Itamaraty acted to maintain the credibility of its own foreign policy by recalling the Brazilian ambassador to Israel, Frederico Meyer, amid the diplomatic crisis with the Middle Eastern country.
Among all the possible options for Brazilian diplomacy, this was considered the best to show that Itamaraty really supports with actions the positions expressed by the government in the foreign relations sector.
Obviously, the crisis itself – unnecessarily provoked by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's clumsy and unfortunate statement, associating the nefarious figure of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler with the war in Gaza – is already eroding some of this diplomacy, at least in some capitals around the world.
But any other move other than summoning Meyer would be even worse, in the opinion of the leadership of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
It would show a weakness in Brazilian diplomacy and ruin its credibility – exactly when Brazil presides over the G-20 and on the eve of a meeting with the bloc's foreign ministers in Rio de Janeiro.
After all, if the President of the Republic and his government believe that a genocide attempt is underway against the Palestinian people, then Itamaraty has to support this position and denounce the Israeli government – as Lula did at every opportunity he had during the trip to Africa.
In the assessment of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “tried to silence a voice critical of what the Israel Defense Forces are doing in the Gaza Strip”, in a conflict that has already left around 30,000 dead and more 170,000 injured – the vast majority of them women and children.
Furthermore, the assessment of senior ministry sources is that the current Israeli government “humiliated a friendly country and the ambassador of this friendly country by putting on a lame show” by forcing Meyer to accompany the local Foreign Minister to a public meeting. at the Holocaust Museum.
Worse still, Minister Israel Katz insisted on giving an interview, in Hebrew, alongside the Brazilian ambassador, in which he stated that Lula was “persona non-grata” in Israel.
The embarrassment was great and Itamaraty assesses that this is a deliberate way of acting by the Netanyahu government to, through this type of “bullying”, silence critics inside and outside his country.
Itamaraty says it is now working to calm the situation and hopes that relations will normalize over time.
But an experienced Brazilian ambassador also warns: “in these times of sealing and digital communication, all it takes is one clumsy tweet to start everything over again”.
And, this Thursday, Minister Katz returned to the spotlight in exactly this way: tagging President Lula on X, the old Twitter, and saying: “Millions of Jews around the world are waiting for your apology.”
The crisis could escalate even further. But Itamaraty says it will not back down.
Source: CNN Brasil
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