Thursday, November 26, 2009
Venezuela's Anti-Semite in chief spews Anti-Israel hatred in public
Chavez calls Israel "murderous" U.S. arm
Wed Nov 25, 2009 8:48pm EST
By Frank Jack Daniel and Andrew Cawthorne
http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-Iran/idUSTRE5AO03520091126
CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez used a visit by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday to brand Israel as a murderous agent of Washington.
Chavez and Ahmadinejad, on the last leg of a tour of three left-leaning South American nations, hugged, held hands, and praised each other as fellow revolutionaries.
The Venezuelan singled out a comment by Israeli President Shimon Peres during a visit this month to South America that his and Ahmadinejad's days in power may be numbered.
"We know what the state of Israel stands for -- a murderous arm of the Yankee empire," Chavez told joint news conference. "What the president of Israel said, we take as a threat."
Chavez broke relations with Israel this year. He won praise in the Muslim world after branding an Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip as genocide.
His fierce speeches against Israel are taken by some supporters as a green light for anti-Semitism and walls in Caracas are often daubed with anti-Jewish slogans.
Ahmadinejad denies the Holocaust and has called for Israel to be wiped off the map.
OPEC members Venezuela and Iran have grown much closer in recent years. Chavez supports Ahmadinejad's controversial nuclear program, while Iran is helping Venezuela map uranium deposits.
The two leaders signed a raft of business and industrial agreements relating to 129 joint projects that Chavez said ranged from assembling bikes and producing car-parts, to processing milk and building houses.
Ahmadinejad clinched a second term after a disputed June election brought the worst unrest in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution and a heavy-handed clampdown on opponents.
His trips to left-leaning Brazil, Bolivia and Venezuela this week have helped cement ties with countries that back Iran's right to develop atomic power for peaceful purposes.
Iran is under pressure to accept a U.N. plan aimed at checking nuclear ambitions which it says are peaceful but the West fears could be intended to create atomic weapons.
"What do the imperialists say? That Ahmadinejad is here because we are making the atomic bomb here too," Chavez said.
"They're the ones with the atomic bombs, and remember the Yankee imperialists dropped bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki," he added, referring to the bombings of Japanese cities that ended World War II.
A leading Chavez critic and newspaper director, Teodoro Petkoff, mocked Ahmadinejad's visit, saying past cooperation deals had led to little of substance, not even the planned production of bicycles.
Karen Hooper, Latin America analyst for Stratfor consultancy, agreed that the worst fears in Washington about Venezuela and Iran's ties may be overblown.
"There is little danger of Venezuela being able to help Iran proliferate," she said.
"Although Iran is short on uranium and Venezuela might have some, even if Venezuela were to deliver sufficient quantities, the real problem for Iran is the enrichment process, which requires technology that Venezuela could not possibly wield."
(Writing by Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by Alan Elsner and Walker Simon)"
[Note how Ms. Karen Hooper can't help herself from acting as an apologist for evil even when it's smacking her between the eyes!]
Wed Nov 25, 2009 8:48pm EST
By Frank Jack Daniel and Andrew Cawthorne
http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-Iran/idUSTRE5AO03520091126
CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez used a visit by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday to brand Israel as a murderous agent of Washington.
Chavez and Ahmadinejad, on the last leg of a tour of three left-leaning South American nations, hugged, held hands, and praised each other as fellow revolutionaries.
The Venezuelan singled out a comment by Israeli President Shimon Peres during a visit this month to South America that his and Ahmadinejad's days in power may be numbered.
"We know what the state of Israel stands for -- a murderous arm of the Yankee empire," Chavez told joint news conference. "What the president of Israel said, we take as a threat."
Chavez broke relations with Israel this year. He won praise in the Muslim world after branding an Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip as genocide.
His fierce speeches against Israel are taken by some supporters as a green light for anti-Semitism and walls in Caracas are often daubed with anti-Jewish slogans.
Ahmadinejad denies the Holocaust and has called for Israel to be wiped off the map.
OPEC members Venezuela and Iran have grown much closer in recent years. Chavez supports Ahmadinejad's controversial nuclear program, while Iran is helping Venezuela map uranium deposits.
The two leaders signed a raft of business and industrial agreements relating to 129 joint projects that Chavez said ranged from assembling bikes and producing car-parts, to processing milk and building houses.
Ahmadinejad clinched a second term after a disputed June election brought the worst unrest in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution and a heavy-handed clampdown on opponents.
His trips to left-leaning Brazil, Bolivia and Venezuela this week have helped cement ties with countries that back Iran's right to develop atomic power for peaceful purposes.
Iran is under pressure to accept a U.N. plan aimed at checking nuclear ambitions which it says are peaceful but the West fears could be intended to create atomic weapons.
"What do the imperialists say? That Ahmadinejad is here because we are making the atomic bomb here too," Chavez said.
"They're the ones with the atomic bombs, and remember the Yankee imperialists dropped bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki," he added, referring to the bombings of Japanese cities that ended World War II.
A leading Chavez critic and newspaper director, Teodoro Petkoff, mocked Ahmadinejad's visit, saying past cooperation deals had led to little of substance, not even the planned production of bicycles.
Karen Hooper, Latin America analyst for Stratfor consultancy, agreed that the worst fears in Washington about Venezuela and Iran's ties may be overblown.
"There is little danger of Venezuela being able to help Iran proliferate," she said.
"Although Iran is short on uranium and Venezuela might have some, even if Venezuela were to deliver sufficient quantities, the real problem for Iran is the enrichment process, which requires technology that Venezuela could not possibly wield."
(Writing by Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by Alan Elsner and Walker Simon)"
[Note how Ms. Karen Hooper can't help herself from acting as an apologist for evil even when it's smacking her between the eyes!]
Labels: Anti-Israel, Anti-Zionism, Antisemitism, Antisemitism in Venezuela, Chavez, Hugo Chavez, Jew-hate, South America, Venezuela, Venezuelan Anti-Semitism, Venezuelan Jews
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Venezuela's Jewish community is becoming increasingly worried
Caracas Jews fear planned state curriculum will hurt religious school
By Anshel Pfeffer
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/908072.html
Mon., October 01, 2007.
Venezuela's Jewish community is becoming increasingly worried about President Hugo Chavez's plans to redraft the country's constitution and centralize the education system. Sources in the community say that since Chavez rose to power eight years ago, some 20 percent of Jews have left the country.
Over the past month, Chavez has advanced a raft of far-reaching amendments to the constitution, which he amended through a referendum shortly after he was elected to his first term as president in December 1998. Chavez aims to amend the constitution to remove the limitation on the number of times a president can run for reelection.
Chavez is also preparing a list of amendments making the Venezuelan economy more socialist and centralized, giving the government more control of certain sectors. Some of the amendments include nationalization.
Earlier this month, Chavez announced a new mandatory socialist schooling program. Schools that do not adhere to the government's curriculum would be closed and the pupils transferred to state-run institutions. This would affect private schools attended by children from affluent homes.
In recent media statements as well as in his weekly TV program, Chavez said that "private schools will have no choice but to comply." The ultimatum has worried the local Jewish community of some 12,000 people.
More than 90 percent of all Venezuelan Jews reside in the capital, Caracas. The two prominent Jewish institutions in the city are the community's club and a Jewish school, Ebraica, with some 1,300 pupils of all ages.
Changes to the schools' modus operandi could constitute a blow to Venezuela's Jewish community, prominent members say. "We don't think these plans are directed against Jews, but we could be affected by this general trend," a community activist told Haaretz.
"The school is an essential issue that unites all of the community around it," says another activist for an international Jewish organization who frequently visits Venezuela. "We expect Chavez's plan to make it more difficult to teach the school's specific Jewish subjects."
"Everything is blacker and whiter here," says one of the community's members. "You're either for Chavez or against him. And Jews are regarded as the opposition." The man, who requested anonymity, says that in Chavez's Venezuela Jews are also identified with Israel, which isn't on Chavez's list of favorite countries.
Until now, the local Jewish community has been able to weather the socialist storm. "Socialism and all, the community has never enjoyed such wealth before. The demand for imported goods is record high," the Jewish community member says.
But with thousands of Jews contemplating leaving for the United States, Israel and elsewhere, the community's stability under Chavez remains to be seen.
By Anshel Pfeffer
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/908072.html
Mon., October 01, 2007.
Venezuela's Jewish community is becoming increasingly worried about President Hugo Chavez's plans to redraft the country's constitution and centralize the education system. Sources in the community say that since Chavez rose to power eight years ago, some 20 percent of Jews have left the country.
Over the past month, Chavez has advanced a raft of far-reaching amendments to the constitution, which he amended through a referendum shortly after he was elected to his first term as president in December 1998. Chavez aims to amend the constitution to remove the limitation on the number of times a president can run for reelection.
Chavez is also preparing a list of amendments making the Venezuelan economy more socialist and centralized, giving the government more control of certain sectors. Some of the amendments include nationalization.
Earlier this month, Chavez announced a new mandatory socialist schooling program. Schools that do not adhere to the government's curriculum would be closed and the pupils transferred to state-run institutions. This would affect private schools attended by children from affluent homes.
In recent media statements as well as in his weekly TV program, Chavez said that "private schools will have no choice but to comply." The ultimatum has worried the local Jewish community of some 12,000 people.
More than 90 percent of all Venezuelan Jews reside in the capital, Caracas. The two prominent Jewish institutions in the city are the community's club and a Jewish school, Ebraica, with some 1,300 pupils of all ages.
Changes to the schools' modus operandi could constitute a blow to Venezuela's Jewish community, prominent members say. "We don't think these plans are directed against Jews, but we could be affected by this general trend," a community activist told Haaretz.
"The school is an essential issue that unites all of the community around it," says another activist for an international Jewish organization who frequently visits Venezuela. "We expect Chavez's plan to make it more difficult to teach the school's specific Jewish subjects."
"Everything is blacker and whiter here," says one of the community's members. "You're either for Chavez or against him. And Jews are regarded as the opposition." The man, who requested anonymity, says that in Chavez's Venezuela Jews are also identified with Israel, which isn't on Chavez's list of favorite countries.
Until now, the local Jewish community has been able to weather the socialist storm. "Socialism and all, the community has never enjoyed such wealth before. The demand for imported goods is record high," the Jewish community member says.
But with thousands of Jews contemplating leaving for the United States, Israel and elsewhere, the community's stability under Chavez remains to be seen.
Labels: anti-Jewish, South America, Venezuela
