraham's lead.
text
Argentine President Javier Milei on Monday officially appointed Geraldo Werthein, a Jewish businessman and former ambassador to the United States, as the country’s foreign minister.
Werthein is a former Argentine ambassador to the United States whose ancestors escaped Jewish persecution in Russia in the early years of the 20th century. He took office at an inauguration ceremony at the Buenos Aires headquarters of the Argentine Foreign Ministry, known as the Cancillería.
Unusually for the predominantly Catholic country, the inauguration featured a Torah, on which Werthein swore to uphold his position faithfully. In another deviation from protocol, Milei quoted from the weekly Torah portion, or Parsha, using the Hebrew term in his short speech.
Flanked by soldiers in ceremonial uniforms, Milei faced a visibly emotional Werthein, and asked him whether he swore on the Torah to carry out this patriotic mission. Werthein placed his hand over a copy of the Torah and said “I promise.” The two men embraced for several seconds as the audience applauded.
Werthein, 68, is a former telecommunications businessman whose family is one of the most influential in the country. He is also a veterinarian. Jews have previously served as senior cabinet ministers in Argentina, including former foreign minister Héctor Timerman in 2010-2015.
Acknowledging the unusual characteristics of the inauguration, Milei said: “Since today we have moved away from the conventional and traditional format and the oath was taken on the Torah, I thought it pertinent to speak about the weekly Parsha,” said the president, referencing Parashat Lech Lecha.
“The forces of heaven are sending you signals, Gerardo. It speaks of the beginnings of Abraham’s travels around the world, spreading the messages of the creator. God tells him that he will have a lot of influence on the nations of the world and gave him an important responsibility to bring the messages of the Torah, of life and of freedom to the entire world. Success and blessings,” said Milei.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz called this "a touching gesture" that reflects Milei's "profound and genuine connection to the Jewish people and the State of Israel." In a tweet on X Tuesday, Katz added: "We value President Milei's commitment to the friendship between our peoples, and I want to wish Foreign Minister Werthein much success. I am confident that together we will strengthen the ties between our two countries."
Werthein funded Milei’s trip to the United States following Milei’s election last year. The two men visited together the grave of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson of Chabad in New York.
Milei is a right-wing populist who has vowed to overhaul Argentina’s ailing economy following decades of nepotist center-right and center-left administrations. He has also promised to revolutionize Argentina’s foreign relations, regarding which the Cancillería has often mirrored the policies of some of Argentina’s socialist neighbors.
The Argentine president is not Jewish but has spoken often about his spiritual connection to Judaism. He has said that Argentina’s key allies are the United States and Israel.
Israel will only agree to a nuclear deal with Iran that eliminates Tehran's capacity to enrich uranium, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the JNS International Policy Summit on Sunday.
The only way to prevent the Islamic Republic from building a nuclear weapon is to dismantle "all the infrastructure of Iran's nuclear program," he said, adding, "That is the deal."
Israel, he continued, "cannot live with anything short of that—anything short of that could bring you the opposite result, because Iran will say, all right, I won't enrich, wait, run out the clock, wait for another president, do it again." This, he said, was "unacceptable."
According to the prime minister, "a bad deal is worse than no deal."
"And the only good deal that works is a deal like the one that was made with Libya, that removed all the infrastructure," he declared, echoing remarks he made during an April 7 meeting at the White House.
He emphasized that while it is "important" that Jerusalem and Washington share the same goals, "We have to make sure that Iran does not get nuclear weapons."
In addition to eliminating Tehran's ability to enrich uranium, the prevention of Iran's development of ballistic missiles should also be addressed, he continued.
"I think these are the two requirements. I said to President Trump that I hope that this is what the negotiators will do," he said. "But I said one way or the other, Iran will not have nuclear weapons."
Iran and the United States concluded a third round of indirect nuclear talks on Saturday in Muscat, Oman, with both sides citing “serious progress” but warning that significant disagreements remain.
The notion that a Palestinian state will produce peace is "folly, nothing more than folly," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the JNS International Policy Summit in Jerusalem on Sunday evening.
"I'm saying this for the ambassadors who are here—all of you know this," he said. "We just tried a Palestinian state in Gaza," he continued. "You saw what that brought, right?"
The Jewish state had been "attacked savagely, horribly" on Oct. 7, 2023, said Netanyahu. When German Chancellor Olaf Schultz, who visited Israel early in the war, "saw the film of the horrors and visited the sites, he said there: they're exactly like the Nazis," the Israeli premier recalled.
"And I said, well, they're different. Not in intent, not in savagery—but the Nazis tried to hide their crimes. And these people carry GoPro cameras, live, you know, they're ecstatic about the blood they shed, the people they butcher, the women they rape, the men they beheaded, the babies they burned," he continued.
"You cannot build peace and security on lies. If you do so, sooner or later, these lies will crash on the realities of the Middle East," he said.
The premier spoke for some 30 minutes about the ongoing seven-front war, which he said was "really a one-front war with Iran and its proxies."
With regard to the Gaza Strip, he said, "There's still more to be done." Israel must finish the war in Gaza, "get our hostages back and destroy Hamas. Hamas will not be there and we're not going to put the P.A. there," he said, referring to the Palestinian Authority.
"Why replace one regime that is sworn to our destruction with another regime that is sworn to our destruction?" asked the longtime leader.
Israel will "in any case" control Gaza militarily, according to Netanyahu.
"So what's left? Well, quite a few things and many opportunities, but obviously they'll all go down the tube if Iran gets nuclear weapons," he added, vowing to work with Washington to ensure that Tehran will not be able to enrich uranium under a possible deal.
Turning to Lebanon, Netanyahu said that the Sept. 27 Israel Defense Forces operation that killed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah terrorist army, "really broke" the axis of evil headed by Tehran.
"It was a terrific blow. Some people are irreplaceable. And so far, he's been irreplaceable," he said. "And so having delivered that blow to Hezbollah, we also delivered a blow to [former Syrian dictator Bashar] Assad, because Assad was relying heavily on Nasrallah," he continued.
With regard to Yemen's Houthi rebels, who on Sunday launched yet another ballistic missile attack on Israel, Netanyahu expressed his appreciation for U.S. efforts to combat the threat.
"We appreciate the fact that the United States is taking action against the Houthis," he said. "We appreciate the help that we're getting from the United States. Arms are flowing in. It's important we share the same goals, but we have to make sure that Iran does not get nuclear weapons."
Israel needs support rather than U.S. boots on the ground, he emphasized. "That support means that the U.N. Security Council does not make binding resolutions against Israel. It means that Israel is not sanctioned, is not choked by the international community—and that support is being threatened by the systemic public opinion campaign," he continued.
"And if there's one thing that has to be done it is to fight back," the prime minister concluded. "So I ask you to continue to fight for the truth."
A distinguished panel of public intellectuals, legal experts and activists painted a grim picture of Israel’s democracy at the inaugural JNS International Policy Summit in Jerusalem on Sunday, warning that power has been wrested from voters by unelected elites.
The panelists predicted an inevitable confrontation between elected officials, representing the majority, and an entrenched elite seeking to maintain control. They pointed to Israel’s Supreme Court as the main driver of what they called a decades-long erosion of democratic governance.
In 1995, the court declared a "constitutional revolution," despite there being no intention to do so on the part of Israel’s Knesset, which had passed two basic laws in 1992 without any notion of transforming the system.
“Over the past four decades, Israel has transformed from a parliamentary democracy into the world’s foremost juristocracy, with the boldness and speed of judicial imperialism increasing wildly within the past decade,” said Aylana Meisel, host of JNS TV’s "Basic Law."
Describing this as an “existential challenge to democratic self-governance,” she warned that the court’s supremacy “has removed the capacity for compromise and lessened the responsibility and accountability of lawmakers, displacing the rule of law with the rule of lawyers.”
Ran Baratz, founding editor of the conservative magazine Mida and a lecturer at Hebrew University, said, “Israel was the first democracy to undergo a constitutional revolution without any participation from the people.”
He noted that while bureaucratic and judicial overreach is a problem in many Western democracies, “Israel has gone the furthest, to the extreme of this bureaucratic-judicial coup.”
Participants at the Israel Democracy Forum panel at the JNS inaugural JNS International Policy Summit in Jerusalem, April 27, 2025.
According to Baratz, the judicial branch has absorbed much of Israel’s bureaucracy, sidelining the legislative and executive branches. Government institutions, once subordinate to the elected executive, now “swear allegiance to the court," he said—a trend he called a "warning sign" for democracies worldwide.
Baratz went so far as to describe Israel as a “failed state,” claiming that the separation of powers has collapsed. "We live in a sort of anarchy. We pretend we have an executive branch and a parliament," he said. He pointed to left-wing protesters holding up posters of unelected officials—heads of the Attorney General’s Office, the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and the Israel Defense Forces—as evidence that real power has shifted away from elected representatives.
Israeli historian and commentator Gadi Taub echoed Baratz’s concerns. “Israel is not a democracy,” he said. “There is no action by the elected branches that the court cannot overrule. Sovereignty is now in the hands of 15 unelected judges who control judicial appointments."
IDF Maj. (res.) Shay Kallach, founder of Netsach Israel, said a “tiny minority elite” controls Israel's foundational institutions, carrying the mindset of a majority, while “the actual majority, ironically and unfortunately, carries the mindset of a minority.”
Kallach traced the roots of Israel’s bureaucratic dominance back to the pre-state period, when early leftist leaders introduced authoritarian tendencies.
However, not all panelists agreed that Israel had lost its democracy.
Yossi Hollander, a software industry pioneer and chairman of the Israel Institute for Economic Planning, told the audience, “Israel is a democracy—a democracy with problems, like any other.” “If I have to choose Israel’s problems versus, say, France’s, I’d rather have Israel’s,” he said.
Ruthie Blum, senior contributing editor for JNS and a former adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, also cautioned against extreme language.
While acknowledging the Supreme Court’s outsized influence, Blum warned that calling Israel "anti-democratic" plays into the hands of the country's enemies abroad.
"The Supreme Court isn’t democratic—not Israel as a whole," she said, adding that left-wing protesters have similarly accused Netanyahu of "destroying Israeli democracy."
Despite the panel’s bleak diagnosis, several speakers expressed optimism about Israel’s future, noting that those aligned with unelected powers are aging and increasingly out of touch with the public.
Doug Altabef, chairman of the board of Im Tirtzu, placed his faith in Israel’s citizens.
“Despite the political divisions, there is a surprising consensus underneath," he said.
“The hysteria in left-wing discourse—claims of a coup, the end of democracy, calls for civil war—are signs of desperation. The left is not resonating with the people,” he said.
Taub said he remained hopeful because the system’s dysfunction was "too absurd" to sustain itself.
“Eventually, once you separate authority from accountability to such an extent, the system will break down,” he predicted.
The court has already brought cases "to the edge of the precipice," he said, warning that sooner or later it would either face public backlash or be ignored by the Knesset. “In the end, you cannot rule a society without legitimacy.”
Taub concluded by affirming the strength of Israel’s citizenry: “Israel has an instinctively democratic public. The rebirth of Israel signified that Jews are again masters of their own fate in their own sovereign state. This is the heart of Zionism.”
Meisel agreed, stating, "The Jewish state is a miracle. The Jewish people are a miracle. And it is with them that we will forge the destiny that lies ahead."
Israel will not participate in upcoming International Court of Justice hearings regarding the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced on Sunday.
Sa’ar’s office sent out a statement announcing the decision, and he confirmed it during a Q&A at the JNS International Policy Summit in Jerusalem.
“Instead, Israel’s position on this matter will be delivered tomorrow (28.4) at a press conference at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” the ministry’s statement read.
The U.N.’s top court is set to hear statements by lawyers from more than 40 states arguing that Israel's ban on all cooperation with UNRWA is a breach of the U.N. charter.
The five days of hearings at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague are expected to focus on whether Israel acted unlawfully when it rescinded the immunities it had afforded to UNRWA.
Sa’ar noted that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague had summoned Israel three times before the current hearings.
"I don't think there is any precedent for a democratic country, or even a non-democratic country, to be brought to the ICJ," he said. Israel, he added, “will not take the defendant’s stand” before the United Nations.
Sa'ar accused the Palestinian Authority and its backers of leading the international legal assault against the Jewish state at the ICJ, where Israel is also facing war crimes charges, and the International Criminal Court, where it is facing genocide charges. Israel and the United States, as well as Hungary, rejected these allegations.
"They are trying to minimize our ability to fight in the political battle," Sa’ar said of the P.A. "For example, they sent the ICJ to deal with the 'legality of the occupation.' We say: There is no occupation. It is our land, we cannot occupy that."
In November, Israel cut all ties with UNRWA operations in Gaza, Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem in accordance with a law passed after evidence surfaced of Hamas’s infiltration of the refugee agency.
In Israel, experts on UNRWA, including former Israeli lawmaker Einat Wilf, dispute claims that Israel’s refusal to work with UNRWA contradicts international law. Israel is not party to any treaty compelling it to engage with the group or allow its activities, Wilf told JNS.
UNRWA provides food, education and medical care to two million people in Gaza. Hundreds of UNRWA workers are believed to have engaged in terrorism in recent years, including on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists invaded Israel. At least one of them was filmed loading the body of an Israeli into a vehicle.
According to Israel, over 450 people belonging to terrorist organizations in Gaza, mainly Hamas, are also employed by UNRWA. UNRWA’s chief officer, Philippe Lazzarini, has flatly denied these allegations.
The onslaught of Oct. 7, 2023, in which thousands of terrorists murdered some 1,200 Israelis and abducted another 251, exposed new levels of complicity by multiple employees of UNRWA.
It led to the passing of laws banning Israeli officials from engaging with UNRWA and banning the agency's activities in Israel.
Through UNRWA, the United Nations employs a unique refugee definition to Palestinians. UNRWA defines as refugees not only those who fled Israel's War of Independence in 1948, but also their descendants in perpetuity, until a “just solution” emerges for their status. Critics accused the United Nations of insisting on this definition, preserved through UNRWA, to perpetuate the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Encouraging voluntary emigration from Gaza is the "most moral and humane thing to do," Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar said in an interview at the JNS International Policy Summit on Sunday night.
This is true of anyone who thinks Palestinians "are human beings and not just as a weapon against Israel," Sa'ar declared in a conversation with summit chairman Richard D. Heideman.
Arab nations "are trying to deny the rights of the Gazans, their free will or free choice to immigrate," continued Jerusalem's top diplomat.
Emigration should be possible under two conditions, he said.
"First, that a certain person or a certain family wants to immigrate from its free will and free choice. They should have been given the same right as any other person on earth, from Syria, from Afghanistan or from any other place. And the second condition should be that there is a state which is really to accept on the other side," he added.
The Israeli Security Cabinet on March 22 approved Defense Minister Israel Katz’s proposal to establish a directorate within his ministry to facilitate the voluntary emigration of residents from the Strip.
Katz stressed that the initiative aligns with the vision of U.S. President Donald Trump, who is seeking to turn the 25 miles of Gaza’s coastline into a real estate development and relocate some 2.2 million residents.
“We are working with all means to implement the U.S. president’s vision, and we will allow any Gaza resident who wants to move to a third country to do so,” Katz said last month.
Some 36,000 Gazans, or almost 2% of the coastal enclave’s population, have left the Strip since the start of the war prompted by Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre in southern Israel, Channel 12 News reported on Friday.
Most of the departing Gazans went to Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, countries in Western Europe and Romania, the report said.
A survey published in Britain’s Telegraph last month revealed that 52% of Arabs in Gaza, or more than 1.1 million people, would leave the Strip either temporarily or permanently if given the opportunity.
Israel's ongoing war against Iranian-backed terrorist groups is the fight of "all who believe in freedom, justice and peace" Israeli Minister of Culture and Sports Miki Zohar told the inaugural JNS International Policy Summit in Jerusalem on Sunday evening.
"We gather her today in Jerusalem, the holy city, and I'm grateful for the opportunity today to address you in this significant week," the Cabinet minister said, referencing the Jewish state's upcoming memorial and independence days on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.
"These are days when the Israeli hearts beats with double intensity," Zohar said. "This year, more than any other, these emotions feel sharper, more painful, and more real than ever. Since Oct. 7, the State of Israel has been facing one the most difficult times in its history.
"It is my duty not only to promote Israel's creativity, but to ensure that Israel's story is heard," said the Jewish state's culture minister. "From this place, in Jerusalem, I call on the world: Stand with us."
Amelia & Josh Katzen, Founders of JNS-Jewish News Syndicate
Israeli Minister of Culture & Sport Miki Zohar, and a musical tribute in honor of survivors, soldiers and the fallen performed by Hagit Yaso
Alex Traiman, CEO of JNS-Jewish News Syndicate
Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Gideon Sa’ar, interviewed by summit chairman Richard D. Heideman
The Final Collapse of U.N. Peacekeeping: Senior Fellow at FDD and former IDF International Spokesperson, Lt. Col. (res.) Jonathan Conricus
The U.N. and International Courts: Law, Legitimacy and Bias: Natasha Hausdorff
Israel’s Backbone of Resilience: Amb. Gilad Erdan, president of Magen David Adom Global, in conversation with JNS Senior Contributing Editor Ruthie Blum
Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations Ambassador Danny Danon, in conversation with JNS Features Editor Steve Linde
The Hungary-Israel Alliance: Minister of State for Security Policy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary Péter Sztáray
Why the Jews?: CEO of Cross River Bank Gilles Gade
JNS International Policy Summit Chairman's Address: Richard D. Heideman
KEYNOTE ADDRESS: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
JNS TV Presents “Israel Undiplomatic,” with co-hosts Ruthie Blum and Amb. Mark Regev
DIPLOMATIC PANEL: Chair: Fleur Hassan-Nahoum Guatemala’s Ambassador to Israel Ava Atzum Arévalo de Moscoso Argentina’s Ambassador to Israel, Shimon Axel Wahnish; Panama’s Ambassador to Israel, Ezra Cohen; Paraguay’s Ambassador to Israel, Alejandro Rubin
Closing musical performance, performed by Hagit Yaso
Israeli authorities were working on Sunday afternoon to rescue around 100 teenagers who were trapped in the Ein Prat Nature Reserve in the Judean Desert after a fire broke out on a popular hiking trail.
"Firefighters from the Binyamin Regional Station are currently working on a fire in Nahal Prat," the Israel Fire and Rescue Services said in a statement. "According to reports, many hikers remain in the stream, and it is difficult to rescue them. In addition, there is a topographical challenge, making it difficult to reach the center of the blaze."
Nahal Prat is also known as Wadi Qelt.
The effort to rescue the trapped teens includes officers of the Fire and Rescue Services' Lehava National Special Rescue Unit, as well as Israel Police aerial assistance, the statement noted.
The group of some 100 Orthodox teenagers is hiking in the area as part of a school trip.
The Magen David Adom emergency medical response group said it received a report "regarding a fire in Wadi Qelt, between the village of Kfar Adumim and Alon.
"At this stage, there are no casualties," the NGO said. "Medics near the fire location are securing the firefighting operations and reporting on hikers present at the scene, who are being evacuated in stages."
Binyamin Regional Council head Israel Ganz, whose jurisdiction includes Nahal Prat, was called away from the inaugural JNS International Policy Summit in Jerusalem to assist in the rescue effort.
The Israel Defense Forces "forcefully" struck a Hezbollah arms storage facility in Beirut on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed in a joint statement.
The strike in the Hezbollah stronghold of Dahiyeh in the southern part of the Lebanese capital targeted "infrastructure in Beirut where Hezbollah's precision missiles were stored, which posed a significant threat to the State of Israel," the Prime Minister's Office confirmed.
"Israel will not allow Hezbollah to strengthen and to create any threat against it—anywhere in Lebanon," it said. "The Dahiya district in Beirut will not serve as a safe haven for the Hezbollah terrorist organization.
"The Lebanese government bears direct responsibility for preventing these threats. Israel will persist in its war objective to safely return the residents of the north to their homes," the PMO statement concluded.
Earlier on Sunday, the Israeli Air Force killed a Hezbollah terrorist advancing efforts to reestablish the group’s military infrastructure near Halta in southeastern Lebanon, near the Golan Heights.
The operative played a key role in Hezbollah’s attempts to rebuild its presence close to the Israeli border, in violation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, the IDF said.
The Beirut airstrike is part of ongoing Israeli efforts to block Hezbollah’s entrenchment in Southern Lebanon, amid heightened tensions since a fragile ceasefire took effect in November 2024. The ceasefire ended more than a year of attacks from Lebanon launched in support of Hamas after the terrorist group's Oct. 7, 2023 massacre in southern Israel.
"The IDF will continue to act to protect Israeli citizens and sovereignty," the military said on Sunday.
