Israeli PM, Bolsonaro hail budding ‘brotherhood’
RIO DE JANEIRO: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Brazil’s President-elect Jair Bolsonaro on Friday announced a nascent “brotherhood” between their countries that will boost economic, military and technological cooperation.
The two issued the warm words to the media after a meeting in a century-old military fort on Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana beach, at the beginning of the first-ever visit by an Israeli prime minister to Brazil.
Netanyahu said Bolsonaro had accepted an invitation to make his own visit to Israel, without giving a date.
The Israeli leader is to stay on through Tuesday to join other foreign dignitaries at the inauguration in Brasilia of Bolsonaro, a far-right, securityconscious politician and former army officer elected in October on pledges to crack down on endemic crime and corruption.
Bolsonaro, sometimes called the “Trump of the tropics” for a similar style to US President Donald Trump and rejection of multilateral diplomacy, emphasized the bond he wants to build with Netanyahu, a firm US ally.
“More than partners, we will be brothers in the future, in economy, technology, all that can bring benefit to our two countries,” Bolsonaro said.
He also spoke of cooperation in military and agriculture matters.
Netanyahu, calling his visit “historic,” also spoke of “the brotherhood, the alliance” the two planned as something that “can carry us to great heights.”
“It’s hard to believe that we had no such contacts before,” he said.
However there was no mention of Bolsonaro’s post-election declaration – later walked back – that he intended to follow Trump in moving his country’s embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.
Netanyahu had told reporters on his flight to Brazil that “you can be certain I will speak with him about that in our first meeting.”
But neither man raised the topic in their comments to media, and no questions were taken.
An embassy move could put at risk lucrative Brazilian poultry and halal meat exports to Arab countries, which fiercely oppose any unilateral steps seen as cementing Israel’s claim to all of Jerusalem as its capital.
Netanyahu made his Brazil trip despite domestic political turmoil in Israel and a spike in military volatility in neighboring Syria. — AFP