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July 11, 2008
Today's Anti-Semite
Commentary has an interesting article up by Travis Pantin, titled Hugo Chávez's Jewish Problem, although I'm not sure whether the title is really fitting.
Chávez doesn't really have a Jewish problem, its the Jews of Venezuela who have a Chávez problem:
• Graffiti, often bearing the signature of the Venezuelan Communist party and its youth organization, have appeared on synagogues and Jewish buildings, with messages like “mata niños” (“child killers”), “judios afuera” (“Jews get out”), “judios perros” (“Jews are dogs”), and swastikas linked to stars of David by an equals sign.
• Sammy Eppel, a columnist for the independent Caracas newspaper El Universal, has documented hundreds of instances of anti-Semitism in government media. To take one particularly noxious example, in September 2006 El Diario de Caracas, until recently one of the country’s most important papers, published an editorial containing these fiery words:
Let us pay attention to the behavior of the Israeli-Zionist associations, unions, and federations that are conspiring in Venezuela to take control of our finances, our industries, commerce, construction—which are infiltrating our government and politics. Possibly we will have to expel them from our country . . . as other nations have done.
• On television, Mario Silva, the host of a popular pro-Chávez show called La Hojilla (“The Razor Blade”), has repeatedly named prominent Venezuelan Jews as anti-government conspirators and called on other Jews to denounce them. “Rabbi Jacobo Benzaquén and Rabbi Pynchas Brener are actively participating in the conspiracy in conjunction with the media,” Silva has said. “So as not to be called an anti-Semite,” he added, “I repeat that those Jewish businessmen not involved in the conspiracy should say so.”
• Armed government agents have conducted two unannounced raids on the Hebraica club during the past five years. The first occurred during the early morning hours of November 29, 2004, when two dozen men wearing masks invaded the elementary school just as pupils were arriving for class. In the second, which came shortly after midnight on December 2, 2007, government agents broke through the front gate and disrupted hundreds of celebrants at a wedding party in the nearby synagogue. In each case, allegedly, the agents were looking for weapons and other evidence of “subversive activity.”
• The last few years have seen the creation of a terrorist group in Venezuela calling itself Hizballah in Latin America. The group has already claimed responsibility for placing two small bombs outside the American embassy in Caracas in October 2006—one of them, it is thought, intended for the embassy of Israel. Although neither of the two bombs detonated, the group’s website hailed the man who planted them as a “brother mujahedin” and has urged other, simultaneous attacks throughout Venezuela in solidarity with Hizballah in Lebanon.
Of course, with regard to that last item, if you use support for Hizballah as a gauge for anti-semitism, you could say that America and our good friends the brits suffer from the same Jewish Problem."
But... I digress. Mr. Pantin makes some very good points, including:
History suggests that once anti-Semitism becomes an instrument of state policy, the possibility of violence can never be discounted. For centuries, moreover, anti-Semitism has waxed and waned with fluctuating business cycles. With both the ailing economy and Chávez’s social programs dependent almost entirely on oil revenues, a drop in prices could trigger widespread animosity against the “Semitic banks” that members of Chávez’s party have repeatedly denounced for every passing ill. A major event like a military strike on Iran by the United States or Israel might similarly serve as justification for seizing the assets of Venezuela’s Jewry.
One small item Mr. Pantin missed, as of October of 2006, Israeli citizens are persona non grata in Venezuela.
When you consider Hitler's Germany and the result of state-sponsored anti-semitism, it appears that "Never Again" is having technical difficulties.
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Thanks Paco, for the tip on the Pantin article.
Posted by LindaSoG at July 11, 2008 06:19 AM
Comments
socialism goes hand in hand with anti-semitism.
Posted by: joe at July 11, 2008 11:02 PM
I'm hoping that when O Hussein O has a commie pow wow with Chavez, that a CIA (oops) bullet goes through both of their skulls
Posted by: cuchieddie at July 15, 2008 03:36 PM