"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." -- Albert Einstein


Several days ago, in Geneva, the United Nations Human Rights Council once again went after Israel. It decided to put the country under permanent examination due to the "human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories." Only Canada voted

The Brazilian "diplomat" in the HRC said last year that he didn't really know much about what is going on in the Middle East.

against the resolution. The HRC is packed with failed states such as Sudan, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, where the greatest violations of human rights occur, but one can not expect them to incriminate themselves and their friends. Brazil participated in this charade.


Why should far away Brazil, virtually self-sufficient in oil, be a part of the farce in this powerless Council, a total waste of taxpayer money worldwide? In this particular case, even the UN Secretary General blasted the Council's appalling decision. The Brazilian "diplomat" in the HRC said last year that he didn't really know much about what is going on in the Middle East, other than what he watches on TV. It's certainly not his fault; "he just works there."


Brazil has a leftist president, former union leader Lula da Silva. He is on record as saying that reading books bores him. His Foreign Minister Celso Amorim's main foreign policy goal was a colossal failure. Lula tried unsuccessfully to obtain a permanent seat for Brazil on the Security Council. The policy backfired, notwithstanding the effort to win backing from the Latin, African and Muslim worlds. This could explain, but not justify, the hostility towards Israel.


Last year, Lula and Amorim hosted a summit meeting of Latin American and Arab leaders in Brasilia to bolster relations and trade, and to gather support for Brazil's UN ambitions. Unsurprisingly, little has happened since then, but one of the resolutions adopted attacked Israel without mentioning her by name. Amorim went as far as talking about the strategic importance of the relationship between Brazil and Sudan. What would Brazil get from Sudan? Nubian refugees? Water from the Nile?


Like most developed and underdeveloped countries that have normal diplomatic and trade relations with Israel, Brazil's attitudes are also triggered by jealousy. It seems inadmissible that tiny Israel, only 59 years old, surrounded by mortal enemies, has not only won all its wars, but has also managed to become a first-world country with scientific achievements second to none, a technological and military powerhouse with successes to match in health care and humanitarian assistance worldwide. The "problem" is that a few million Jews have achieved all this.


Instead of emulating Israel, it is easier to criticize her and call for her demise. And while Israel progresses, Palestinians have refused all peace efforts and are at present self-destructing. It is hard for the world to invent a fake nation in the lab for the sole purpose of destroying Israel.


While on a visit to Syria two years ago, Lula declared that Israel should return the Golan Heights, from which the Syrians used to shoot at Israeli farmers until 1967. However, the Golan is Jewish land illegally ceded by the British to the French, who annexed it to Syria before granting Syrian independence. And Lula and Amorim didn't care about the irony of making the statement on the Golan Heights in Lebanon-occupying Syria. Syria doesn't even have an embassy in Beirut. It considers Lebanon part of Greater Syria.


Do Lula and Amorim care that under Palestinian self-rule thousands of Christian Arabs have run away from Bethlehem, where they used to be the majority, as well as from elsewhere in the PA territories? Muslims are also leaving. The last 2,000 Christians in Gaza have been told by Hamas to accept Islamic rule, or else.


Few people in Brazil really know how Israel came about, even though Brazil was one of 33 nations that voted in favor of UN resolution 181 in 1947. The 120,000 or so Jews in Brazil live in peace, but are politically weak - mirroring the weakness demonstrated by Israeli governments since the Oslo Accords. Violent attacks against Jews or Jewish interests are few, but the media constantly shows an anti-Israel bias, as reported by the Brazilian branch of Honest Reporting, called De Olho na Midia ("Eye on the Media").

The 120,000 or so Jews in Brazil live in peace, but are politically weak.



If Brazil itself were to be criticized in an open and fair forum, what would some allegations of abuse and misbehavior be?


  • The deforestation of the Amazon, the planet's oxygen. Brazil bears responsibility for not being able to stop the practice. If continued, it will negatively affect the environment worldwide. The forum could demand that the Amazon region be given to the UN or returned to the native Indians, who would take better care of it. Unlike most Palestinian Arabs, who came to the Holy Land looking for work as the Jews were draining the swamps and building the nation, the Indians are indigenous to the Amazon.


  • Rampant crime, associated with police brutality, with ordinary citizens caught up in the middle, afraid for their lives even inside their homes. This human rights abuse is one of the main reasons why so many Brazilians migrate to other countries, to provide a better future for their children. Unlike the Palestinian Arabs, they do not plot the destruction of their adopted nations.


  • Allowing Islamic terrorist groups to take sanctuary and train in the border area of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay, near Iguaçu Falls. Without doubt, the two most prominent of these are Hizbullah and Al-Qaeda.


Given the above, what could this hypothetical forum do or suggest to make Brazil mend its ways? It could call for a reduction of commerce with and tourism to Brazil. It might request that UNESCO eliminate from consideration Brazil's entry in the contest for the Seven Wonders of the Modern World (the country's candidate is the famous statue of Jesus in Rio de Janeiro). The forum may even propose the unthinkable: a boycott of the 2014 World Cup to be held in Brazil - the equivalent of a nuclear attack on the country.


Would any of these lead to a change in Brazil's policies? Probably not. Sanctions and boycotts don't work very well, among other things because these are not easily

Lula declared that Israel should return the Golan Heights.

enforceable, and they unfairly punish the local population just because of the incompetence or cruelty of their government. Therefore, this approach should be applied in extreme situations, such as when UN member countries try to exterminate the population of another UN member state, a violation of the UN Charter.


As far as President Lula and Foreign Minister Amorim are concerned, come Carnival time they need no costumes if they want to parade as anti-Semites. However, if they also plan to turn the average Brazilian into anti-Israeli Europeans, they should at least give their countrymen the same high standard of living that it took that continent hundreds of years to achieve (compared to five decades for Israel). It is the stuff of dreams, but as long as these two individuals get to work and remember that Mardi Gras always finishes on Ash Wednesday, Brazil could have a bit of a chance.


Brazil, how about a technological partnership with Israel?