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Still More on Charges of Venezuelan "anti-semitism"
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
sent by Steven Robinson - Jan 13, 2008
BoRevNet - Jan 10, 2008
http://www.borev.net/2008/01/its_the_21st_century_you_can_b.html
It's the 21st Century.
You Can Be Both Pro-Judaism and Pro-Palestine Now.
The Miami Herald's Latin America coverage has traditionally dovetailed
nicely with U.S. foreign policy interests in the region, which stands to
reason considering half their staff remain on the State Department
payroll (and that's no conspiracy theory: its been in the papers.
See:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/03/AR2006100301220.html
So I guess we weren't exactly surprised to read their editorial today
demanding that Chavez "Stop the Attacks on Jews in Venezuela." Errrrr?
Really?
It turns out that most of the "attacks" are of the written variety. If
you are familiar with the Spanish (and the Adobe Acrobat) you can click
here: http://www.borev.net/aplenavoz.pdf
to download a .pdf of the
"culture ministry publication that runs articles on ''the Jewish
Question,'" they mention, which, despite its admittedly terrible title
is actually an analysis of Israeli policy in Palestine and Lebanon, not
of Venezuelan Jews. They also condemn articles published in "government
friendly newspapers," whatever that means. And then of course, they are
up in arms over Venezuela's "worrisome ties" with other OPEC nations.
Sigh. Sound familiar? Oh right, the 80s. Here's a link to some of the
now-discredited stories the New York Times published at the time about
anti-Semitism in Nicaragua, which was one of the reasons it was so
patriotic at the time to load Iran up with weapons and shred the paper
trail or something. The details confuse me. http://tinyurl.com/ytmpj3
Full URL:
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/a/antisemitism/index.html?query=NICARAGUA&field=geo&match=exact&rss=1
Oh and here's the response from actual Venezuelan Jews the last time
accusations like this emerged: basically "butt out and STFU."
***
Jewish Daily Forward via Venezuelanalysis - Jan 13, 2006
(http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/1563)
Originally published here (Venezuelanalysis has the wrong source URL)
Jewish Daily Forward - Jan 13, 2006
http://www.forward.com/articles/1874
Venezuela's Jews Defend Leftist President in Flap Over Remarks
by Marc Perelman
The Venezuelan Jewish community leadership and several major American
Jewish groups are accusing the Simon Wiesenthal Center of rushing to
judgment by charging Venezuela's leftist president, Hugo Chavez, with
making antisemitic remarks.
Officials of the leading organization of Venezuelan Jewry were
preparing a letter this week to the center, complaining that it had
misinterpreted Chavez's words and had failed to consult with them
before attacking the Venezuelan president.
"You have interfered in the political status, in the security, and in
the well-being of our community. You have acted on your own, without
consulting us, on issues that you don't know or understand," states a
draft of the letter obtained by the Forward. Copies of the letter are
also to be sent to the heads of the World Jewish Congress and the
American Jewish Committee, among other Jewish groups.
"We believe the president was not talking about Jews and that the
Jewish world must learn to work together," said Fred Pressner,
president of the Confederation of Jewish Associations of Venezuela. The
confederation is known by its Spanish acronym, CAIV. He added that this
was the third time in recent years that the Wiesenthal center had
publicly criticized Chavez without first consulting the local community.
Last week the Wiesenthal Center wrote to Chavez, demanding that he
apologize for what the center said was a negative reference to Jews
during a Christmas Eve speech. The center also asked the governments of
Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay to "freeze the process" of
incorporating Venezuela into Mercosur, a regional trade bloc, unless
the Venezuelan president publicly apologizes.
In his speech, Chavez lamented that while the world had enough
resources for all, "some minorities, the descendants of the same ones
who crucified Christ, the descendants of the same ones who threw out
[South American liberator Simon] Bolivar from here and also crucified
him in a way in Santa Marta, over there in Colombia " a minority took
possession of all the planet's gold, of the silver, the minerals, the
waters, the good land, the oil, the riches, and they have concentrated
the riches in a few hands. Less than 10% of the world's population
possesses over half of the world's riches, and more than half of the
planet's population is poor, and every day there are more poor in the
world."
Both the AJCommittee and the American Jewish Congress seconded the
Venezuelan community's view that Chavez's comments were not aimed at
Jews. All three groups said he was aiming his barbs at the white
oligarchy that has dominated the region since the colonial era,
pointing to his reference to Bolivar as the clearest evidence of his
intent.
One official noted that Latin America's so-called Liberation Theology
has long depicted Jesus as a socialist and consequently speaks of
gentile business elites as "Christ-killers."
Sergio Widder, the Wiesenthal center's representative in Latin America,
countered that Chavez's mention of Christ-killers and wealth was
ambiguous at best and in need of clarification. He said that the
decision to criticize Chavez had been taken after careful consideration.
The Venezuelan government did not react publicly, and its embassy in
Washington declined to comment. However, senior government officials
met with Israeli diplomats in Caracas this week and said that the
president's remarks had no antisemitic intent or meaning, according to
Livia Link, deputy chief of the Israeli Embassy. She declined to be
more specific or to provide the embassy's views on the affair, saying
that it was a Venezuelan issue.
Complaints of American Jewish high-handedness have been aired by Jewish
organizations in other countries, most notably in France. French Jews
complained in 2003 that American groups were too vocal in criticizing
the French government for not responding aggressively to incidents of
antisemitism. Such frictions illustrate the difficulty of finding a
balance between American-style aggressive advocacy and the built-in
cautiousness of local Jewish communities.
Pressner said that the Venezuelan Jewish confederation was not caving
in to the government. He cited several protests by the confederation
against antisemitic remarks broadcast on radio and television in recent
months. "We are not afraid, but we need to be fair," he said.
In the Venezuelan situation, American Jewish groups might be reflecting
the Bush administration's displeasure with Chavez's anti-American
pronouncements. But while Chavez's politics may not appeal to
mainstream American Jewish groups, several spokesmen warned that
labeling him antisemitic for no obvious reason is likely to prove
self-fulfilling by provoking a backlash against Jews.
"It appears to us that Chavez did not intentionally speak about Jews,"
said David Twersky, director of the AJCongress's Council on World
Jewry. "I don't think we should raise the flag of antisemitism when it
doesn't belong."
The Wiesenthal center previously criticized Chavez publicly and urged
his exclusion from Mercosur after he compared Spain's then-Prime
Minister Jose Maria Aznar to Hitler and again when he quipped that his
political opposition resembled the wandering Jew.
The Wiesenthal center is not the only international Jewish group
entangled in Venezuela. Speaking to the media two months ago, Rabbi
Henri Sobel of Brazil, a longtime World Jewish Congress leader, accused
Chavez of antisemitism.
Pressner said that the CAIV sent letters both to Sobel and to the
Wiesenthal center urging prior consultation but failed to get a
response.
The Wiesenthal center's Widder confirmed that the center was making its
decisions on its own and did not consult with the CAIV. "We don't speak
on behalf of the Jewish community there," he said.
By contrast, other American Jewish groups that spoke out on the latest
incident asked the CAIV for guidance.
"Having served in a Jewish community in Latin America that always
welcomed cooperation with international and American Jewish
organizations, I understand the urge to help a community," said Dina
Siegel Vann, director of the AJCommittee's Institute on Latino and
Latin American Affairs and a former political adviser to the Mexican
Jewish community leadership. "But it has to be tempered by the
realization that many times, those organizations do not have the full
picture of the local dynamics. And the basic courtesy is to call the
local Jewish community and ask what they can do to help."
*
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