Alejandro Rubin Cymerman\u00a0 said his next personal priority is getting Israeli backpackers to include Paraguay in their itineraries. He said Israeli visitors \u201ccan show their passports without shame, without fear of being Israeli.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The WhatsApp videos come from Israeli friends who have spotted Paraguay\u2019s flag beside beef for sale. \u201cAmbassador, there\u2019s Paraguayan beef here,\u201d they tell Alejandro Rubin Cymerman, Paraguay\u2019s ambassador to Israel. He had visited supermarkets, suppliers, and buyers to ask them to display the flag. Now, those messages give him a satisfaction that trade figures alone cannot provide.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIsrael needs its supporters to be here,\u201d Rubin told The Media Line in a Spanish-language interview at Paraguay\u2019s embassy in Jerusalem. He arrived in January 2024 with instructions to move the mission to the city during the war. With that move accomplished, his work now includes building commercial and institutional ties that can withstand changes in government, ranging from beef sales to water management and education.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rubin put Paraguayan beef exports to Israel at $220 million in 2025 and forecast roughly $300 million for the current year. That compares with $88 million in 2023, when, he said, exports practically stopped after October 2023. He credited the private sector with much of the subsequent growth. \u201cWe only played a small part,\u201d he said, while describing his effort to make the meat\u2019s Paraguayan origin more visible to shoppers.<\/p>\n
The country itself had been unfamiliar to many Israelis he encountered when he arrived, Rubin recalled. Some asked where Paraguay was, a response he found painful given its longstanding support for Israel, dating back to the 1947 UN partition vote.<\/p>\n
Today I go out, say \u2018Paraguay,\u2019 and people say, \u2018Thank you\u2019<\/p>\n
He believes President Santiago Pe\u00f1a\u2019s public support and the embassy\u2019s relocation helped change that. \u201cToday I go out, say \u2018Paraguay,\u2019 and people say, \u2018Thank you,\u2019\u201d he said. Rubin described Israel, the United States, and Taiwan as the three pillars of Pe\u00f1a\u2019s foreign policy.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Paraguay\u2019s embassy policy has changed with its presidents before. The country moved its mission to Jerusalem in 2018, then returned it to Tel Aviv later that year under a new president. Israel responded by closing its embassy in Asunci\u00f3n. Israel reopened its mission in September 2024, and Pe\u00f1a inaugurated Paraguay\u2019s embassy in Jerusalem that December. Rubin called the earlier reversal the relationship\u2019s worst moment, while stressing that Paraguay never closed its embassy in Israel.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Asked how the relationship could withstand another political transition, Rubin said both governments and their foreign ministries were working to make cooperation useful to their populations. He suggested domestic Paraguayan considerations may have contributed to the 2018 decision. The task now, he said, was to establish \u201cthe strongest possible ties\u201d beneath the embassy\u2019s move to Jerusalem, with benefits for both countries.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Paraguay and Israel have signed at least five memorandums of understanding, according to Rubin, covering areas such as water, innovation, defense, and technology. Their implementation has been uneven. \u201cSometimes signing agreements is easier than carrying them out,\u201d he said. Water cooperation is furthest along: Israeli technical experts have visited Paraguay to examine its water system, an assessment is being prepared, and another delegation is planned.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sometimes signing agreements is easier than carrying them out<\/p>\n
Paraguay\u2019s abundant water does not make that work unnecessary, Rubin argued. The country sits above one of the world\u2019s largest aquifers, he noted, but poor management could create future problems, including declining water quality. \u201cYou might say we have no water problem. But we do have a water management problem,\u201d he told The Media Line. Israel\u2019s experience managing scarce water supplies, in his view, offers practical lessons for a country with very different resources.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
War disrupted the exchanges needed to move projects forward. Rubin said bringing visitors to Israel had been particularly difficult for almost six months. Embassy staff continued working from bunkers, hearing explosions, and feeling the building shake. \u201cWe went through very difficult times,\u201d he said. Visits are resuming, according to the ambassador, after interruptions that slowed cooperation across several fields.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
On cybersecurity, he did not confirm that a separate memorandum expected in 2026 had been signed. He described a process of review and exchanges between the responsible ministries. Under the security agreement signed in 2025, he said, delegations must be formed, with an Israeli delegation due to make the first visit. Arranging travel by defense officials has been difficult while Israel emerges from wartime conditions, he said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rubin distinguished those formal arrangements from existing intelligence and security cooperation, which he said had continued. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t require a memorandum of understanding between the institutions,\u201d he said. \u201cThey understand each other.\u201d He did not describe specific operations or intelligence exchanges but maintained that cooperation between the two countries remained active despite the obstacles to official visits.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Education presents a different problem of measurement. Asked about cooperation with the Feuerstein Institute, an Israeli research center focused on cognitive development, Rubin said the work requires time and cannot be judged as quickly as commercial sales. He did not offer figures for educational outcomes. \u201cIt\u2019s not the same as selling beef,\u201d he said. \u201cBeef is easier. But this is where we\u2019re investing in long-term relationships.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Agriculture also gives the two countries a reason to work together beyond the sale of meat. Paraguay knows how to produce food, Rubin said, but needs to increase output from each square meter of land. He sees Israeli technology as a way to improve productivity, and said private companies were seeking each other out. He also promoted Paraguay as a base for Israeli businesses entering the Mercosur regional trading bloc, citing its economic stability and tax environment.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Paraguay needs a strong Argentina. It needs a strong Latin America.<\/p>\n
Rubin welcomed what he described as a rightward political shift in parts of Latin America, associating it with renewed ties to the United States and Israel. He said Paraguay maintains good relations with its neighbors and benefits when they prosper, while arguing that its economy has become less dependent on their fortunes. \u201cParaguay needs a strong Argentina. It needs a strong Latin America,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
His next personal priority is getting Israeli backpackers to include Paraguay in their itineraries. He described an affordable country with good food and abundant nature but acknowledged that it still needs to win a place in their travel plans. He also offered a reassurance to prospective Israeli visitors: They \u201ccan show their passports without shame, without fear of being Israeli.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
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