About one-third of Brazil is what we Americans would call Evangelical Christians. And when Evangelicals reach such a demographic in society, they affect politics.
Brazil’s prior president, Bolsonaro, got baptized in the Jordan River by Evangelicals.
The last election which supposedly Lulu won was supect, but one thing is clear, Brazil is as much, if not more so, pro-Israel than America.
Over 80% of Brazilians take issue with Lula’s anti-Israel comment
Herb Keinon
February 23, 2024
[T]the Brazilian public is not following its leader [Lulu].
A CNN Brasil poll on Monday found that eight of 10 Brazilians – or 83% of those polled – took issue with Lula’s comparison. [Note: Lulu’s anti-Israel comment]
This dovetails with what one senior diplomatic official said in Jerusalem: “There is a gap in Brazil between the government and the public, with the public more supportive of Israel than the government, and this shows up in polls and in parliamentary debates.”
The CNN Brasil poll, for instance, found that 57% of the 800 respondents thought that Israel is on the right side in this conflict, while 28% sided with Hamas. Additionally, 26% said that Brazil should support Israel in this war, another 14% said the Palestinians, while 54% said the country should stay neutral – something Lula’s government is not doing. In the first two months after the war, support for Israel, as evident in various polls, was running at between 70% and 80%.
The power of Evangelicalism in Brazil is increasing.
Posted on YouTube: May 29, 2024
Brazil is having an Evangelical explosion, and it is very pro-Zionist. You will not hear this on the regular media.
Brazil is not a typical Latin American country, and so it had a very controversial presidential election in 2022.
Brazil is roughly one-third Evangelical Christian (Baptist, Pentecostal, etc.) — and most of those Evangelicals support Israel. In their recent election, these Evangelical voters tended to support the right-wing conservative Jair Bolsonaro who has been very friendly to Israel.
Bolsonaro had also gone so far as to be baptized an Evangelical, himself.
On a visit to Israel two years ago, far-right Brazilian lawmaker Jair Bolsonaro leaned back into the River Jordan in a white robe to be baptized in the arms of a fellow congressman and evangelical pastor.
Jair Bolsonaro was controversial and attracted not only Christian support, but also support from right-wing loonies. Though he supported Israel, some of his supporters were Neo-Nazi types, which was a horrifying contradiction.
No wonder Bolsonaro was considered the Donald Trump of Latin America.
Further complicating the matter is that Brazil has roughly 15 million citizens of Arab descent vs. only about 110,000 Jews. The Arabs outnumber the Jewish vote about 150 to 1.
However, thankfully, most of those Arab-Brazilians are Christian, and the Lebanese Maronites among them would probably not be pro-Palestinian. The Maronites of Lebanon were historically hostile to the Palestinians.
Bolsonaro’s opponent for the presidency was Luis Inácio Lula da Silva (called by his middle name: Lula). Lula was leftist and friendly to Palestine during his previous administrations.
The election came down to a controversial runoff, and Jewish voters in Brazil were conflicted.
Many Jews have taken note of how Bolsonaro has been historically close with Israel for a Brazilian leader.
He boosted his relations with the Brazilian Jewish community in April 2017, when the then-congressman was invited to speak at Rio’s Hebraica club, a hub of sport and cultural activities founded in 1957 by European Jewish immigrants.
THANKS TO THE HEBRAICA OF RIO DE JANEIRO When asked what he would do if he had the power of the presidential pen, Jair Bolsonaro recalls that he is not a candidate for anything and gives this answer. I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to the Board of Directors of Hebraica Carioca for granting space for democracy and allowing a lecture by someone who unconditionally supports Israel and respects the Jews. Winston Churchill once said “the fascists of the future will call themselves anti-fascists”. Shalom! 🇧🇷
Contrariwise, during his previous time in office, Lula had been semi-hostile to Israeli concerns.
In 2009, da Silva warmly welcomed former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a notorious Holocaust denier whose regime persecuted minorities and critics, for a visit that drew international criticism.
During his first official visit to Israel in 2010, da Silva refused to visit Theodor Herzl’s grave, which was part of the itinerary for visiting foreign officials in honor of the 150th birthday of the father of Zionism.
Days after, he laid a wreath at Yasser Arafat’s grave in Ramallah.
In the final month of his administration, his government officially recognized Palestine as a state.
As can be imagined, Pro-Palestinians activists were rooting for Lula.
Brazil elections: Why the stakes are huge for Palestinians
A second term for right-wing populist Jair Bolsonaro could further erode support for the Palestinians in South America, experts say
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Nowhere is this more visible than when it comes to Israel and Palestine. And with Brazil being home to roughly half of Latin America’s population, its leanings on the issue may influence the rest of the continent.
The Israeli/Palestinian crisis was certainly a factor in the Brazilian election of 2022.
Well, Lula won the election by a questionable razor thin margin, and there was a lot of turmoil over the result in Brazil.
Posted on YouTube: November 16, 2022
For some time, Bolsonaro supporters hit the streets in protest, and the Right said the election was stolen — and it looked like the Right had a case. But Bolsonaro agreed to a turnover, not wanting a coup nor violence.
Lula is expected to be sworn in on January 1, 2023
How this will eventually affect the Mideast remains to be seen.
Palestinians have been in Chile since 1890. Until recently, the vast majority of Palestinian immigrants to Chile were Christian Palestinians, who hailed from four historically Christian towns: Beit Jala, Beit Sahour, Bethlehem, and Beit Safafa (now in the eastern half of Jerusalem) – though Bethlehem has lost its Christian majority in the meantime.
That Christian pattern of immigration seems to be changing as of late.
Now, a considerable number of the immigrants to Chile are Palestinians of Muslim extraction.
Lest anyone fear that newer Muslim Palestinian immigrants will cause a seismic shift is Chile’s religious demographic, be at ease. Remember that South America is undergoing a massive Evangelical Revival.
There is a very good chance that some of these recent Muslim immigrants to Chile – or some of their children – will become Evangelical Christians.
Islam is still extraordinarily small in Chile: Less than 1/10th of 1%.
Islamic clerics in South America have a tendency to greatly exaggerate their numbers. But reliable sources I have seen put the numbers around 1 out of 4,000 Chileans is Muslim, or possibly less.
For those interested in peace in the Mideast, moving 60,000 Palestinians to Chile from Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) – even if they were Muslim – would be demographically insignificant to Chile, and would still keep the Muslim demographic well under 1%.
Chile has a population of 18,000,000. So 60,000 Muslims would constitute one-third of 1% of Chile’s numbers.
Chile is 14% Evangelical (roughly 2.5 Million and growing). They would quickly proselytize the Muslims.
This is a possible solution for the Mideast. South America assimilates Arabs.
This elder gentlemen is Elia Morise, an Egyptian, now a Christian, who evangelizes Muslims. He is lecturing in Brazil. The younger man is named Mehdi, a Moroccan, who converted to Christ, and had to flee to Brazil.
South American Christians do what many modern Christians have forgotten how to do: Evangelize!
If Palestinians are sent to Brazil, or Chile, or Argentina, they will hear the gospel. This is something which is hidden from them inside the Ummah (the Arab world).
In the Arab world, street preaching, any attempt to convert a Muslim, will lead to riots, destruction, and death. It is not even a case of cowering the Christians. An individual Christian might be willing to chance death in order to win souls for Christ; but if the penalty for doing so is the destruction of his home, neighbors, and church, then he would be less inclined to do – not for his own safety, but for the safety of others.
However, once the Muslim is in South America, the tables have turned. In South America, street preaching is common, especially by Evangelicals. There the Muslim has no option to riot, to destroy an offending village, particularly when 90%+ of the population is Christian (whether Catholic or Evangelical).
So now the Muslim will be presented with something that he never saw in his home country: Street preachers inviting him to accept Christ.
The Muslim has no social defense against this. In Egypt or Saudi Arabia, the Muslims could riot. Not in South America.
So when I tell you that Palestinians brought to South America would eventually assimilate, trust me.
This ministry (above) sends out missionaries to the Muslim world.
Elia Morise also baptizes people in the Jordan River in Israel.
Posted on YouTube: January 19, 2014
If this amazes you, then check out the above video directly on YouTube: (Click Here). The writing is in Arabic, and it is affiliated with the Christian Arabic Church.
The Christian Arabic Church YouTube channel: (Click Here). Their headquarters are in Richmond, Virginia; but obviously they do work in Brazil as well. This is their website: (Click Here).
If you think this is merely an American outreach, remember that there are 15 million Arabs in Brazil. True, half are Maronite Christian, and the rest are usually Syrian Christian; but there are Muslims in Brazil. Nowhere near as many as the imams claim, but enough. They are a mission field. Brazilian Christians not only seek to evangelize the Muslims in Brazil, but the Muslims in the Arab world.
So do not worry. Any Palestinians sent to South America would probably convert in a generation or two.
