Lula calls Israel a “genocider” but wants to buy its modern army weapons

Brazil’s head of state Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has compared the conflict in Gaza between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas to Hitler’s genocide. This was a harsh, shameful and completely unnecessary insult to the people of Israel and their government.

Despite this, Brazil has purchased 36 self-driving trucks from an Israeli company for $200 million. The purchase of equipment from Elbit Systems would include modern simulators to train the Brazilian Army.

Israeli artillery beat several international companies from countries such as France and China in the selection process. The Israeli company won the tender in good faith. But the ideological factor in Lula’s government has hindered this purchase and led to a split in opinion between those who support the army and those who defend the hard line of the Workers’ Party, such as the all-powerful minister Celso Amorim.

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva pursues an unpredictable and contradictory foreign policy. He called for a rerun of Venezuela’s elections after Nicolas Maduro’s apparent electoral fraud; He calls Israel a genocide and supports Vladimir Putin’s brutality against Ukraine. These are all reprehensible positions, especially those of the current G20 president and Latin America’s largest democracy.

Lula is not on the side of the Gaza residents, but specifically on the side of the Hamas terrorists. Brazil’s Foreign Ministry released a statement condemning the killing of Ismail Haniyeh, one of the world’s most wanted terrorists and leader of Hamas. The pro-Hamas statement was amusingly lacking in self-awareness, saying that “acts of violence, no matter what their motivation, do not contribute to the pursuit of lasting stability and peace in the Middle East.”

Lula is a friend and defender of the regime in Iran. During the inauguration of its new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, Brazil’s vice president Geraldo Alckmin celebrated 120 years of bilateral relations with Tehran. The vice president sat smiling in the front row alongside representatives of Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah.

The Brazilian president was declared persona non grata in Israel after comparing his self-defense efforts to Hitler’s Holocaust. “He has crossed a red line,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, noting that “Israel is fighting to defend itself and secure its future until complete victory.”

During his recent visit to Africa, the Brazilian leader took the opportunity to compare the war in Gaza to the Holocaust suffered by 6 million Jews – a vile and anti-Semitic analogy. The causes, number and lethality of both events are not even remotely comparable. Such an approach reinforces a dangerous anti-Jewish narrative and inflicts pain on the nation that is a victim of Hamas’s brutal attacks on its civilians.

Lula is also an admirer and defender of Putin, who has called on Ukraine to give up its sovereignty and hand over its homeland to the Russian aggressor. The US criticized this position as a mere repetition of Russian propaganda and Europe accused Lula of equating the attacked and the aggressor.

Additionally, the Brazilian president has stated that he would like to invite Putin to the G20 summit in Rio, despite the International Criminal Court issuing an arrest warrant for his war crimes against Ukrainian children.

Brazil has disregarded the sovereignty of the Venezuelan people and called for new elections to strengthen the dictatorial regime that oppresses them. Lula has called for the elections to be repeated despite Nicolás Maduro’s apparent 30-point electoral defeat.

Israel’s technological superiority in defending its sovereignty has become clear. Although some nations condemn its legitimate right to self-defense, Israel has made clear that it has the necessary capabilities to prevent further attacks by Hezbollah and Hamas.

This latest episode about Brazil and its interest in Israeli military technology shows Lula’s double standards and ideological fanaticism. He is not a defender of world peace, but of the interests of authoritarian, anti-democratic and terrorist regimes. In his carnival of lies, his mask has slipped once again.

Arturo McFields is an exiled journalist, former ambassador to the Organization of American States and former member of the Norwegian Peace Corps.

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