Newly elected President Rodrigo Paz signals a major change after two decades of leftist rule.By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel NewsBolivia will renew diplomatic relations with Israel following the victory of center-right Rodrigo Paz in Sunday’s runoff elections, the president-elect said Monday.The leader of the Christian Democratic Party defeated a conservative candidate, as the country had given a firm thumbs down in the first poll to the socialist party, MAS, which had ruled for the last two decades but had become deeply unpopular as it mired Bolivia in a serious economic crisis and corruption scandals.MAS had been decidedly anti-Israel, cutting diplomatic ties with the Jewish state twice while in power.The first time was in 2009, under President Evo Morales, in protest of the Palestinian death toll during the IDF’s Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip.MAS briefly lost power in 2019 and ties were restored, but in 2020 it won again. Just over three weeks after Hamas’ invasion of Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, when the ground incursion into Gaza had barely begun, then-President Luis Arce severed relations with Israel over the Palestinian death toll.Israel condemned the move at the time, saying it showed that the South American country preferred to side with a group that had massacred 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals and took 251 hostages.It was a sign of “Bolivia’s support of terrorism and its submission to the Iranian regime, which attest to the values the government of Bolivia represents,” Jerusalem charged.Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar congratulated Paz personally on his win Monday, in “one of the first diplomatic conversations Paz held since his election yesterday,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.In a post on X, Sa’ar said that he reminded the president-elect that “Bolivia has a long history of friendship with Israel and the Jewish people,” and that “after two decades of strained ties, the time has come to put our good relations back on track.”The two discussed “the great potential Israel sees in strengthening cooperation between our countries across various fields,” he said.Paz and he expressed “mutual interest in opening a new chapter” between the two countries, Sa’ar added.In his victory speech Sunday, Paz said his country would be “reclaiming its place on the international stage.”This will include Bolivia renewing relations with the United States, he announced the next day, repairing ties that were cut in 2008.Under Morales, La Paz turned its back on the West in general, allying with China and Russia as well as other far-left countries in the southern hemisphere, such as Cuba and Venezuela.On Sunday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio had applauded the “historic moment” of Paz’s victory, saying it “marks a transformative opportunity for both nations” after the years of “mismanagement” of Bolivia’s government. The post Bolivia to renew ties with Israel appeared first on World Israel News.