Far-right Brazilian president-elect Jair Bolsonaro on Friday met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and while both pledged to deepen ties, there was no announcement as some anticipated of Brazil moving its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.
Netanyahu, the first Israeli prime minister to visit Brazil, arrived in Rio de Janeiro to meet with Bolsonaro, an ideological ally who takes office on Tuesday after his election victory in October. The two men had lunch in a fort on Copacabana beach before delivering statements.
“Israel is the promised land. Brazil is the land of promise,” Netanyahu said, adding that Israel could help in areas such as economics, security, agriculture and water resources.
Bolsonaro pledged that he would visit Israel by March as a way to thank Netanyahu for the gesture.
“We will be starting a difficult government from January, but Brazil has potential,” Bolsonaro said. “So that we can overcome obstacles, we need good allies, good friends, good brothers, like Benjamin Netanyahu.”
The two also visited a synagogue amid tight security, where Netanyahu emphasized his hopes the two countries could operate in a more aligned and friendly manner in the future.
Bolsonaro and top aides have repeatedly said that he would move Brazil’s embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, but since his election he has come under pressure to ditch the idea from powerful backers in the agricultural sector, who fear the decision would hurt their halal meat sales in Arab countries.
The League of Arab States had told Bolsonaro that moving the embassy to Jerusalem would be a setback for relations with Arab countries, a letter seen by reporters earlier this month said.
Such a move by Bolsonaro would be as sharp shift in Brazilian foreign policy as it was for the US when US President Donald Trump relocated the US embassy to Jerusalem in May.
Brazil has traditionally backed a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Some political observers had speculated that Bolsonaro would use Netanyahu’s visit as the perfect way to make the announcement.
Bolsonaro discussed Israel during a meeting in Rio with US National Security Adviser John Bolton late last month.
Although Bolsonaro could well make the announcement at a later stage, a senior US Department of State official on Friday said that the US government expected him to eventually make the move.
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