Netanyahu Minister Challenges Brazil Election Results

Bolsonaro platform offers shift in Brazil-Israel relations

Flávio Bolsonaro and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva offer starkly different paths for Palestine. Flávio Bolsonaro is the mirror image of his father, former president Jair Bolsonaro, who is a self-professed Israel lover.

Flávio Bolsonaro affirmed that under his leadership Brazil "will always defend the right of Israel to survive, the right of Israel to fight for its territory, and to defend its people". During a visit to the West Bank in January, he confirmed "full support" for Israeli settlers and pledged to relocate the Brazilian embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

5, Flávio Bolsonaro received premature congratulations from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Bolsonaro has proposed expanding relations with Israel, focusing on "cooperation in the technological sphere" and "massive historic agreements – unprecedented in scale". He also promised to sign the Isaac Accords, a series of agreements to increase cooperation in trade, technology, and counterterrorism.

Palestinian-Brazilian journalist Soraya Misleh said left-wing organizations are more aware that Israel uses Palestine as a global laboratory to test technologies of death before selling them to the rest of the world. Misleh said that if Lula is reelected, "we will continue to demand a complete rupture of economic, military, and diplomatic relations with Israel".

Misleh said Flávio Bolsonaro’s plan to intensify agreements with Israel represents a quantifiably greater threat: "the criminalization and silencing of voices for Palestine in Brazil is set to intensify, amid threats to democratic freedoms. With him, things could get worse. Much worse".

Israeli leadership labels Lula a persona non grata

Lula recalled the Brazilian ambassador to Israel in February 2024. Speaking at the African Union Summit months later, Lula compared Israel’s actions in Gaza to the Holocaust.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Lula a “virulent antisemite” in response. Foreign Minister Israel Katz declared the president a “persona non grata” days later.

Brazil joined South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice in September 2025. Lula has accused Israel of genocide on multiple occasions, specifically condemning the Netanyahu government.

Brazil-Israel economic and military trade shifts

Defense Minister José Múcio Monteiro postponed the signing of a $145 million contract with Elbit Systems for 36 armored howitzers in May 2024. Brazil suspended all arms exports to Israel in 2025.

Brazil recorded zero direct oil exports to Israel in 2025, according to data from the National Petroleum Agency and the Ministry of Development, Industry, Trade and Services. Between October 2023 and July 2024, Brazil served as Israel’s fifth-largest oil supplier.

Brazil remains a signatory to the Mercosur-Israel Free Trade Agreement, which has been in place since December 2007. Brazil imported over $500 billion in Israeli fertilizers in 2025, accounting for approximately one-third of Israel’s total global exports in that sector.

UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese reported that Israel’s agribusiness sector thrives on “Israel-led extractivism and land-grabbing”. Albanese stated these practices produce goods and technologies serving “Israeli settler-colonial interests” while “erasing Palestinian food systems and accelerating displacement”.

Evangelical influence and the Isaac Accords

The rhetoric behind the Isaac Accords uses a shared-enemy narrative referencing “Isaac” and “Ishmael,” the sons of Abraham. Argentine theologian Nicolás Panotto stated that Christian Zionism in Brazil has been linked to political developments for a longer period than in other regional countries.

Under former President Bolsonaro, Christian Zionism was a “strategic ecumenism” between Catholics and evangelicals to promote the far-right, according to Panotto. Evangelicals make up approximately 26.9% of the electorate. Bolsonaro Jr. identifies as evangelical and stated that relations between Brazil and Israel will improve “precisely because I am an evangelical”.

Misleh said the display of Israeli symbols in evangelical spaces is an “instrumentalization of faith that fuels a false religious rhetoric in support of a colonial, supremacist political project”. The Temple of Solomon in São Paulo, built in 2014, features $8 million in limestone imported directly from Jerusalem.

Megachurches, parachurches, U.S. missionaries, and the Evangelical Caucus in the Brazilian National Congress promote loyalty to Israel. Bolsonaro Jr. stated at an Isaac Accords conference in June that “faith-based diplomacy is what has helped nations move their embassies to Jerusalem and stand up against antisemitism”.

Panotto noted that Bolsonaro Jr. is attempting to consolidate his standing within the evangelical camp through symbolic gestures like getting baptized in Jerusalem. This approach differs from his father, who did not engage in similar symbolic actions.

Bolsonaro Jr. described the current political divide in Brazil as a “spiritual war” during a speech at the Assemblies of God. He claimed that the left “uses the devil’s weapons” in this conflict.

Regional right-wing alignment and the Donroe Doctrine

Nasry Asfura in Honduras and Abelardo de la Espriella in Colombia pledge allegiance to United States hegemony while increasing trade, diplomacy and security coordination with Israel. Bolsonaro’s policies mirror those of Argentina’s Javier Milei, El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele and Donald Trump. This approach to interventionism in the Americas is known as the “Donroe Doctrine”.

Bolsonaro plans to join the “Shield of the Americas,” a counter-cartel coalition led by Trump. He promises to revive a “mano dura” approach to law enforcement, which includes building maximum-security prisons and designating organized crime groups as narco-terrorists. Bolsonaro described a sense of “unity” among nations that want to combat organized crime and terrorism with Israel.

The Isaac Accords initiative currently focuses on Costa Rica, Panama and Uruguay, three countries “primed for enhanced cooperation with Israel”. In June, Bolsonaro joined 11 other Latin American legislators at a conference in Buenos Aires where they signed a resolution supporting the expansion of the Accords.

Internal Israeli political tensions ahead of polls

Israeli leadership faces internal friction regarding potential military action against Iran ahead of the nation's upcoming polls. The IDF chief is resisting an order from Benjamin Netanyahu for military action, a conflict described as an “unprecedented confrontation”. The IDF chief warned the United States that a military strike on Iran would disrupt the upcoming Israeli election.

Shin Bet-directed private security is being deployed to protect Golan and Winter ahead of the election. Meanwhile, Serbian President and Netanyahu ally Aleksandar Vučić conceded defeat in his country's election. Arab states are awaiting the outcome of the Israeli election with hope, though they maintain few illusions about the results.