Israel has played the Falklands card against the United Kingdom. It is alleged that Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu instructed that Argentina’s claim to the Falkland Islands be supported. According to the Telegraph, this move came after UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband’s decision last month to impose economic sanctions on settlements in the West Bank. Israel has not made an official statement of support. It is reported that if the sanctions are expanded, Tel Aviv could retaliate by backing Buenos Aires.
Israel has become involved for the first time. Israel’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Danny Danon, last week called at the UN for direct negotiations between Buenos Aires and London, and sources close to London said the speech had been approved at the highest levels of the Israeli government.
Milei is counting on the US and Israel on the Falklands issue. Trump had also announced that Washington was reviewing its Falklands stance, while Milei had met with Netanyahu last month at the 81st UN General Assembly in New York. Argentina applied on October 13. Argentina applied to ITLOS seeking a halt to exploration activities off the islands. The dispute has been ongoing since 1833. In the conflict that turned into war in 1982, 649 Argentine soldiers lost their lives. In addition, 255 British soldiers and three islanders were killed.
Why it matters
The Falklands dispute is moving beyond being a historic sovereignty disagreement between the two countries and is turning into a diplomatic bargaining issue linked to sanctions targeting settlements in the West Bank. Israel’s call for negotiations on a UN platform for the first time shows that the pressure on London may not remain confined to a single capital; Washington’s announcement that it is reviewing its stance also stands out as a factor strengthening Buenos Aires’s hand. Argentina’s application to ITLOS, meanwhile, indicates that the dispute will now be pursued through international legal channels as well as diplomatic maneuvers. Whether the sanctions will be expanded and whether Israel will issue an official statement of support remain two open questions that will determine the course of the file.
Background
Israel is not a new name in the FikirPilot archive: we have published 23 stories mentioning this name in the last 90 days; the most recent is dated October 24, 2026.