Good morning! This week, we talk about the latest diplomatic crisis between Brazil and Israel. And how commodities are taking over Brazilian exports to South America.
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Israel declares Lula persona non grata after Holocaust remarks
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva traveled to Africa last week in hopes of increasing Brazil’s influence in the developing world. But his entire trip has been overshadowed by a diplomatic crisis of Lula’s own making.
What’s happening. The Brazilian president reiterated his criticism of Israel’s military action in Gaza following the October 7 attacks by the militant group Hamas. His government and party have sparred with Israel in recent months, but anger escalated after Lula on Sunday compared Israel’s actions in the war against Hamas to the Holocaust.
- “What is happening in Gaza to the Palestinian people has no parallel in other historical moments,” Lula said at the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa. But then he added: “It existed when Hitler decided to kill the Jews.”
Reaction. An outraged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu...