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The Anti-Semitic Germ in Chavismo
By Daniel Duquenal / February 9, 2009
The Synagogue of Caracas, congregation Tiferet Israel, was attacked the night of Friday January 31. It was done during the Shabbat, it was done by an expert team who knew exactly what to do, what to take and what to desecrate. This was not an improvised operation lead by some ideologically drunk group of Chavez supporters.
What should we make of this attack?Â
Whomever ordered the attack wanted to make sure the congregation’s Torah would be desecrated and that the safes would be broken into to obtain all the necessary lists of the Jewish community in Caracas, from their personal addresses to whatever they were giving to the temple or the diverse charities sponsored by the very active CAIV (Confederation of Israelite Associations of Venezuela). This takes place just as Chavez as thrown his lot behind Hamas, to the point of breaking relations with Israel completely, one of the rare countries to do so.
For those who are new to Venezuela it is important that you know that like US, Venezuela is a country of immigrants and immigrant children. Be they from Europe or from Latin America or from Holocaust survivors, a third or more of us have at least a grand parent not born in Venezuela. Venezuela has not suffered prejudice as European, or North American, or even some Latin American countries suffered. Sure, there was some of it, some racism, some class difference. But Venezuela is a country as integrated as Brazil is, with its respective small ethnic islands which until 1998 managed quite well. We even had Middle Eastern immigration dating from the times of the Turkish Empire, which left us with the word “Turco” to describe pretty much any one from Middle Easter Origin and Muslim religion.
But all this changed in 1998 when Hugo Chavez was elected president for the first time. Since then a language of class division, old grudges and racism has slowly but surely emerged as a tool of rule. The “it is us or them” mantra has been very useful for Chavez political ambitions, in particular to identify all of his political opposition as willing slaves of the evil Empire, namely the US, working conjointly with other countries at convenience, such as Mexico, Peru or Colombia.
Such language carries its own inner mechanics and under the impulse of a primitive anti-US attitude, sucked directly from Fidel Castro, Chavez became friendly to undesirable regimes of the Arab World. He visited Saddam Hussein and now is in a close alliance with the mullahs of Iran. As a result, anti-Semitism, until now inexistent in Venezuela, started showing its ugly head in some speeches of high-ranking officials, including Chavez himself, who once referred to the “those who killed Jesus”.
The Jewish community of Venezuela comes from both the Ashkenazi and Sephardic worlds.  It started in Venezuela as early as the first half of the XIX century when some Jewish families who settled in Dutch Curaçao (after escaping Spain’s Inquisition) moved to Coro. The Dictionary of Venezuelan History of the Polar Foundation tells us that the relationship between the natives and the new immigrants were not always easy but eventually the new arrivals settled and even had their own Jewish cemetery in Coro.Â
The Jewish community in Venezuela might have reached up to 75,000 people, mostly in Caracas and some main cities. As such, there were never enough Jews outside Caracas to percolate anti-Semitism, and Caracas was simply too cosmopolitan to bother with prejudice. The Caracas Synagogue is a prominent building, in a highly trafficked area, a testament to how comfortable Jews were in Venezuela, at least until Chavez came to power. The Hebraica School was a confessional school of excellent reputation and even a cultural beacon of Caracas society.
Truly, until 1998 anti-Semitism in Venezuela was relegated to very few sick minds and perhaps some rare extremist Muslims. But then the new government had among its original advisors a certain Argentinean, Norberto Ceresole, notorious for his Jew hatred. Though he was eventually expelled form the country, we have good reason to believe that his words did not fall in deaf ears.
There are some of us that were expecting a brash anti Jewish moment. In 2004 the Hebraica was searched while students were inside; declarations against Israel were frequent and not very clear as to the meanings of Jew, Israeli or Zionist. But we never imagined that a specialized commando would desecrate a place of prayer. After all, until now attacks against the Catholic Church in opposition to Chavez had been limited to the occasional canister of tear gas dropped at the doorstep.
Why now? Can we speculate that the Chavez relationship with the rogue regime of Iran demanded such a gesture? Is chavismo entrapped in its own logic that it must up the ante in supporting Hamas? We must note that for all Chavez’s bellicose language, he is not applying any economic pressure to the main supporter of Israel: the United States.Â
Or is it simply an action related to the difficult electoral situation in which Chavez has put himself in the position of seeking (probably) to run for office as long as he wishes? We cannot rule out that a sector within chavismo is getting tired of Chavez antics and thus is the sponsor of the attack.
Still, there is something positive out of this scandal: all the thinking bodies of Venezuelan society have expressed an unequivocal support for the Jewish community of Venezuela. The outpouring of support has been so strong that by the end of the week we heard a more assertive Chavez on the issue, probably as he realized the damage he suffered overseas from that attack.
POST A COMMENT
"The
break-in and desecration of the Tiferet Yisrael Synagogue in Caracas,
Venezuela on January 30 was motivated not by anti-Semitism but rather
was a robbery, according to a local newspaper identified with the
opposition, El Universal.
"The paper reported police statements that a homicide detective headed the gang that attacked the synagogue.
"The paper also quoted police sources that one of the robbers,
another police officer, who had served as the synagogue rabbi’s
bodyguard, had thought up the robbery out of anger over the rabbi’s
refusal to lend him money.
"The anti-Semitic slogans, the paper said, were painted to confuse police."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1064709.html
* Note that this is a paper that supports the opposition, not a Chavez mouthpiece.Â
Facts are stubborn things
What is this crap!
I know! I too get the distinct impression that Ismail won’t actually be offering Rowan Laxton that hug he so desperately needs. Talk about two facedness. What about you? What are you doing to offer support to the latest innocent victim of the international Zionist smear machine, RC?
"And unfortunately for you, even Jewcy Jews – progressive and
daring as they are! – are still a tad too Jewish to actually fall for
this played out schtick, no matter how much it dazzles the crowd at Democracy
Now!, International ANSWER or whoever else is still stupid enough and gullible
to fall for this line of tired gibberish."
What is this crap! Can we get an actual argument from you right-wing
idiots instead of the usual boring attempts to assassinate the messenger?
I mean, are you guys trying to land a job with Bill O’ Reilly or what?
Try a little harder. Maybe try some of those un-prescribed drugs Limbaugh
was trying to score. It might help you guys with your stamina a bit.
P.S. I was about to give up on Jewcy, but hey, having Jewcy trying to
surpass Fox news is irresistible. Is this, like, the new generation’s shtick?
Going even further than Rush and Bill? David Duke and stuff? Way to go! I almost forgot that most Jews are liberal and not for Likud, Lieberman, Fox news, Islamophobia, right-wing nutters and the like. Silly me!
I’m holding my breath. You can pull it off, come on!
Facts are stubborn things
So anyone who doesn’t who doesn’t go along with the program of glorifying self-harm through wanton stupidity is a political pygmy. Right. I think I get it now.
What do you all want to bet that, aside from voting, Ismail has never openly made or taken responsibility for a single political decision in his life? I’d say the odds are pretty damn high.
You’re one brave "progressive", Ismail. I nominate you for the position of overseeing garbage collection in your town. Just don’t expect the municipality to shell out compensation to your wife and daughter when you get yourself stuck in the trash compactor, much less erect a statue in your honor to commemorate the event. Â
dis?in?gen?u?ous
/?d?s
?n?d??n
yu
?s/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [dis-in-jen-yoo-uh
s ]
–adjective lacking in frankness, candor, or sincerity; falsely or hypocritically ingenuous; insincere:
Lest anyone ever tell you otherwise Izzy, you’ve got quite a few things in common with the Maximum Leader of the Bolivarian revolution. Both of you are quite content to vent spleen with hoary anti-semitic tropes, only making sure (and even then, doing a half assed job) to assure the Chosen Apes that you don’t really mean us per se so much as you mean those other Zionist, Christ killing bankers who drink the blood of Arab babies, etc, etc.(oh! them!).
You spend about half as much effort reminding us that you don’t actually hate us as you do talking about how you appear to loathe everything about us. You will forgive us, then, if we then take your shock and horror at the insinuation of anti-semitism as a mortal slur on your character as a sign of overt chutzpah. We can get the exact same rhetoric and "who me?" denials of anti-semitism from higher profile, and frankly more entertaining, Jew haters like Chavez and David Duke. I mean really, we could overlook your lack of sincerity and credibility if you only had some modicum of originality, but alas, this too is beyond your abilities.
Just as with Chavez and Duke, nobody believed your preposterous denials about your motivations for your peculiar focus on Jews then, and nobody believes them now. Your lack of sincerity would be a mortal flaw in your lazy quest to assure Jewcy readers of your motives, but when coupled with your spectacular lack of subtlety, originality and style, you come embarassingly short on all fronts. And unfortunately for you, even Jewcy Jews – progressive and daring as they are! – are still a tad too Jewish to actually fall for this played out schtick, no matter how much it dazzles the crowd at Democracy Now!, International ANSWER or whoever else is still stupid enough and gullible to fall for this line of tired gibberish.
UPDATE: The lulz keep coming in! You know what would make him feel better? A phone call from Ismail and Hugo Chavez. Keep your head up, Rowan!
Does anyone else find it ironic that, in declaring his superiority to… well, to just about everyone here, Ismail makes an impassioned defense of death by idiocy?
Did we touch a nerve, habib? What personal experiences lurk in your family tree that cause you to identify with death by idiocy? A drunk steamroller-driving incident perhaps?
The IDF once cynically referred to the death of a Palestinian man who blew up while making homemade explosives as a "work-related incident." Some things are just so obviously dangerous that it’s expected that something catastrophic may happen if you don’t take them seriously. And to pretend there’s anything wrong with pointing that out, in as memorable a fashion as possible, is probably the stupidest thing any normal thinking person has ever heard.
The only thing funnier than someone who unwittingly commits self-harm by being deliberately stupid, especially in dangerous circumstances, is someone who finds such acts morally beyond reproach, morally untouchable. The type of drunken self-righteousness that defines (and drives) the fatuous Rachel Corries of the world is exemplified here by an even more retarded Ismail.
Ismail, sometimes you’re just not right. Not everything is simply a matter of a progressive series of cases of seeing the light that no one else sees, either morally, intellectually or practically. Sometimes it really is just a matter of your revealing yourself to us as delusional. Look into it.
Oh, and it case it wasn’t clear to you, this is a public forum. Everything you say someone can respond to, even if it’s not for your benefit. The stalker is the one who lurks in the shadows and snipes, and doesn’t expect to be addressed. But that’s not why we’re calling out your bullsh*t. We’re calling it out because it really is bullsh*t.
It may be too late for Rachel Corrie to learn from her own stupidity. But it’s not for anybody else. Hence, the tone taken in references to her actions here.
I didn’t plan to respond to either of the Political Pygmy Posse above, but on the off chance that there’s another confused soul out there who mistook my reference to bankers, let me clarify.
Some of you may know the story of the wizened spinster who called the police to arrest the neighbor who was exposing himself next door. The police responded quickly and went to the window from which the old woman said the miscreant could be observed. The officers looked all around but observed nothing suspicious.
"Sorry, ma’am we don’t see a thing. Are you sure you saw him from this window?"
"Of course I did", she replied. "But you’ve got to get out on the fire escape and set this ladder up on the top rung. Then crane your neck around the corner and take out your binoculars. You’ll see the bastard plain as day!"
Like the outraged woman, rw insists he sees in my comments what is in actual fact the filth that contaminates his own cesspool of a mind. I was making reference to bankers as prototypes of the white collar criminals whose perfidies are responsible for more human misery than are the desperate actions of impoverished retail skells like 7-11 knock off artists. Some may recall Woody Guthrie’s "Some rob you with a six gun, some with a fountain pen" or high-Wasp Lionel Barrymore’s portrayal of the rapacious Yankee banker Henry Potter (or was that changed from Hyman Paskudnyak?) The dimwit racist trope about Jewish bankers was nowhere near my mind, although it is an apparent reflex for poor rw.
I usually ignore dopy accusations from paranoids, but I didn’t want to risk that there might be a good-hearted and sane reader who, with good intentions, mistook my meaning. Â
More mischief is done by bankers in suits than by crackheads holding up a 7-11, if you know what I mean.
Oh, snap! Oh, no you di’int!
 We’re Jews, Ismail! We know exactly what you mean. Subtlety isn’t one of your strong suits, after all. Why, it’s something you share with Hugo Chavez. Imagine that!
Just between us girls, Ismail – why is it you troll Jewcy again? I’m not a religious scholar or anything, but I’m pretty sure that "72 houris" thing is a fixed figure with no bonus virgins added or subtracted for riling up the enemies of the Prophet before blowing yourself up. I mean, it’s your free time to use as you see fit, of course, but few men troll so mightily only to reap so little – at least outside the service of God or country.
I urge all to follow rw’s link and assess his and isaac’s comments in light of the inhumane and infantile sewage you will find there.
I should know better, but I still find it astonishing that moral embryos like these two can chortle in celebration at the horrible death of a young woman, despite their disagreement with her political beliefs.
It’s understandable to express a certain coldness or even some gallows humor at the demise of someone you regard as an enemy, but an entire page of gleeful sophomoric heartlessness?
To my mind, Isaac comes off worse. RW is an unregenerate slob who is proud of his sloping brow and so, like the "God Hates Fags" crazies, doesn’t even attempt to leaven his viciousness with even a particle of rationalization but instead embraces his noxiousness with the grasp of the true lover. In doing so, he retains a particle of integrity-he’s absolutely loyal to his diseased and soulless creed.
Isaac, on the other hand, tries to cloak his basic animal nature with transparent embroidery designed to render his hatefulness less feral. More mischief is done by bankers in suits than by crackheads holding up a 7-11, if you know what I mean.
This place is plummeting rapidly from decent to PajamasMedia brutal to Little Green Footballs disgusting. And I’d suggest that neither of the above bozos bother replying. I don’t speak reptile.Â
Are you making fun of the noble Saint Pancake, RW? How will Ismail ever forgive you?
The Rachel Corrie/St. Pancake episode reminds me of a story a friend told me as he was rotating through the trauma/burn unit. A man was brought in with electrical burns. He incurred them while his friend was driving a truck and asked him get up on top of the cab to cut down low overhanging tree branches as they were moving along the road. He ended up hitting an electrical line… with the chainsaw he was using for this purpose.
I told my father the story that night over dinner. My mother was appalled that we could find anything remotely resembling a sense of levity in it. As a fellow professional however, my father was able to understand and convey to her that there are often (at least) two ways of looking at even the same event — that the shock, horror and compulsion to help an idiotic fellow human being can be accompanied by a need to recognize that the sheer stupidity of their act can only detract from the solemnity their situation would otherwise be afforded in hindsight.
Ever hear of the Darwin Awards?
My favorite is the guy who had no spark plug and decided to connect a broken circuit in his truck’s dashboard with a rifle cartridge. As the circuit heated up, the bullet was discharged from the chamber, and took the guy out in the nuts. Although the Darwin Awards are typically awarded to someone who, in the commission of an act so stupid that it kills them, has been deemed a drag on the human species, the award was still given. Even though the man had survived, it was decided that the award should be issued in this case because, in performing his own self-castration, he had still managed to effectively remove himself from the gene pool.
I would presume that the ongoing animosity of Chavez to him would have been relevant to the story.
Yisrael Medad
http://www.myrightword.blogspot.com
There is the constant, incredibly vitriolic anti-Israeli assaults (of the sort which simply substitute the word "Zionists" for "Jews") in the pro-government newspapers, none of which would dare to issue such attacks without the knowledge and consent of el caudillo.
Chavez is an asshole, but he isn’t exactly an idiot. Any time violence flares up in the Middle East, the price of oil bumps up a few more dollars, all of which he proceeds to loot from PDVSA. And if a synagogue or two gets trashed, or if Venezuelan Jews get scared a little bit from all this rhetoric? Eh – viva la revolucion!
WRT Ismail: Rachel Corrie? You bet I’ve heard of her!
Daniel-
You probably have a different sense of time than I, but uttering a condemnation within 24 hours seems pretty immediate to me. And Chavez seems pretty adept at ignoring international pressure-why do you suppose he folded this time, if not because he noted the useful difference between antisemitism and antiZionism?
I find the fact that the culprits were caught despite being members of the national police heartening. And I heartily agree that the crimes must be investigated thoroughly. But I’ll need to know more about what rhetoric you think needs to be toned down. If it’s antisemitic, it needs not to be toned down, but eliminated completely. If it’s passionately, deeply and loudly opposed to Israel’s actions in Palestine, shout it from the rooftops.
Jon-Â
"I’m sure you will be able to provide us with lots of accounts of the Israeli government "historically"Â beeing "foot-draggers" in the "investigation fo similar outrages", you seem to have a lot of time in your hands."
I most certainly will, and don’t worry, Israel’s history in this sort of thing is so shameful and voluminous and well-known that it won’t take me any research time at all.
1. Brian Avery- shot in the face by an IOF sniper, April 2003. IOF refused to investigate until Supreme Court ordered them to do so, Feb. 2005. Foot-dragging time: 22 months.
2. Tom Hurndall- shot in the head by the IOF, April 2003. IOF performed superficial inquiry and (shockingly!) concluded that no wrong was done by them. As Hurndall lay in a coma, the IOF foot-dragged until required by a judge to investigate properly. Despite major shysterism on the part of the defense (e.g., Hurndall died from untreated pneumonia rather than the bullet lodged in his brain), IOF soldier finally convicted of manslaughter instead of the far more appropriate and severe charge of murder.
3. James Miller-killed by IOF sniper in May 2003. After 2 years of foot-dragging and non-investigation on the part of the IOF, a jury found the sniper guilty of unlawful killing. Israel ultimately bought off prosecution, facing overwhelming evidence of cold-blooded murder and not the tissue of serial lies offered to absolve the killer.
4. You may have heard of Rachel Corrie.
5. The repulsive Captain R emptied his pistol into the 13 year old girl Iman al Hams who was wounded and alone at the time. Lie after lie followed, until audio evidence proved that each of the filthy coward’s dodges lacked even a particle of truth. Finally, minor charges and convictions, then an appeal, then a monetary award-to the deceitful and pusillanimous soldier! Â
6. If you have the stomach for more, I’d suggest looking up Yesh Din’s report, Exceptions, which provides many more such acts of mendacity. Â
There you are. And finished before my tea got cold.Â
Well, Ismail, I guess Chavez condemning the attacks makes his anti-semitic vitriol and his love of Hamas ok, right?
I’m sure you will be able to provide us with lots of accounts of the Israeli government "historically"Â beeing "foot-draggers" in the "investigation fo similar outrages", you seem to have a lot of time in your hands.
Chavez did not denounce the act immediately, in fact he waited a full day. And even then there was ambiguity. Full condemnation had to wait a few more days, AFTER international pressure was felt.
 The vandals might have been caught but the stories released do not hold, at least not so far. It is difficult to believe that such a commando operation was held just because the rabbi refused to lend money to one particular guy. And so go other rumors.
 And the police officers depended from the central government, not any local police corps.
 In other words, a lot still needs to be investigated. Not to mention that the offical language must be toned down, and fast.
I’m surprised that the poster didn’t think it relevant to point out that Chavez denounced the cowardly acts immediately and promised that the vandals would be caught and tried. His comments were followed by the speedy apprehension of eleven suspects, several of them police officers.
Let us hope that these prosecutions proceed swiftly and fairly and that the offenders receive their much-deserved punishment. In any case, by arresting his own cops Chavez is already far ahead of the Israeli authorities, who have historically been notorious foot-draggers when it comes to the investigation of similar outrages alleged to have been committed by their own officials.
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