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The last refuge of scoundrels: Claims of Venezuelan "Anti-Semitism"
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
sent by Steven L. Robinson - Jan 13, 2008
Left I on the News - Jan 9, 2008
http://lefti.blogspot.com/2008_01_01_archive.html#5466184188207220309
"Anti-semitism" - the last refuge of scoundrels
Such an easy charge to hurl, and so useful as a tool against your
enemies. This from today's Miami Herald:
"Venezuelan Jews, long uneasy with the Chavez government's alliances
with Iran and other Middle Eastern countries that espouse anti-Israel
views, are concerned that the government is sponsoring anti-Semitism in
this hemisphere, a prominent journalist said Tuesday."
Note the quick seque from "anti-Israel views," which is reasonably
accurate (although "pro-Palestinian" would be more accurate) to
"anti-Semitism." And the evidence? For one, the country's allegedly
"fast-dwindling Jewish population." No statistics to back up that
claim, however, nor any recognition that a lot of rich people have left
Venezuela thanks to their (hopefully correct) perceptions of the future
directions of the country, and that if the Jewish population of
Venezuela is really "fast-dwindling," it likely has nothing whatsoever
to do with "anti-Semitism." Nor, for that matter, any recognition that
there is a large, stable, and un-persecuted Jewish population in Iran
which speaks to the question of whether there is a correlation between
"anti-Israel" view and "anti-Semitic" views.
Oh, but there's more. There's an article from 2006 from an allegedly
"government-linked" newspaper (I assume that means it supports the
government, since it's not actually owned or run by the government) in
which an article "debates whether it will be necessary to 'expel [the
Jews] from the country.'" Clearly not exactly an ongoing debate or a
more recent reference would be available, even if this is true and not
completely taken out of context. Oh, and an article (date unspecified)
that "accuses Jews of being involved in the murder of a government
prosecutor." Not "the Jews," mind you, just "Jews." Which, out of
context, tells us nothing. Were these just random individuals being
accused of murder, who are in passing noted as Jews? Did they organize
their plot (if they did) out of the Jewish Community Center? Who knows.
Last but not least, this:
"Venezuelan government intelligence services twice have raided the
country's most important Jewish center in a vague, ultimately
unsuccessful search for weapons. Publications of the government's
cultural ministry run articles entitled 'the Jewish Question,' along
with a Jewish star superimposed over a swastika."
Talk about "vague." What was the context of the search for weapons in
the Jewish center? Was it in conjunction with the murder of the
prosecutor, perhaps? And what does "the Jewish Question" discuss? For
all we know, it's a pamphlet explaining to Venezuelans that opposition
to the Israeli occupation of Palestine has nothing whatsoever to do
with, and is in no way a justification for, anti-Semitism.
In the end, I think we can judge the character of these charges from
this:
"Eppel drew connections between the anti-Semitism and Chavez's alliance
with the Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, also stridently critical
of the United States. 'Chavez actually believes he is going to defeat
capitalism and the U.S.,' Eppel said."
As I said at the beginning, this is really all about political
opposition to Chavez, and using the epithet of "anti-Semite" to attempt
to tar him and by extension his program, and quite probably nothing
whatsoever to do with any real anti-Semitism in Venezuela. No doubt
there are anti-Semites in Venezuela, as there are in Miami and
everywhere else, but I seriously doubt there is any evidence that Hugo
Chavez or anyone is his government is supportive of such attitudes.
*
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