Bolsonaro meeting creates rift between Israeli ambassador and Lula’s party

Congresswoman Gleisi Hoffmann, chair of the Workers’ Party — and a close ally of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva — on Thursday criticized Ambassador Daniel Zonshine of Israel for meeting with Brazil’s former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro.

The Israeli embassy invited lawmakers on Wednesday to a meeting in Congress to show them videos of Hamas operatives attacking Israeli civilians, recorded on October 7. The Israeli Consulate-General in São Paulo had shown the videos to a group of journalists last week.

Jair Bolsonaro, who has twice been convicted for electoral crimes this year (and banned from holding public office for eight years), also attended the meeting.

Ms. Hoffmann said on social media that “once again, Israel’s ambassador to Brazil has unduly interfered in our country’s internal politics, in a public event with the ineligible Jair Bolsonaro, held in Congress.”

She added: “The spurious alliance between [Mr.] Bolsonaro and the Israeli ambassador is even more repugnant because it involves the safety and lives of Brazilian citizens who are under siege and threatened by the...