Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is pulling out all the stops in his bid to crush opposition to his authoritarian rule in the election scheduled for October 7. Chavez is seeking to discredit challenger Henrique Capriles Radonski by pointing out his Jewish roots. Chavez has sought to intimidate Venezuelan Jews in the past as a result of the close ties he has fostered with Iran and Hezbollah and his virulent hostility to Israel. But his attacks on the leader of the opposition have escalated the latent Jew-hatred of his regime.
As the Jerusalem Post reports, a study conducted by Tel Aviv University shows that the Caracas government has produced a steady stream of vilification of Capriles that centers on his Jewish roots. Capriles is a Catholic but he is the grandson of Holocaust survivors and many of his mother’s family perished at the hands of the Nazis.
“This is done in a variety of methods, such as defamation, intimidation and conspiracy theories, many of which portray Capriles as a Zionist agent, and by mixing classic and neo-anti-Semitism,” said the report, authored by Lidia Lerner, an expert on Latin America. “A Capriles victory, it is claimed, will inevitably lead to Zionist infiltration.” …
Op-Eds warning of a “Zionist takeover” if Capriles wins repeatedly have appeared in government-controlled media since Radonski’s candidacy was announced in February, the report said. He also has been the subject of anti-Semitic cartoons.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Anti-Defamation League have expressed concern about the government’s attempt to whip up Jew hatred. The Huffington Post reported in May that Chavez’s allies have compounded the vilification by trying to float the rumor that Capriles is gay as well as Jewish.
President Obama was quoted over the summer as downplaying any concerns about Chavez by saying he was not a threat to the United States even though the Venezuelan has supported terrorism in neighboring Colombia and has allowed his country to serve as a beachhead in the Western hemisphere for Iran and Hezbollah. But his re-election campaign has illustrated that he shares the ayatollahs’ anti-Semitism as well as their hatred for the United States.
Given Chavez’s control of the media as well as his armies of street thugs, it’s not clear whether Capriles has a real chance to save democracy in Venezuela. But the blatant anti-Semitism of Chavez’s campaign ought to be raising alarms in Washington and the rest of the civilized world about his continued hold on power.
Capriles is a bit of a fool. n nVenezuela does not deserve him and he may end up dead for all his troubles. n nLeave the savages the government they deserve. n nWhen they deserve better, they will get better. n
When will writers, like yourself, admit that the Jews constitute a PEOPLE whose religion, JUDAISM, is so much more than a set of beliefs, and body of laws, that one can voluntarily adopt or, alternatively, abandon. Our nation, and our religion, are inextricably intertwined, unlike any other people, or religion, in the world. n nAs regards Capriles, intermarriage, and the embrace of a religion foreign to that of his mother, prompts questions, and doubts, about his true identity.
All true. And none of which reduces the danger to Venezuela's Jews, or to the world in general, that Chavez yemach shmo finds it useful to rely on Jew-hating to intimidate his oppponents.
Yeah what does any of this have to do with the article? I don't know if you count yourself as religious, but even R' Moshe Feinstein said we should rescue Ethiopian Jews who were dying as Jews. Their "true identities" will be forever clouded in history, but they were being attacked as Jews, as is Capriles. Capriles might not have an ounce fo Jewish blood in him, but the fact that Chavez attacks him for being a Jew (much less a Zionist, whatever that is) is what is frightening and should get you more riled up than pondering whethert his individual happens to be Jewish (and which the author certainly never says).
Where does "Chavez attac[k] him or being a Jew"? Cite a single reference.
That was the whole article…?
Also i believe the correct quote usage would be "Chavez attack[] him". That's how my office (AG) does it in appellate briefs, at least.
That would be refreshing
Chavez is a crypto-communist who shares some values with our Pr.
He's even less crypto than Obama, though.
Although Chavez is a strong Critic of Israel's polices, especially Israel' treatment of its indigenous peoples. he has never said anything that attacks Israeli people on the basis of their nationality, or Jewish people on the basis of their religion or ethnicity. n n
Although Hugo Chavez has made many statements critical of Israel's policies regarding the Palestinans He is not anti-semitic. Hehas never said anything attacking Israelis on the basis of their nationality, or Jews on the basis of their religion.
Yet he tolerates columnists in the highly controlled press calling for boycotts of Jews and Jewish owned businesses. What would it take for you to say that he is a Jew-hater?
Wasn't this fat bastard supposed to die?
I assume your Imperial Majesty means Chavez ymach shmo and not any of his bastard apologists who have shown up to troll this thread.
Capriles IS a Zionist agent, IS getting money from zisrael. CHAVEZ IS RIGJT.
Yes, and Oceania has ALWAYS been at war with Eastasia, Ross. Now take a few deep breaths and swallow the nice meds.
"President Obama was quoted over the summer as downplaying any concerns about Chavez by saying he was not a threat to the United States". Now this is a morally sick president. A dangerously sick president. Come November, a dangerously and morally sick EX-president (by January).
Sorry, that is an out and out lie. Unless you buy into the lie that the synagogues that his security forces vandalized were Zionist outposts. Or unless you try to excuse his editorials and speeches about the racist nature of Jews and Judaism, and his charges of international Jewish control of the banks, under the heading of "Legitimate criticism of Israel." n
My mistake, and my aplogies to Mr. Jones. Apparently it is Damian Lataan himself who is the demented hater of Jews who runs 9/11 truther the web site that he cites to. a Few minutes on Bing suggest that Mr. Lataan is widely viewed as a crackpot, and a few minutes wasted looking at his blog and his columns show why. Not surprisingly, his theories do seem to be popular with one David Duke.
If this was a resonse to me, you'll notice that my comment was a reply to ztrakyga, not you. But I like the cut of your cloak.