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Netanyahu: Israel Is 'the Innovation Nation'

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JERUSALEM, Israel – Israeli hi-tech, Iran and Hezbollah topped the agenda of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's historic visit to Latin America.

It's the first time a sitting Israeli prime minister visited a Western hemisphere country south of the United States. From Argentina to Columbia to Mexico, his hosts rolled out the red carpet for Netanyahu and his wife, Sara.

'Dawn of a New Era'

"And we are beginning here the dawn of a new era and not accidentally we begin it here in Argentina," Netanyahu said.

The last time an El Al aircraft landed in Buenos Aires happened in 1960, when Israel kidnapped Nazi war criminal Adolph Eichmann and whisked him away for trial.

Emanuele Ottolenghi, a senior fellow with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies said, "The prime minister's visit is laden with symbolism."

Netanyahu started his trip at memorials marking Iranian and Hezbollah-backed terror attacks. One targeted the Israeli Embassy in 1992 and two years later the Jewish community building – the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA). More than 100 people were killed in those attacks.

Iranian Terror Covers the World

"Iran's terror has not stopped since then. They have a terror machine that encompasses the entire world, with their sidekick, Hezbollah," Netanyahu said. "In the case of Iran, it is not merely terror, it is also the quest for nuclear weapons that concerns us and should concern the entire international community."  
 
Ottolenghi said Iran would figure in all of Netanyahu's conversations.

"Iran remains Israel's most strategic threat but also because in Latin America increasingly Hezbollah cooperates with organized crime in a narcoterrorism convergence to raise funds for its growing budget," he explained.
 
According to Ottolenghi, the visit also indicates that Netanyahu's strategy to expand relationships is working.

"Israel is gaining new friends outside of the Western World – countries that are no longer automatically voting against Israel at the U.N. – that includes new friends in Latin America. So [it's an] important trip," he said.

Israel and Innovation

"Today the future belongs to those who innovate. Israel is an innovation nation. Some say it's THE innovation nation," Netanyahu said.
 
And that showed in agreements with Colombia and Argentina to share scientific research and expertise in fields like agriculture, water, cybersecurity, and health.

"We can make our air cleaner, our water safer to drink," he said. "We can produce more milk per cow – that's actually what Israel does better than any other country in the world. We can harvest crops in ways that are unimaginable.
 
Netanyahu promised it would be much sooner than 70 years for the next visit of an Israeli prime minister to this part of the world.

From Mexico, Netanyahu headed for the U.S. before the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah, where he'll meet with President Trump and address the U.N. General Assembly.

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About The Author

Julie Stahl
Julie
Stahl

Julie Stahl is a correspondent for CBN News in the Middle East. A Hebrew speaker, she has been covering news in Israel fulltime for more than 20 years. Julie’s life as a journalist has been intertwined with CBN – first as a graduate student in Journalism; then as a journalist with Middle East Television (METV) when it was owned by CBN from 1989-91; and now with the Middle East Bureau of CBN News in Jerusalem since 2009. As a correspondent for CBN News, Julie has covered Israel’s wars with Gaza, rocket attacks on Israeli communities, stories on the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria and