Argentina’s headline-grabbing new president has promised Israel that he will move his country’s embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv.

‘For me, it is a pleasure, an honor to be here,’ Argentinian President Javier Milei said upon his arrival in Israel on Tuesday. ‘I am keeping my promise to have my first diplomatic visit to Israel. I’m here to convey my support of Israel against Hamas terrorists, my support for the people of Israel who have the right for self-defense.’

‘Obviously, my plan is to move the embassy to western Jerusalem,’ he announced. ‘So for me it’s a great pleasure to be here. Thank you.’

Milei arrived in Israel this week for a three-day trip, accompanied by Argentinian Foreign Minister Diana Mondino and his personal Rabbi Shimon Axel Wahnish. Milei does not practice Judaism but has talked about potential conversion, The Times of Israel reported. 

‘I thank you for recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and for your announcement now to relocate Argentina’s embassy to Jerusalem, the capital of the Jewish people and the State of Israel,’ Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said of the decision. ‘Welcome to Israel, Mr. President.’

Katz declared Milei ‘a person of values who is committed only to the truth’ and thanked him for his support ‘in the just struggle for the defense of the Jewish people against the murderers of Hamas.’ 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Milei a ‘dear friend’ and welcomed him following the announcement and intent to move the Argentinian embassy. 

Terrorist group Hamas said Tuesday that it ‘strongly condemns’ Milei’s decision and viewed the move as ‘an infringement of the rights of our Palestinian people to their land, and a violation of the rules of international law, considering Jerusalem as occupied Palestinian land,’ the Agence France Presse (AFP) reported. 

Most countries maintain their embassies in Tel Aviv, but some countries, such as the United States, have recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moved their embassies in support of the claim. Former President Donald Trump made the move in 2018. 

Milei’s visit included a stop at the Western Wall, where he tearfully embraced the wall, and met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog, with plans to meet with Netanyahu and members of Israel’s war cabinet on Wednesday. 

Herzog and Milei plan to visit Kibbutz Nir Oz, located near the border with the Gaza Strip and one of the areas most heavily hit during the Hamas attack on Oct. 7.

Reuters contributed to this report. 

Israeli intelligence says dozens of hostages previously thought to be alive in Gaza are now confirmed dead, according to a report from the New York Times.

Israeli officials have concluded that at least 32 of the 136 hostages thought to be in Gaza have been killed. Israel reportedly has informed the families of the 32 hostages, according to four officials who spoke to the newspaper.

The report also states that officials are investigating unconfirmed intelligence indicating that at least 20 more hostages may have been killed. Most of those who have newly been confirmed to be dead were killed on Oct. 7, the Israeli military confirmed to the Times.

The report comes as Israel, the U.S., Egypt, Qatar and Hamas continue negotiations for a potential exchange of the remaining hostages for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.

Israel has continued its campaign against Hamas in southern Gaza, with fighting largely centered on Khan Younis, the largest city in southern Gaza. Israel’s military has also carried out attempts to free hostages by force, with varying levels of success.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has vowed that the campaign will continue as far south as Rafah, a city on the border with Egypt.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivered a joint press conference with the Qatari Prime Minister on Tuesday. He confirmed that Hamas had replied with a ‘positive’ message when presented with the parameters of an agreement. They did not offer details on any deal, however.

‘There is still a lot of work to be done, but we continue to believe that an agreement is possible and, indeed, essential,’ Blinken said. ‘We will continue to work relentlessly to achieve it.’

Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Al-Thani nevertheless called on Israel to implement a cease-fire to allow humanitarian aid to flow to Palestinians. He also called on Western nations to continue funding UNRWA, the aid group that Israel has accused of employing hundreds of Hamas collaborators, including at least a dozen who allegedly participated in the Oct. 7 terror attack.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., lashed out at President Biden Monday evening after the White House threatened to veto House Republicans’ stand-alone Israel aid bill.

‘The President’s veto threat is an act of betrayal,’ Johnson said in a statement.

‘Israel is at war, fighting for its very right to exist, while our brave men and women in uniform are in harm’s way on his orders to deter Iran. In threatening to veto aid to Israel and to our military forces, President Biden is abandoning our ally in its time of greatest need. I urge friends of Israel and opponents of Iran to call the President’s bluff and pass this clean aid package.’

Johnson announced over the weekend that he intends to pass legislation to send $17.6 billion to Israel as it fights a war against Hamas. It is expected to be voted on later Tuesday, fast tracked under suspension of House rules — meaning it would bypass a procedural hurdle known as a rule vote in exchange for raising the threshold for passage to two-thirds of the chamber rather than a simple majority.

The White House panned the bill as a ‘cynical political maneuver’ made in response to the Senate’s bipartisan negotiations on security funding and border policy.

‘The Administration spent months working with a bipartisan group of Senators to reach a national security agreement that secures the border and provides support for the people of Ukraine and Israel, while also providing much-needed humanitarian assistance to civilians affected by conflicts around the world,’ a statement from the Office of Management and Budget said.

‘Instead of working in good faith to address the most pressing national security challenges, this bill is another cynical political maneuver. The security of Israel should be sacred, not a political game. The Administration strongly opposes this ploy which does nothing to secure the border, does nothing to help the people of Ukraine defend themselves against [Russian President Vladimir Putin’s] aggression, fails to support the security of American synagogues, mosques, and vulnerable places of worship, and denies humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians, the majority of whom are women and children.’

One of Johnson’s first acts as speaker was putting a $14.3 billion Israel aid bill on the House floor, but the funding would have been offset by money Biden allocated to the IRS.

That bill passed the House with some Democratic support, but Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., panned it as a nonstarter.

‘During debate in the House and in numerous subsequent statements, Democrats made clear that their primary objection to the original House bill was with its offsets,’ Johnson wrote on Saturday. ‘The Senate will no longer have excuses, however misguided, against swift passage of this critical support for our ally.’

As he moves closer to securing the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, former President Donald Trump is getting ready to call for changes at the GOP’s national party committee. 

The former president met on Monday with Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, sources confirmed to Fox News.

Trump wrote in his Truth Social platform following the meeting that McDaniel was a ‘friend’ but that he would be urging changes at the RNC after the Feb. 24 South Carolina GOP presidential primary, which is the next major contest in the Republican 2024 nominating calendar.

‘Ronna is now Head of the RNC, and I’ll be making a decision the day after the South Carolina Primary as to my recommendations for RNC Growth,’ the former president wrote.

In an interview that aired Sunday on Fox News’ ‘Sunday Morning Futures’ with Maria Bartiromo, Trump said of McDaniel: ‘I think she did great when she ran Michigan for me.’

The former president pointed to McDaniel’s previous tenure as chair of the Michigan GOP.

‘I think she did OK, initially, in the RNC. I would say right now, there’ll probably be some changes made,’ he added.

McDaniel is the longest-serving RNC chair in modern history. She was nominated by Trump soon after his presidential election victory in 2016, and she won re-election in 2019, 2021, and January of last year. 

While she ended up easily winning her last re-election, she faced a vocal faction of far-right detractors who viewed her as too close to the party’s establishment wing.

She’s also come under plenty of criticism in recent months over the RNC’s finances.

Alarms are ringing over the party’s fundraising heading into the general election. The RNC ended 2023 with just $8 million in cash on hand, less than half as much as the Democratic National Committee. 

But as Fox News Digital was first to report, the RNC did haul in $12 million in January, its best monthly fundraising haul in the 2024 election cycle.

And Trump, who is the commanding frontrunner for the Republican nomination as he bids for the White House a third straight time, was angry at McDaniel and the RNC in recent months for holding GOP presidential primary debates, which he skipped.

When she won re-election last year, McDaniel said in an interview with Fox News that it would be her last two-year term steering the national party committee.

President Biden’s first three years in office have forced him to confront numerous foreign policy challenges, leading to mixed reviews from experts on how well the president has responded on the world stage.

‘One of the most important accomplishments of the Biden administration has been re-invigorating NATO, which is the most successful military alliance in U.S. history,’ David Tafuri, a foreign policy analyst who served as a foreign policy adviser to the Obama campaign, told Fox News Digital. ‘The future of NATO was in question during Trump’s administration.’

Tafuri’s comments come as Biden faces multiple international crises ahead of his reelection bid in November, including Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, a war in Gaza, and continued tense relations with adversaries such as Iran and China.

To date, Tafuri said the president has demonstrated an improved foreign policy over that of former President Trump’s administration, a comparison that could weigh heavily again as the former president seeks to solidify his grasp on the Republican nomination for president and set up a rematch with Biden.

When it comes to rebuilding the alliance with NATO, Tafuri said Trump ‘openly discussed withdrawing from NATO’ and ‘openly feuded with other NATO members and flirted with [Russian President] Vladimir Putin,’ something that only worked to embolden Russia.

‘Trump’s encouragements to Putin and attempt to blackmail [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy by withholding weapons from Ukraine (for which he was impeached by the House of Representatives), more than anything Biden did, led to the Russian invasion of Ukraine,’ Tafuri said. ‘Now, the front line for protecting democracy and rule of law runs through eastern and southern Ukraine.’

Tafuri also lauded Biden’s handling of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, noting that the president was well ahead of Putin’s plans and began readying Ukraine and allies to respond to the invasion months in advance.

‘This gave Ukraine and its allies time to prepare for the invasion, which proved crucial in Ukraine’s early success in defending Kyiv as well as most of the territory that Russia thought it would be able to occupy,’ Tafuri said. ‘Biden led NATO to work more collaboratively than it has in decades to provide billions of dollars in aid and sophisticated weapons systems to Ukraine, again flustering Russia’s intentions.’

But Ian Bremmer, the president of Eurasia Group, said that as the war in Ukraine drags on it is getting harder for Biden to claim it as a win.

‘A year ago, maybe even six months ago, you would have said Russia/Ukraine’ was a foreign policy win for Biden, Bremmer told Fox News Digital, noting that the U.S. was ‘leading a multilateral coalition of all the NATO allies to put 11 rounds of sanctions on Russia’ but also provided ‘unprecedented amounts of support for Ukraine’ that helped the country in its early battlefield successes.

‘Unfortunately, the last few months have made it much harder to say that’s a win, in part because Zelenskyy is looking weaker and more desperate and his counteroffensive didn’t go well,’ Bremmer said.

Bremmer also pointed to the fact that Biden has been unable to maintain unity among European allies as the conflict drags on, while at home the president has also faced division and questions from Republicans about the continued heavy spending on Ukraine.

‘That makes it harder for him to maintain his commitment to do as much as necessary, whatever it takes as long as it takes,’ Bremmer said.

Despite the setback, Bremmer said Biden has contributed to multiple foreign policy accomplishments in his three years in office. Aside from the improvement in relations with NATO allies, Bremmer pointed to Biden’s work strengthening ties between two critical allies in Japan and South Korea.

‘They were basically at each other’s throats and not engaging diplomatically … hurting their economic and security relationship,’ Bremmer said. ‘The U.S. facilitated a breakthrough, hosted a trilateral meeting at Camp David, and since then, you’ve had dozens of high-level trilateral engagements on the economic side, diplomatic side and security side.’

Bremmer likened the breakthrough to the Abraham Accords that were negotiated under Trump, an agreement that normalized relations between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

‘It’s that scale of a win,’ Bremmer said.

Another accomplishment Bremmer pointed to was Biden’s handling of China, arguing that the president has facilitated a ‘more functional and more stable’ relationship with one of America’s largest adversaries.

Bremmer said the U.S. has ‘not given up anything that matters’ when dealing with China under Biden, noting that those tariffs remain where they were under the Trump administration, yet the U.S. has been able to secure export controls on ‘semiconductors, cloud computing, the CHIPS Act and the chips agreement with the Netherlands, South Korea and Japan.’

‘That is coordinating U.S. industrial policy and probably the most strategically important part of the advanced economy,’ Bremmer said.

Bremmer noted that coordinating with the advanced economy also ‘underpins artificial intelligence,’ a technology that the Chinese are ‘way back’ on.

While Bremmer cautioned that there should be no ‘false sense’ that the U.S. and China suddenly have a ‘relationship of trust,’ he said Biden’s moves have forced China to negotiate in some areas from a ‘position of weakness,’ making them more willing to meet U.S. demands. This has resulted in other wins such as an agreement for the Chinese to shut down exports of ingredients used to make fentanyl in the U.S. and the stopping of Chinese harassment of American aircraft.

While complex issues remain when it comes to China, Bremmer said Biden has positioned the U.S. well to deal with those challenges.

The same might not be able to be said about the Middle East, Bremmer said, noting that the region has been an obvious place of ‘struggle’ for the administration.

‘The big breakthrough in the Middle East in the last three years was facilitated by China, not the U.S.,’ Bremmer said. ‘It was the Saudi, Iran breakthrough … the Americans were completely on the sidelines and kind of surprised by that.’

Bremmer also pointed to the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, which he said was ‘mishandled’ by Biden despite being given a tough situation by previous administrations.

‘Still, Biden mismanaged the withdrawal and did it unilaterally without engaging properly with allies,’ Bremmer said. ‘Of course, the visuals in particular were incredibly embarrassing as the U.S.-supported government folded, collapsed almost immediately.’

Meanwhile, Bremmer noted the lack of progress made between Israel and the Palestinians during Biden’s time in office, which has now resulted in a ‘massive war’ that Biden will be hard-pressed to contain in his current position.

‘As you’ve heard from the head of the CIA and the secretary of state, this is the most dangerous time in the Middle East in at least four years, and it comes at a time when the president of the U.S. does [not] have a lot of leverage over Israeli actions,’ Bremmer said.

That war has come during a period when American forces in the region have continued to be the target of attacks from Iran-backed proxy militias in Iraq and Syria, the most recent of which killed three American service members and injured dozens more.

Biden responded by authorizing a series of more than 100 airstrikes throughout the region on Friday, with Biden warning, ‘If you harm an American, we will respond.’

‘This past Sunday, three American soldiers were killed in Jordan by a drone launched by militant groups backed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). Earlier today, I attended the dignified return of these brave Americans at Dover Airforce Base, and I have spoken with each of their families,’ the president said in a statement shortly after the strikes last Friday.

Yet Biden has faced calls to do more, including hit Iranian targets directly, with some arguing that the president’s unwillingness to do so has led to Iran being emboldened.

While Tafuri believes Iran remains one of the most challenging foreign policy issues for Biden moving forward, he argued that critics shouldn’t ‘tie Iran’s support for the proxy forces and militias that are attacking Americans to any action by President Biden.’

‘These forces have been active for decades and have been targeting Americans since they were founded,’ Tafuri told Fox News Digital. ‘After the Iraq invasion by the Bush administration in 2003, these groups killed hundreds of Americans. In 2016, the Iranian-backed militias were incorporated by law into Iraq’s armed forces, which gave them a big boost in power and influence.’

Instead, Tafuri expressed confidence that Biden will be able to deter such attacks in the future while also tackling the more pressing matter of ensuring the country does not obtain nuclear weapons.

‘A bigger challenge is ensuring Iran does not get nuclear weapons,’ Tafuri said. ‘I expect that over the next year that the Biden administration will focus on disincentivizing attacks on our soldiers by Iranian proxy forces, while keeping the more important goal of restraining Iran’s nuclear ambitions at the forefront of our policy.’