I was bothered earlier this week with a report from the Washington Post about the travails facing the Jews of South America. The article, I thought, put the onus of blame on their plight on Israeli actions and underplayed the antisemitism that has long been part of of Hugo Chavez’s populism.
However in a staff editorial today the Post’s editors do a much better job of outlining the problem in Mr. Chavez vs. the Jews.
Then there is the assault on Venezuela’s Jewish community — which seems to have replaced George W. Bush as Mr. Chávez’s favorite foil. After Israel’s offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip last month, the caudillo expelled Israel’s ambassador and described Israel’s actions in Gaza as “genocide.” Then Mr. Chávez turned on Venezuela’s Jews. “Let’s hope that the Venezuelan Jewish community will declare itself against this barbarity,” Mr. Chávez bellowed on a government-controlled television channel. “Don’t Jews repudiate the Holocaust? And this is precisely what we’re witnessing.”
Government media quickly took up the chorus. One television host close to Mr. Chávez blamed opposition demonstrations on two students he said had Jewish last names. On a pro-government Web site, another commentator demanded that citizens “publicly challenge every Jew that you find in the street, shopping center or park” and called for a boycott of Jewish-owned businesses, seizures of Jewish-owned property and a demonstration at Caracas’s largest synagogue. On Jan. 30 the synagogue was duly attacked by a group of thugs, who spray-painted “Jews get out” on the walls and confiscated a registry of members. Mr. Chávez denied responsibility; days later, the attorney general’s office said that 11 people detained in connection with the attack included five police officers and a police intelligence operative.
The Post’s editors understand that Jews are being scapegoated and persecuted by a tyrant. I wish the editorial had pointed out that Chavez’s campaign against the Jews has been going on since he was first elected, but the conclusion of the editorial gets it right:
If Mr. Chávez loses the referendum, he could very well join the country’s eclipse, which appears likely to accelerate in the next year or two. Apparently, he’s already decided whom to blame.
Helena Cobban, proving that its often hard to tell the difference between anti-Zionists and antisemites these days think the Post’s editors are overreacting
Though the editors do take the opportunity to gin up a bit more hostility to Hugo Chavez, over the campaign he has launched to challenge his country’s Jewish citizens to “declare themselves” in opposition to Israel’s actions in Gaza.
If having the government thugs vandalize a synagogue and intimidate the Jewish community is merely a “challenge” to Venezuela’s Jewish community, then Cobban hates Jews as much she loves tyrants and terrorists, like Chavez, Meshal or Ahmadinejad.
Crossposted on Soccer Dad.
