Jewish leaders on Tuesday criticized Brazil’s plans to receive Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad next month and urged the South American nation to condemn his denial of the Holocaust and “support of international terrorism.”
Brazil, which has defended dialogue and engagement with Iran, is due to get a visit from Ahmadinejad in late November.
“For us, it is very sad to know that Brazil will receive a man who publicly says he wants to destroy our country,” Israeli Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger told reporters after meeting with Brazil’s Senate chief, Jose Sarney.
Metzger, who participated in a religious seminar in the capital, Brasilia, urged Brazilian authorities to call off the visit.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center, or SWC, a Jewish human rights organization, said Brazil should use the visit to condemn what it described as Ahmadinejad’s anti-Semitic rhetoric.
“Brazil will have the opportunity … to condemn his dangerous calls for the destruction of Israel, his denial of the Holocaust, and his support of international terrorism,” Shimon Samuels and Sergio Widder of SWC Latin America in Buenos Aires said in a letter to Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim.
In an e-mailed statement, they said Iran harbored terrorists involved in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people. Iran has repeatedly denied any link to the attack.
Brazil’s Foreign Ministry had no immediate comment on the Jewish leaders’ remarks but reaffirmed its position of promoting engagement with Iran.
Brazil, a rising diplomatic power campaigning to gain a permanent seat at the U.N. Security Council, has adopted a more conciliatory line toward Iran than Western allies, including the United States.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva urged Western leaders Last month to stop pushing Iran over its nuclear program and instead talk to it to foster peace.
(Source: Reuters)
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6 Responses
Many may read this article and think, why would a Jew want to live in a place like Brazil? My fellow Americans, look at your president and ask YOURSELVES the same question! – Dai l’chachima b’remiza.
#1, maybe because people have more going on in their lives than who the president is, even though he is very worthy of impeachment. Did you leave your job, pick up and move when Obama was elected? Fact is, too, if one still lives here after Bush/Cheney, then Obama is just the dust after the crash.
Since the end of the military dictatorship in Brazil, the many of the country’s politicians have sought to blame US influence for brazil’s structural problems (rich/poor gap, poverty and criminality).
Despite being an absurd claim, the masses have bought into it and anti-american sentiment in the country is quite palpable (I’ve lived there for more than 2 decades). Therefore, Brazil’s closeness with Ahmadinejad and Chavez and unequivocal support for palestinians are only reflections of that leftist mentality.
Most jews are happy in Brazil but even those who might consider leaving, the only option is Israel, which is not considered a good option by most jews in golus.
Unlike many YWN readers think, the US borders are pretty much closed, and trying to obtain a greencard is extremely hard (almost impossible) for most foreigners.
it is extremely hard for brazilians to obtain visasa for the usa.
the reason why brazil is such a third world country despite the fact there it is extremely rich in natural resources is because, i think, they had an active inquisiton and quite a few of our brethren were burned al kidduch Hashem.
#2 “veryintersting” – I must disagree. Though I was not a Bush/Cheney fan, and they DID do plenty that was wrong, you can NOT compare them to obama. He is out to change the very nature of this county, to change the basic structure and beliefs that made this country great. He is out to make the U.S. another France, just another (socialistic) country in the new one-world order. This make work for you if you are in the lowest income bracket where you will be on the receiving end of the government’s handouts, and may even work for you if you are in the top income bracket where perhaps you have the ability to manipulate your money and taxes so you wont be affected too badly, BUT if you are in the middle income group, prepare to be majorly… “molested” as the president “redistributes” your wealth, i.e. takes your money, and gives it to his core constituents.
#5, while I agree with your observation, it is still possible that after Bush/Cheney, if the government does not provide, then the show called America is over, and, heaven forbid, we can enter into a “new Feudal Age”. While I am not on the same page as Obama, I have thought if after the destruction of capitalism (Bush/Cheney), if socialism is not a logical conclusion for a goverment to keep people from running in the streets looting. On a footnote, Obama, as a socialist, is getting nothing done for anyone, anyway. A poor person has it no easier to pay for medical care. There are no construction jobs rebuilding any infrastructure. We are fighting another lame war in Afghanistan, no where near getting Bin Laden. All of which were his chief campaign promises. Obama should be spelled 0bama, because he is a zero.