Israel Matzav

Chavez steps up attacks on Jews

The Chavez thugocracy in Venezeula, with which President Obama decided to restore ties on Wednesday, has stepped up its attacks against Jews recently, with two serious attacks in the last ten days (Hat Tip: Jonah Goldberg).

Last week, an angry mob broke out in Miranda, Venezuela’s second largest state. Reports indicate that the Mayor of Miranda’s capital city incited an angry group of Chavez supporters to paint Nazi swastikas on the home of an anti-Chavez Jewish politician, Governor Henrique Capriles Radonski. “We are showing Capriles that …people are opposed to his continuous attacks against the initiatives and socialist projects of president Chávez,” explained Los Teques Mayor Alirio Mendoza. Governor Radonski is a charismatic Chavez opponent, and has spent time in jail for a minor role in Venezuela’s failed coup of 2004. Further, since he is perhaps the only well-known Jewish politician in the country, it is easy to understand why he has become a prime target for irate Chavistas.

To add to the growing number of anti-Semitic acts committed in the country, the Tiferet Israel Synagogue in Caracas was the subject of another act of vandalism on June 16th. In an email to NewMajority, Rabbi Pynchas Brener, the Chief Rabbi of Caracas, reported that the outer walls of the temple were covered in anti-Semitic graffiti. Photos provided to NewMajority show graffiti that includes a crossed out Star of David, swastikas, a hammer and sickle, pro-Palestinian rhetoric, and repeated references to Jews as fascists.

Read the whole thing.

When you don't make value judgments regarding whom you want to befriend, you can restore diplomatic relations with a thug like Hugo Chavez and still sleep well at night. Democracy? It's no better than any other value system or form of government, eh Barack?

What could go wrong?

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:14 PM