Jerusalem (Israel) \u2013 Determined to be one of the mediators of peace between Israel and Palestine, president Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva said today (15) that he cannot remember the last time he had a row. He says he has carried the \u201cpeace virus\u201d since he was a baby. The comment was made during a speech to businessmen, in Jerusalem, according to BBC Brazil<\/i>. <\/p>\n
"I think that the peace virus has been in me since I was in my mother\u2019s womb. I cannot recall the last time I had a fight with anyone,\u201d said the president.<\/p>\n
In a good mood, Lula generated laughs from the audience, and also from Israeli president Shimon Peres, on saying that in his Worker\u2019s Party there are disagreements that would cause envy in anybody. "I have worked on many political disputed, and I belong to a party that is very complicated (…). We have political disputes that would cause envy in anyone anywhere in the world,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
On defending the peace process, Lula mentioned a meeting with former US president George W. Bush, in 2003, when he told the North American that Iraq was not a problem of Brazil\u2019s, and that his priority was fighting poverty.<\/p>\n
"I thought that my reaction with president Bush would generate animosity. As I had been a union leader all my life, I imagined that I was going to fight very much with the United States. However, Bush finished his term in office and I am going to finish mine without any arguments. When we had disputes, we solved them by telephone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Foreign Minister of Brazil, Celso Amorim, said that during the meeting between Lula and Peres, the possible participation of Brazil in the peace process was discussed. \u201cHe greatly praised the part played by Brazil in the situation, saying that the country can help promote dialogue. He finds that this capacity of making friends with everybody may be useful in these situations, but that was not the moment to discuss those details,\u201d said the diplomat.<\/p>\n
Lula also spoke to Israeli businessmen about investment opportunities in Brazil, mentioning the Growth Acceleration Program (PAC), the World Cup, the Olympics, the high speed train between Campinas, S\u00e3o Paulo and Rio and the opportunities for oil exploration in Campos Basin.<\/p>\n
*Translated by Mark Ament<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On his trip to Israel, Brazilian president Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva told businessmen he carries the peace virus. Lula wants to help in the peace process between Israel and Palestine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2315,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-34043","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-foreign-affairs"},"wps_subtitle":"On his trip to Israel, Brazilian president Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva told businessmen he carries the peace virus. Lula wants to help in the peace process between Israel and Palestine.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2315"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34043\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}