From the beginning of his rule in Venezuela, Hugo Chavez has stridently criticized Israel. In recent months, Chavez has found a more vulnerable target: the Jewish population inside Venezuela.Last week, an angry mob broke out in Miranda, Venezuela’s second largest state. Reports indicate that the Mayor of Miranda’s capital city incited an angry group of Chavez supporters to paint Nazi swastikas on the home of an anti-Chavez Jewish politician, Governor Henrique Capriles Radonski. “We are showing Capriles that …people are opposed to his continuous attacks against the initiatives and socialist projects of president Chávez,” explained Los Teques Mayor Alirio Mendoza. Governor Radonski is a charismatic Chavez opponent, and has spent time in jail for a minor role in Venezuela’s failed coup of 2004. Further, since he is perhaps the only well-known Jewish politician in the country, it is easy to understand why he has become a prime target for irate Chavistas...
These incidents follow a trend of anti-Semitic behavior that has strikingly worsened since the beginning of the year. In January 2009, Chavez accused Israel of attempting to carry out “genocide” against the Palestinian people and expelled Israel’s ambassador. Soon thereafter, a pro-Chavez columnist named Emilio Silva posted on a pro-government website urging Venezuelans to “publicly challenge every Jew that you find in the street, shopping center or park, shouting slogans in favor of Palestine and against that abortion: Israel.” A week later, a group of at least a dozen men raided the aforementioned Tiferet Israel Synagogue, vandalizing property and spraying the words ‘Jews, get out!’ on the walls. In February, someone threw a hand grenade at another synagogue, damaging it...
While most would agree that the rise in anti-Semitism is driven by Chavez’s need to scapegoat a minority group for his own disappointing record of achievement in power, a secondary motive is his desire to ingratiate himself with his most important international ally, Iran. As Forbes’ Venezuelan commentators note in a piece on this topic, “Chavez and Iran speak with one voice about the Jews.” Lacking positive results to show their people, both autocratic regimes benefit from a coordinated effort of propaganda that blames Jews for domestic issues and foments anti-Semitic violence and vandalism...
(Tim Mak, New Majority.com post, June 24)
