June 29, 2026, New York, NY – The American Jewish Congress applauds the words of Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, a leading candidate in Brazil’s upcoming presidential elections, who steps boldly into the moral vacuum left by the country’s current leadership. Where the current government in Brasília recoils from Israel, Senator Bolsonaro reaches toward the Jewish state openly and proudly, without the cowardly hedging that has too often become the native tongue of Brazilian diplomacy.
Senator Bolsonaro’s pledge to move the embassy to Jerusalem within six months, to bring Brazil into the Isaac Accords, and to position his country firmly alongside the United States is a welcome breath of fresh air, one that we hope signals a shift away from Brazil’s current misguided trajectory.
For the last two years, rather than standing with the United States and Israel in the fight against terrorism, Brazil recalled its ambassador from Jerusalem, turned its back on the Middle East’s only democracy, and lent its name to the malicious case against Israel at The Hague. At the same time, the current government has cozied up to the Iranian regime, whose proxies bombed Buenos Aires and whose networks still wind through the narco-terror that plagues Latin America. Against the backdrop of a troubling rise in antisemitism worldwide, such a posture sends a chilling message to the roughly 120,000 Jews who call Brazil home, a proud and historic community that deserves leaders who treat antisemitism and its enablers as adversaries, not partners.
(Photo: Brazailian Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, a leading candidate for the country’s presidency, addresses a gathering of Latin American lawmakers in Argentina on June 28, 2026. Credit: Israel Allies Foundation.)
