The political partnership between Israel and authoritarian Uruguay, 1972–1980

Between 1972 and 1980, Israel and authoritarian Uruguay developed a political partnership based on their shared self-perception as misunderstood Western bastions fighting terrorism and the proxies of communist expansion, as well as shared concerns about détente and Western human rights discourse. While Uruguay remained the most consequential anti-PLO South American regime, Israel helped the Uruguayan dictatorship manipulate public opinion and cover up antisemitism and Nazi sympathies within its repressive apparatus. When dealing with the effects of Uruguayan repression of leftist Jews, Israeli diplomats tended to prioritise their alliance with the regime over their ethnic-ideological commitment to Jewish solidarity.