Diplomacy guided by the inclinations of Lula’s advisor harms the interests of the Brazilian Army
Editorial O Globo (06/09/2024)
The efforts of the president’s international affairs adviser, Celso Amorim, to convince President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva not to sign a contract with the Israeli company Elbit Systems, which won a R$1 billion tender in April to supply combat vehicles to the Brazilian Army, are misguided.
The Ministry of Defense rightly argues that it makes no sense to disqualify, without any technical justification, the first-place winner in an auction held in a transparent manner, according to the law.
Just to be on the safe side, it commissioned an opinion from the Federal Court of Auditors (TCU) on the possibility of declaring the runner-up the winner in the event of an armed conflict in the winner’s country, such as the one currently taking place in Israel and the Gaza Strip.
But the Tenders and Contracts Statute, cited by the ministry, does not prevent the purchase of goods from governments or companies from countries in a war situation.
“In principle, there would be no logical or legal basis, except in the case of a trade embargo, the rupture of diplomatic or commercial relations or a decision by an international court, for any termination of a contract that has already been signed,” says the Ministry itself.
Elbit, which won the tender, has no shareholding by the Israeli government and has two subsidiaries in Brazil, one in Porto Alegre and the other in Duque de Caxias (RJ).
The purchase of the Israeli vehicles would contribute to the national defense industry: final assembly could be carried out on Brazilian soil and there would be an incentive to produce ammunition in Brazil.
None of this, however, moves the diplomats who defend the boycott, driven by Amorim’s inclinations. In order to convince Lula to cancel the contract – which should have been signed in May, but hasn’t been – he claims that Brazil shouldn’t buy from the company of a country that, in his view, has offended Lula and the Brazilian government. In February, Lula was declared persona non grata in Israel after a speech in Ethiopia in which he compared Israeli actions in Gaza to those of Adolf Hitler against the Jews.
In reaction, the Israeli chancellor summoned the then Brazilian ambassador Frederico Meyer to be publicly reprimanded at the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem. Brazil summoned him back and has not had an ambassador there since.
It’s true that Israel’s attitude in publicly scolding Meyer was unreasonable. But there was a reason. Lula’s parallel between the Israeli military offensive – cruel though it is – and the genocide committed by the Nazis is historically absurd and blatantly anti-Semitic.
Lula has offended all the Jews and other victims of the Holocaust, their descendants – including tens of thousands of Brazilians – and the just consciences of the whole world. And so far, he hasn’t deigned to apologize. It shouldn’t make matters worse by damaging the Brazilian Army’s business.