Brazil delivers on promise to vote with Israel
The symbolic victory against Hamas at the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, in which 87 nations supported a draft resolution condemning Hamas, marked another milestone: Brazil took an unprecedented step by siding with Israel and the U.S.
Brazil’s President-elect Jair Bolsonaro. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.
The U.S.-sponsored text would have for the first time condemned the Islamic terrorist group Hamas, which controls Gaza. Although it won a plurality of votes in the assembly, it failed to win the required two-thirds majority.
Eduardo Bolsonaro, the son of Brazil’s President-elect Jair Bolsonaro and a member of the national parliament, tweeted: “This is the first time Brazil votes in favour of Israel and against the terrorist groups, this is a victory! Brazil will no longer be a diplomatic dwarf.” Bolsonaro said that this new diplomatic posture was a result of his father’s statements and the efforts behind the scenes to influence the country’s foreign policy in the transition period (Bolsonaro is set to take office in January 2019).
A month ago the president-elect told Israel Hayom that his incoming administration will depart from Brasília’s pro-Palestinian stance. He further said that it would recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and that Israel “can count on having our vote in the U.N.” He added: “I know that often the vote is almost symbolic, but it helps to define the position a country intends to take. Rest assured that you can depend on our vote in the U.N. on almost all the issues having to do with Israel.”
After Thursday’s vote, the incoming president tweeted a picture of himself on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, with the caption “Good Night Everyone!”
Bolsonaro ran as an anti-establishment candidate who would take Brazil on a new path, including on foreign policy. His latest pro-Israeli statements can be credited, in part, to the work of Israeli Ambassador to Brazil Yossi Shelley.
Report from Sandra Rejwan/JNS
If Brazil wanted to ensure that a resolution would be passed condemning Hamas then why did they vote in favour of a two-thirds majority on the resolution? Sounds very odd to me.
In my meagre opinion…..to both of your questions it doesn’t sound odd to me.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/brazil-s-evangelicals-say-far-right-presidential-candidate-is-answer-to-their-prayers-10763292
More news on your man in Brazil and wondering where it will all lead too…https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-46720899?ocid=global_bbccom_email_01012019_top+news+stories
Why did Brazil vote for the procedural vote requiring a two-thirds majority for the subsequent resolution condemning Hamas? Sound pretty stupid to me.
Well with one of the wealthiest and popular Brazilian evangelical pastors on side who opened a church built as a replica of Solomon’s Temple……