RIO DE JANEIRO—He has stated that he will move Brazil’s embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and declared that his first international trip as president will be to Israel.
The new elected president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, who won the presidential election with 55.6 percent of the votes, is clearly ardently pro-Israel.
His victory moved Brazil to the right after four consecutive elections in which candidates from the left-leaning Workers’ Party won.
In his first public comments after his landslide victory, the 63-year-old member of the Brazilian parliament pledged to respect democratic principles, but said he wanted to change the country’s direction.
“We cannot continue flirting with socialism, communism, populism and leftist extremism … We are going to change the destiny of Brazil,” Bolsonaro said in an acceptance address, promising to root out graft and stem a tide of violent crime.
An outspoken admirer of U.S. President Donald Trump, Bolsonaro also pledged to realign Brazil with more advanced economies rather than regional allies.
Bolsonaro’s rival in the presidential election, Workers’ Party’s Fernando Haddad, represented the continuity of the longtime anti-Israel feelings of former left wing presidents Luiz Inacio da Silva and Dilma Roussef.
One low point in Brazil-Israel relations came in 2014, when the Brazilian government recalled its ambassador to Israel for consultations during that summer’s war in Gaza, and a former special adviser to Rouseff described Israeli military actions there as a “massacre.”
Jewish supporters of Bolsonaro also remember da Silva’s recognition of Palestine as an independent state in 2010, seen as part of his alignment with extremist governments such as Iran and Libya. At that time, Brazil donated $10 million to Hamas, the terror group that rules the Gaza Strip and has vowed Israel’s destruction.
The Times of Israel recalls that before her defeat in an impeachment process, Rousseff ignited an unprecedented diplomatic standoff with Israel, when the Brazilian government remained silent for several months to signal an official rejection of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s pick for ambassador in Brasilia. Dani Dayan, who once chaired the settler movement in Israel, ended up heading the Israeli consulate in New York.
In addition to stating a possible move of the embassy to Jerusalem, Bolsonaro also said he would be closing the Palestinian Authority’s Brazilian embassy.
On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke by telephone with Bolsonaro and congratulated him on his election. “I am certain that your election will lead to a great friendship between our peoples and the tightening of links between Brazil and Israel. We await your visit to Israel,” he said.
JNS contributed to this report.