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Netanyahu's man: How Israel is betting on a Bolsonaro comeback in Brazil Submitted by Elis Gjevori on Fri, 10/02/2026 - 09:55 With Israel increasingly isolated internationally, a Flavio Bolsonaro win would hand Netanyahu a strategic ally in Brazil's presidential elections A composite image shows (from left to right); Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Benjamin Netanyahu and Flavio Bolsonaro (MEE/AFP) Off At the launch of his presidential campaign in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in July, an emotional Flavio Bolsonaro looked up at a giant screen as a video from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suddenly began playing. “Flavio, my friend, I want to congratulate you on the official launching of your campaign,” Netanyahu said in a pre-recorded video, looking down at the crowd. “You’re a great champion of Brazil, you’re a great champion of the friendship between our peoples,” he went on. Bolsonaro, the son of imprisoned former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, had just launched his presidential campaign to unseat incumbent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Brazilians go to the polls on Sunday, 4 October. If neither candidate wins 50 percent of the overall vote, a second round will follow on 25 October. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Lula has warned against foreign interference in Brazil’s election, directly telling Trump in June to stay out of the contest. According to Brazilian newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, his warning about foreign influence at the UN General Assembly also targeted Netanyahu and Argentina’s staunchly pro-Israel President Javier Milei, although he did not name them then. “Netanyahu stands to gain” from a Flavio victory, said David Magalhaes, a professor of international relations at the Federal University of Uberlandia in Sao Paulo, Brazil. “[In particular] at a time when Israel is increasingly isolated within the international community, a situation that has worsened because of the indications of extermination or genocide in the Gaza Strip,” he told Middle East Eye. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks via videoconference to support the candidacy of right-wing presidential hopeful Flavio Bolsonaro during the Liberal Party convention, in Sao Paulo, Brazil on 25 July (AFP/Nelson Almeida) (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); In what would be a break with the majority of the international community, Flavio has promised Israel that he would transfer the Brazilian embassy to Jerusalem. Israel occupies Palestinian East Jerusalem. He has also promised to join the so-called “Isaac Accords”, an initiative Argentina’s president announced earlier this year on a visit to Israel alongside Netanyahu. It seeks to embed Israel in Latin American countries’ economic, political and security architecture. Flavio has also adopted Israel’s messianic vision of its occupation of Palestinian land as a fulfilment of biblical prophecy. He not only seeks to revive the Israeli-Brazilian partnership of his father’s presidency, from 2019 to 2022, but to expand it on his own terms. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); The Israeli relationship with Brazil's political right runs through its military and police, its evangelical bloc, and the defence industry - ties that have deepened under left and right governments alike. Magalhaes notes that Brazil underwent a “profound shift by abandoning its historical equidistance between Palestinians and Israelis and adopting a strongly pro-Zionist orientation” during Jair Bolsonaro's presidency. With Netanyahu facing his own electoral test on 27 October, a return to that relationship “would be highly convenient for Netanyahu”, Magalhaes added. It would signal to Israeli voters that their isolation is not hermetic. Current polls put Lula and Flavio neck and neck. In the first round, Lula polls at 39.4 percent and Flavio at 38.4 percent. According to some polls, a runoff would see Lula win a close second-round vote. Israeli influence inside Brazil Eduardo Bolsonaro, Flavio’s brother, is one of the pillars of influence cultivated by Israel in Brazil. That relationship came in handy in January 2025, when the Hind Rajab Foundation filed a case against Yuval Vagdani, an Israeli soldier on holiday in Brazil, accusing him of war crimes while serving in Gaza. The Israeli soldier had to flee the country after a Brazilian judge ordered an investigation. Eduardo immediately worked with the Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli to pressure Brazilian authorities to drop the investigation, which they did. “I recorded the first video defending the Israeli soldier,” Eduardo boasted in an interview. “Thanks to our efforts with Minister Chikli, the decision not to investigate set a precedent,” he said. Israel’s relationship with the Bolsonaro clan is one part of a broader relationship built over a quarter of a century through Brazil’s military and police. Then Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro (C) signs a book near Benjamin Netanyahu near the rabbi of the Western Wall Shmuel Rabinovitch (L) and Bolsonaro's son Flavio (3rd L) on 1 April 2019 (Menahem Kahana/AFP) Israeli influence in Brazil was “built mainly through the armed forces and the police, and from there it extends to far-right parties and movements,” said Bruno Huberman, a professor of international relations at the Pontifical Catholic University of Sao Paulo in Brazil. But, perhaps somewhat ironically, the relationship with Israel “began to change” under Lula’s first stint as president, between 2003 and 2011, he says. As Brazil moved closer to the Global South and Arab countries in particular, it also created a “counterweight” through its relationship with Israel, Huberman said. It did so by “importing weapons, which created a relationship of technological dependence”. The shift was also ideological. The military and police shared what Huberman called an “ideological identification” with Israel, underpinned by “Islamophobia, counterterrorism”. “These unelected public servants thus become a channel of pressure within the state, pushing Brazil closer to Israel not for technical reasons, such as Israeli weapons being better, but for ideological ones,” he said. Israeli arms diplomacy When Jair Bolsonaro came to power in 2019, he immediately leaned on the military to shore up his power. Military officers served as chief of staff and health minister and held about half the ministerial posts in Bolsonaro’s federal government. More than 6,000 active and reserve military personnel took up roles in the country’s civil service. Bolsonaro’s ideological alignment with Israel rested on military ties that predated his presidency. Research by Huberman and Isabela Agostinelli dos Santos, a professor of international relations at FECAP, a higher education institution in Brazil, found that “continuities outweigh ruptures”, with “arms diplomacy” underpinning and stabilising the relationship despite periodic diplomatic spats. 'The Bolsonaro family is far more open to Israeli interests, in Brazil and across Latin America as a whole' - Professor Isabela Agostinelli dos Santos Defence and security ties between the two countries date back to 1964, during Brazil’s military dictatorship. The current arms industry relationship took shape in the early 2000s, with Israeli defence company Elbit Systems playing a central role. Israel’s foothold has steadily expanded since then, with deals reaching “almost $190 million by 2014,” Santos told MEE, adding that “much of it with Elbit, and the arrival of Israeli security firms in Brazil, all took place under the [the Workers' Party],” which Lula leads. “So Bolsonaro didn’t usher in a 'new era'. In fact, he intensified structural dynamics that were already under way,” she added. Any single government would struggle to untie those military dependencies quickly, giving Israel a lasting role in Brazil’s defence industry. Elbit took control of Brazilian avionics company AEL in 2001 and joined Brazilian aerospace company Embraer on a fighter upgrade programme valued at tens of millions. Elbit later supplied equipment for armoured vehicles through AEL, while state-owned Israeli defence company Rafael sold Brazil its Spike anti-tank missiles. “The Bolsonaro family is far more open to Israeli interests, in Brazil and across Latin America as a whole, and that has a lot to do with their alignment with the United States and its special relationship with Israel,” said Santos. Flags and towels bearing the images of Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and right-wing senator and presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro are displayed for sale on a street in Brasilia on 30 September (AFP/Evaristo Sa) Those ties leave Lula balancing his criticism of Israel with the delicate relationship between his party and Brazil’s military, which leans towards the right and is closer to Israel. In August 2024, five months after the Brazilian military signed a $210m deal with Elbit for 36 Atmos 2000 self-propelled howitzers, Lula suspended the contract. Crucially, he did not cancel it. Lula has called Israel’s war on the besieged Gaza Strip a "genocide and an attempt to exterminate the Palestinian people". Brazil has joined the legal proceedings South Africa initiated against Israel at the International Court of Justice. After Lula compared the killings in Gaza to the Holocaust, the Israeli government declared him "persona non grata". Against this backdrop, Brazil withdrew its ambassador from Tel Aviv in 2024. Today, the two countries maintain diplomatic relations only at the level of charge d’affaires. 'Foreign policy rarely decides elections in Brazil' Despite Lula’s stance on Israel over Gaza, three powerful caucuses operate at the parliamentary level. Known as the three Bs, they represent bullets, referring to legislators with a military background; beef, representing powerful agribusiness interests; and the Bible, representing evangelicals. Many evangelicals share the attachment to Israel that their co-religionists in the US hold, and wield similar political power as a voting bloc. Even as the executive branch under Lula tilted modestly against Israel, the legislature created the Brazil-Israel Parliamentary Front in November 2025, reviving a parliamentary vehicle documented as far back as 2004. Flavio Bolsonaro, one of its members, used its launch to signal that a government he led would restore close ties with Israel. “Even with a president who is more critical of Israel, the legislative base is becoming increasingly pro-Israel, largely because of the alliance between the evangelical caucus and the so-called ‘bullet caucus,’” said Santos. 'For most voters, the Israel-Palestine issue mainly reinforces existing loyalties, since the issue now follows Brazil's left–right divide' - Professor Feliciano de Sa Guimaraes In Brazil, the evangelical vote amounts to an estimated 40 million voters. Flavio Bolsonaro had 52 percent support among evangelical voters, against Lula’s 26 percent. In a second-round scenario, the figures were 62 percent and 32 percent respectively. “These religious groups have been the most fervent defenders of the State of Israel, or rather of an imagined Israel, conservative and deeply religious," said Magalhaes. “Foreign policy rarely decides elections in Brazil,” notes Feliciano de Sa Guimaraes, a professor at the Institute of International Relations at the University of Sao Paulo. “Jobs, living costs and public security matter far more to most voters. But international issues do affect presidential popularity,” said Guimaraes, who has been polling Brazilians on their stances on international relations, speaking to MEE. According to the latest Pew research earlier this year on international views of Israel, just over half of Brazilians had an unfavourable view of Israel, and more than 60 percent lacked confidence in Netanyahu. At the start of Israel’s war on Gaza, the “median Brazilian voter leaned pro-Israel”, Guimaraes noted. Since then, he said, it has been the “voter who moved closer to Lula, not the reverse”. “For most voters, the Israel-Palestine issue mainly reinforces existing loyalties, since the issue now follows Brazil's left–right divide,” said Guimaraes. Politics News Post Date Override 0 Update Date Mon, 05/04/2020 - 21:19 Update Date Override 0

Egypt detains entire newsroom of leading fact-checking platform over 'fake news' allegations Submitted by MEE staff on Fri, 10/02/2026 - 10:51 Reporters Without Borders denounces the arrests as the 'first' to target all staff of a media organisation, while more than 80 rights groups call for the journalists' immediate release In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Egypt's President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi attends the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi on 13 September (AFP/Alexander Kazakov) Off Egyptian authorities have detained the entire newsroom of one of the country’s only independent media outlets in a move that rights groups have denounced as a “first” and an “alarming escalation” on free speech. On 28 and 29 September, security forces raided the homes of the six journalists - Mohamed Ashraf Abu Emeira, Abdallah Qadry, Islam Barakat, Omar Helal, Mohamed Mahmoud and Mohamed Adel - who constitute the entire team working for Matsada2sh (Arabic for "Don’t believe"). The arrests bring the number of journalists detained in Egypt to 24. "It is a first in Egypt: an entire newsroom behind bars," press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said, criticising the authorities for failing to reveal the journalists' whereabouts. "It's a violation of the Egyptian Constitution, even though this is common practice. Journalists detained in Egypt are often forcibly disappeared for several days before being officially charged and brought before a court," the group added. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); According to multiple accounts by rights groups, the officers confiscated the phones and laptops belonging to the journalists as well as those of their family members during the raids. They also did not present any arrest warrants and refused to disclose where the journalists would be held. The interior ministry later published a statement confirming the arrests and accusing the journalists of running an unlicensed platform that is “run from abroad” and of spreading "fake news". In Egypt, leaving prison does not mean escaping the security state Read More » It also accused its journalists of being affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s largest opposition group that has been outlawed under the government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi since 2014. One of the platform’s editors was previously detained in 2023 over similar allegations but was released two days later. Matsada2sh was founded in 2018 as a fact-checking outlet that corrects misleading or inaccurate information by various sources, including those by official government sources or opposition media. “Independent journalism is critical in any free society and Egyptian authorities’ failure to allow free exercises of expression to thrive flies in the face of a purported commitment to dialogue, transparency, anti-corruption, and regional leadership,” more than 80 rights groups and independent media outlets said in a statement. “The crackdown on the Matsadaash platform and these arrests are alarming escalations on independent media and freedom of expression that cannot be allowed to stand.” One of the founders of Matsada2sh, Abdelrahman Mansour, who is not based in Egypt, told the Associated Press on Thursday that the families do not know where the journalists are. “Everyone on this team knew the risks when they went to work every day, but it’s unacceptable for the government to make false accusations and forcibly disappear journalists just because they’re afraid of a free press,” AP quoted Mansour as saying. “Their families are worried, we’re worried, we just want them released unharmed.” Inside Egypt News Post Date Override 0 Update Date Mon, 05/04/2020 - 21:19 Update Date Override 0

With just two days to go before the first round of Brazil's presidential election, artificial intelligence is taking centre stage, whether it's a deepfake avatar of former president Jair Bolsonaro to support his son's candidacy, or an AI-generated working-class female voter criticising President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. According to the Brazilian intelligence agency, disinformation will be one of the main challenges of this election. Our correspondents report.

The European Union on Friday pushed back against a US threat to ban any diesel exports unless the 27-member bloc releases more of its fuel stocks, “fully” rejecting the move, an EU official said. French President Emmanuel Macron will chair a video call with his G7 counterparts Friday to discuss possible measures on global fuel markets.

Aryna Sabalenka defeated Renata Zarazua with a decisive performance, serving 11 aces to secure her progress in the China Open. The Belarusian is set to face Nikola Bartunkova next.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has been fined for posting a video where he threatened a Palestinian prisoner, deemed electoral propaganda. The video shows Ben Gvir confronting a Hamas official in an Israeli prison.

Fans of Portugal’s national football team are in mourning after the apparent departure of Cristiano Ronaldo. The star forward walked out of the team’s training camp on Wednesday, hours after coach Jorge Jesus said he would not start Thursday’s Nations League game against Denmark.

A three-member panel, chaired by Frenchman Gérald Simon, will examine the case. A ruling will determine whether CAF’s decision stands or is overturned.