“Harmful policies and equivocal statements from Brazil on the region hamper US policy in the Middle East” wrote in 2008 then ambassador in Brasilia Clifford Sobel, reports Folha de Sao Paulo quoting one of the leaked cable.

The US embassy also condemned the idea of President Lula da Silva of organizing the summit between leaders from South America and Arab countries.

“Brazil does not understand Middle East affairs, it’s only joining the ‘anti-Israel’ choir” full of clichés and banalities, wrote Ambassador Sobel in one of his diplomatic messages to the State Department. In the best of cases Brazilian policy towards Middle East is “out of place and statements only hamper key issues of the current negotiations”.

An Egyptian diplomat is quoted in one of the cables describing Brazil’s approach to the Middle East as “transparent” and intent in mustering support for its goal of becoming a member of the UN Security Council.

Sobel described the performance of former Foreign Affairs minister Celso Amorim as “light”, “out of place” and full of anodyne generalities with no depth or substance.

One of Brazil’s most influential rabbis Henry Sobel respected for his strong stand against the country’s 20 year long military dictatorship in one of the cables in which he exchanged ideas with US diplomats on the close relations between South American and Arab leaders affirms that “Lula is anti-Semite”

Cables point out that Itamaraty (Foreign Affairs ministry) “underestimated sensitivities” affected by its policies and insisted that Amorim’s visits to the Middle East and statements could undermine the peace process.

Another document describes how current Brazilian Foreign Secretary Antonio Patriota, then head of Amorim’s cabinet was asked by US ambassador Sobel that Brazil discuss with the US initiatives towards the Middle East.