BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (JTA) — Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, who called Israel’s conflict this summer with Hamas “a massacre,” will face a runoff to stay in office.
Rousseff of the left-wing Workers’ Party will face Aecio Neves of the center-right Social Democracy Party in the Oct. 26 runoff after failing to win an outright victory Sunday in her bid to gain a second four-year term.
The incumbent was the top vote-getter with 41.6 percent to 33.6 percent for Aecio, a senator. Marina Silva, a prominent environmentalist, finished third with 21.3 percent of the vote.
In late July, speaking about the Israel-Hamas conflict, Rousseff said, “I think what’s happening in the Gaza Strip is dangerous. I don’t think it’s genocide, but I think it’s a massacre.”
Brazil, a country of some 110,000 Jews, pulled its ambassador from Israel amid the conflict.
In Israel, Neves was the winner among the Brazilian Jews with 145 votes, followed by Silva with 35 and Rousseff with 9.
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