Aaron Mannes’ Profiles in Terror blog has a disturbing account of a rise in anti-Semitism in Hugo Chavez’ Venezuela:
The Colegio Hebraica, the private Jewish school in Caracas was raided by Venezuelan police on Monday, November 29. The raid took place at 6:30 AM, just as students were arriving for the start of the school day.
The state media had been trumpeting that the Mossad had played a role in the recent assassination of State Prosecutor Danilo Anderson. Anderson, who was initially charged with prosecuting environmental crimes, was handling all of the high profile political prosecutions – including that of the accused anti-Chavez coup plotters. Arrests related to this investigation have targeted prominent citizens and resulted in several shootouts. The investigation of Anderson’s murder is being used as an excuse to crack down on Venezuelan civil society. The putative Mossad connection was the excuse for the raid on the Colegio Hebraica.
Jews have always been the canary in the coal mine. When they are attacked, everyone’s freedom is in jeopardy. In the words of prominent Venezuelan journalist Carlos Blanco:
“That this red light be of use for all of those who fight for freedom; when a Jew is attacked for being such, we enter in a zone of total and absolute risk for the free thinking and existence of all, Jews and non Jews alike. Do not believe the official apologies, they are part of the same set up.”
Mannes has interesting links to follow in his post, but I decided to go on my own search to see what the Venezuelan strongman himself has been up to lately, since his victory got the seal of approval from Jimmy Carter. Lo and behold, look where Chavez’s been visiting over Thanksgiving weekend, making nice with the local leadership virtually the same time the raid was taking place at the Jewish school back home in Caracas. Extra points, but not too many, for those who guess. It’s not that difficult.
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15 Comments
1. BigFire:We expect nothing less from the Communists Hugo Chavez. When in doubt, blame the Jews. When he ran out of Jews, he can blame the anti-revolutionaries.
Dec 5, 2004 - 7:56 pm 2. Kevin P:Roger:
First Chavez links up with Castro, now the Mullahs. And like most future totalitarians he sets up the traditional bogeyman that most dictators reach for,the Jews. He may have already given this speach but if he hasn’t look for a diatribe where he will deny any anti-jewish attitudes that will have the traditional “but it is curious why the Jews are always involved in anti state behaviour” or some other version of the precursor to attack.
About a year ago two UCLA professors wrote a letter to the LA Times where they defended Chavez as someone who admired Cuba’s economical model but would not repeat his dictatorial behavior. The ignorance of this statement is shocking. You can not give a small group of people complete control of every phase of economic and social life and not invite the cult of personality type of dictatorship that Castro personifies and that Chavez will try to copy. Chavez has a level of popularity with a large portion of the population now but when his outlandish economic promises are shown to be unattainable he will proclaim a state of emergency and all democratic elections will stop and the vhozd phase of Chavez’s rule will begin.
Dec 5, 2004 - 8:50 pm 3. heather:Amir Taheri in the Jerusalem Post suggested something worth considering: that the Islamists don’t hate the US because it backs the Jew Satan – but rather… they hate Israel because it is allied with the US. I tend to think he is correct. For example, he writes:
“And what about Chechnya which is, by any standard, the Muslim nation that has most suffered in the past two centuries? Last October the Muslim summit in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, gave a hero’s welcome to Vladimir Putin, the man who has presided over the massacre of more Chechens than anyone in any other period in Russian history.
Right now there are 22 active conflicts across the globe in which Muslims are involved. Most Muslims have not even heard of most of them because those conflicts do not provide excuses for fomenting hatred against the United States.”
For an up close and personal look at the wonderful ‘civilization’ these Islamists want to spread around the world, check out “Terrorism Unveiled” a blog run by a female grad student now living in Jordan. She has a chilling entry on ‘honour killings’…”www.terrorismunveiled.com” … which should be required reading for every civilized person.
Dec 5, 2004 - 9:16 pm 4. John Moore ( Useful Fools ):Disgusting. Not surprising.
By why? What is it about Jews that attracts this evil (obviously I mean no implication that Jews do anything to deserve it).
Why do we still have some Americans believing that “the Jews” didn’t go to work in the WTC on 9-11? We all know that’s nonsense, but for some reason, some idiots believe it.
It is a weird world.
Dec 5, 2004 - 9:18 pm 5. David Thomson:ìAaron Mannes’ Profiles in Terror blog has a disturbing account of a rise in anti-Semitism in Hugo Chavez’ Venezuelaî
Is anybody surprised? I just take such anti-Semitism for granted. Socialism inevitably is hostile towards Jews. This is as normal as the sun raising in the morning and going down in the evening. Socialist doctrines not only encourage attacks on Jews—but they also guilt trip many of them into thinking they deserve to be mistreated! The lack of condemnation of Andrew Lloyd Weber’s Evita, is overwhelming evidence of this peculiar behavior.
Is the Monroe Doctrine relevant? Iím convinced that we will likely have to eventually invade Venezuela. What are the legal challenges that must be addressed? Is it enough that Chavez is sucking up too closely to the mullahs of Iran?
Dec 5, 2004 - 9:30 pm 6. Michael J. Totten:Roger: Lo and behold, look where Chavez’s been visiting over Thanksgiving weekend
He was also in Libya at the same time I was. His poster was plastered all over town, as was Jacques Chirac’s, who was also there at the same time. (I believe they came separately, but their pictures were paired.)
Dec 5, 2004 - 9:30 pm 7. truepeers:Heather: ìAmir Taheri in the Jerusalem Post suggested something worth considering: that the Islamists don’t hate the US because it backs the Jew Satan – but rather… they hate Israel because it is allied with the US.î
Well, they donít hate, for example, the UK like they hate Israel. It is not simply because Israel backs the US. They hate the Jews in the way they do because the Islamists have imported from Europe so much of the western tradition of antisemitism, e.g. the ProtocolsÖ of Zion. Why do they do this? Note that modern antisemitism was in good part exported into the region by the KGB, seeking Islamic friends – starting, I believe, from around the time of the 1967 war. How were the Jews a useful symbol to both parties in the hate? In a rather traditional role, they represented the hidden hand that supposedly manipulates the market system, the enemy of both parties – all the more so for the radical Islamists today. Thus if the US remains the public face of the market, the Jews remain as the hidden conspirators, proof of its injustice. In the Islamistís mind, when the Jews are driven into the sea, the system will start to crumble under the growing weight of the oppressedís ability to win ìjusticeî. Please note much of the western left thinks very much alike.
Most fundamentally, antisemitism is rooted in what makes Jews most fundamentally different from any other nation or ethnic group; this is that they were, historically, the first to discover monotheism and national identity ñ i.e. an identity based on something more than ethnicity which depends on its claim to (and presence in) a specific territory and local deities. National identity (like, of course, monotheism) can transcend its homeland. (In North America, we often call, e.g., Italians an ìethnic groupî, but in fact that is a national identity based on a national high culture (from Dante to modern cinema) that can transcend geography and be meaningful universally. But the local or regional identities (e.g. Calabrian) that were paramount for many ìItalianî immigrants, fade in time, while their descendants in the new world tend increasingly to remember their Italian (rather than Calabrian) ancestry. Ethnicities without nations tend to disappear in the modern world.) Anyway, if the Jews are the first nationalists and monotheists, all later reworkings of these key discoveries imply a reaction to the Jews, which is only positive if one just accepts the Jewsí priority, forgets about it, and gets on with oneís own thing. But to do that one has to be either a loving or very carefree person, or, if intellectually inclined, one has to understand and appreciate what the Jewish or Mosaic revelation has entailed historically. Otherwise, one is reacting to something of a mystery and in time this can only produce hate and conspiratorial thinking, or an often smarmy Judeophilia.
Those who hate us are irrational. We must be patient, strong, and not fall for the many rationalizing guilt trips on offer (if only we weren’t the Americans’ friends…
Dec 5, 2004 - 10:30 pm 8. WichitaBoy:Say hello to a nuclear-armed Venezuela.
Dec 5, 2004 - 10:32 pm 9. ahem:The December issue of Commentary has a good article on Islamism and the Left that’s worth reading.
Dec 6, 2004 - 6:31 am 10. Macker:Iran may not have to develope the Shahab 5 missile if they buddy up with Chavez. Shades of Cuba, 1962. DAMN that IS scary!
Dec 6, 2004 - 7:51 am 11. Mark Poling:Crap. What’s the range on those new Iranian missles?
Dec 6, 2004 - 8:18 am 12. Mark Poling:Okay, I will say this right now; if Iran sends missles to Chavez, we need to do whatever it takes to destroy the Mad Mullahs the very next day.
And the Mad Mullahs need to know that’s policy.
Dec 6, 2004 - 8:31 am 13. Franco Aleman (Barcelona, Spain):Hey, the man was in Spain too, and ignited a (with the inestimable help of the inept Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos.
Lots of fun!
Dec 6, 2004 - 8:59 am 14. Macker:The Shahab-3 has a range of approximately 1300 km (or just over 800 miles). If the Shahab-4 is developed, that would probably have an IRBM range of about 2800 km and that would not be good.
Dec 6, 2004 - 9:27 am 15. Tom Holsinger:These days anti-Semitism by a government, in countries where the government had previously not been that way, is pretty good evidence of anti-American terrorist influence. In South America it is also evidence that another Allende lesson is coming.
Dec 8, 2004 - 4:10 pm