Argentinian President Javier Milei, who is on a three-day visit to Israel, spoke at a special Knesset plenum session held in his honor on Wednesday, at which he announced that his country would move its embassy from the Tel Aviv area to Jerusalem next year.

He was warmly welcomed in the Knesset by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana and Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, all of whom effusively praised the warm ties that have developed between Israel and Argentina under his leadership.

“Javier, you are a true friend. With this visit, we are bringing our relations to new heights. 12,000 kilometers separate Buenos Aires, Israel and the Knesset in Jerusalem,” Netanyahu said to the visiting South American leader. “This great distance is compensated for by the closeness of our hearts.”

Milei, who first announced his intention to move the embassy during his first state visit to Israel in February 2024, announced in the Knesset plenum that “in 2026 we will make effective the move of our embassy to the city of West Jerusalem.”

The embassy is currently located in Herzliya, just outside Tel Aviv.

Milei opened his remarks on a somber note, addressing the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led terror onslaught in southern Israel, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage, and the ensuing war in the Gaza Strip, now in its 21st month.

“The world witnessed great barbarity” on October 7, he said. “We believed that we had finally put an end to this barbarity — the tragedy of October 7 woke us up from this dream.”

“Argentina stands by you in these difficult days,” he told members of the Knesset. “Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about a large part of the international community that is being manipulated by terrorists and turning victims into perpetrators.”

The visiting Argentinian leader said that Buenos Aires will continue to demand that the hostages be released, including the four with Argentinian citizenship.

He also took the opportunity to criticize climate activist Greta Thunberg, who was detained and deported by Israel earlier this week after sailing to the region on a mission aimed at breaking the Gaza blockade.

Thunberg “became a hired gun for a bit of media attention, claiming that she was kidnapped when there are really hostages in subhuman conditions in Gaza,” he said, according to the translation of his remarks from Spanish provided by the Knesset.

“How does the world allow a murderous terrorist organization to continue to hold innocent civilians hostage?” he asked. “When both sides are good and evil, there is no moral equality here.”

He then adopted a more positive tone, and turned to describing the “many miracles” that Israel and the Jewish people have performed.

“The first miracle is the establishment of the State of Israel after the Holocaust, and the second is Israel’s survival after repeated attempts to destroy it,” he said.

He suggested that a third miracle performed by Israel was that of “the agricultural revolution that made the desert bloom.”

“You managed to grow food on land where nothing else grew,” he praised.

Netanyahu, for his part, thanked Milei for “standing by our side in the campaign against the forces of darkness,” and declared that Israel and Argentina “will achieve enormous things” together.

In the face of Hamas’s “brutal and unprecedented aggression, you said in clear words – we are on your side in the battle against the forces of darkness,” the premier said.

He told the Argentinian president that Hamas is trying to “trample human dignity and will not hesitate to do so by any means.”

“I can assure you that we will continue to fight them. Israel is a fortress of democracy in the Middle East,” he declared. “We will not fall, nor will we surrender, we will win, and we will bring back all the living and the dead. We will make sure that Gaza no longer threatens Israel.”

The praise for Argentina’s direction under Milei was repeated by both Lapid and Ohana, who declared that he was “the best friend ever to the State of Israel and the Jewish people” in his country’s history.

“Time and again, you have chosen to prefer truth over comfort, faith over fashion, and a moral compass over belonging to an automatic majority,” he said. “By standing by the State of Israel, you have woven yourself and the Argentinian people into the eternal story of the Jewish people.”

Lapid addressed Milei in Spanish from the Knesset rostrum, telling him conspiratorially that, “since the prime minister does not know Spanish, I can tell you in secret that we disagree on almost everything. But there are two things on which we agree.”

“The first is that Jews have the right to defend themselves. Israel will not surrender or bend. Neither in the face of terrorism nor in the face of lies,” said the opposition leader. “The second is that your friendship and support for Israel move us all.”

Switching to Hebrew, Lapid took the opportunity to launch a coded attack on Netanyahu through praise of Milei’s economic reforms.

Milei is “not only a great friend of Israel, he is also a true economic right-winger” said Lapid, noting that the “first thing” he did upon taking office was to close all of his government’s “unnecessary ministries.”

“Today, they have eight government ministries. A country of 46 million people. Enough for them. Cut jobs, fired cronies, reduced benefits, fought a culture of idleness and living at the expense of others,” Lapid said, adding: “Let’s learn from the man who came to visit us today.”

AFP contributed to this report.