Jean-Pierre declines to denounce Brazil president's comparison of Israel Defense Forces to Nazis

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined twice to denounce Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s comparison of the Israel Defense Forces and the Nazis.

The conversation arose during a press conference aboard Air Force One, en route to Los Angeles, and instead of answering the question directly, simply acknowledged that what was happening now in Israel and Gaza is taking place decades apart from the Holocaust, which occurred from 1933-1945.

“What’s happening in the Gaza Strip with the Palestinian people hasn’t happened at any other moment in history. Actually, it has happened: when Hitler decided to kill the Jews,” Lula said to journalists at the 37th African Union summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Sunday.

The comments immediately drew fire from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who condemned the Brazilian president’s remarks as “shameful and alarming.”

Netanyahu said the comments minimized the severity of the Holocaust and were directed “to harm the Jewish people and Israel’s right to defend itself.”

The Wednesday Air Force One comments occurred with the following exchange, according to a Feb. 22 report published by the Jewish News Syndicate.:

Reporter: “Do you agree with Prime Minister Netanyahu that it was inappropriate for Lula of Brazil to compare the plight of the Palestinians with the plight of the Jews in the Holocaust?”

Jean-Pierre: “Look, I’m not—I’m going to let Lula speak for himself,” the White House spokeswoman said, without denouncing the antisemitic statement.

“We’ve been very clear where we stand. We stand, obviously, with Israel being able to defend itself against Hamas and this terrorist organization,” she said. “That’s why we continue to push for—obviously, one of the reasons we continue to push for the national security supplemental.”

Jean-Pierre then reiterated that Palestinians needed aid and denounced Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror attack against Israel.

After the first exchange, a second journalist also asked a similar question “just to put a fine point on it.” That exchange occurred with the following question and response from the White House press secretary:

Reporter: “Is it appropriate, as terrible as the suffering is in Gaza, to equate it with the Holocaust?” the reporter asked.

Jean-Pierre: “Look, I—I—I’m not going to—this is a very sensitive situation right now—obviously, a very sensitive issue,” she said, per the official White House transcript. “We understand that as it relates to what folks are seeing in Gaza, it’s incredibly personal.”

“And what I can say is that we support—obviously, our policy in Israel is —is steadfast. And—and I’m just going to be super mindful,” she added. “Obviously, those are two different scenarios—right?—two different situation: what we saw in the Holocaust. And it is—it is two different things that should not be compared.”

“But obviously, what we’re seeing in—what we’re seeing—the devastation that we’re seeing in—in—with the Palestinian civilians, what Hamas is causing is devastating. It is devastating,” she said.

“But they’re two different times in history,” she added. “And we have to be very clear about that.”

Jean-Pierre’s refusal to condemn the Brazilian president’s comments were starkly different than those from U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who made it clear the United States disagreed when he met with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Wednesday.

The secretary, who met with Lula da Silva to discuss U.S. attempts to end the Israeli-Hamas war in Gaza had a “frank exchange” with the Brazilian president about his comments, according to a Feb. 21 report published by Voice of America.

According to the U.S. government media outlet, a U.S. official said that Blinken briefed Lula da Silva “on U.S. efforts to but also telling him the U.S. disagrees with his assessment likening Israel’s war effort to that of Nazi genocide in World War II.”

Blinken reportedly “talked about all the efforts [the United States is] making, not just as it relates to Gaza itself, but in the broader region, that we think is the path to doing that … The president seemed to appreciate the efforts the U.S. is making to do that,” the U.S. official said.

Lula’s remarks comparing Israel’s response in Gaza to the Holocaust came after he visited the Middle East last week before a gathering of foreign ministers in Rio de Janeiro as part of Brazil's presidency of the G20 group.

Israel has since barred Lula da Silva from the Promised Land, saying as a condition for his return, he must retract the comparison.