Imagined Judaism and the Political Moralization of the West

Abstract

This article examines how Argentine president Javier Milei reconfigures Judaism, Moses, and the State of Israel into a symbolic repertoire through which he moralizes the West and legitimizes his political project. Drawing on a full corpus of presidential speeches (2023–2025), and using a qualitative design that combines directed content analysis with grounded theory, the study reconstructs the emergent categories that organize Milei’s discourse: imagined Judaism, the Moses cluster, and Israel as civilizational exemplum. Contrary to European and Brazilian cases in which right-wing philosemitism subordinates Judaism to Christian conservative identity, Milei inverts this relation. His discourse elevates Judaism to the status of civilizational origin and moral template, transforming biblical motifs into a political rationality that sanctifies free-market capitalism, frames Israel as the distilled West, and positions Argentina as a redeemed disciple within a global struggle between good and evil. By analyzing these symbolic operations through the lenses of philosemitism, performativity, and governmentality, the article shows how Jewish otherness is preserved and mobilized as a source of moral authority. The findings illuminate the distinctive workings of philosemitic imaginaries within the contemporary global right and contribute to broader debates on moralized geopolitics.