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robbers, led by the rabbi's former security guard, who had a money grudge against the rabbi--an inside job (they knew where the burglar alarms, etc., were, and had keys, or knew how to get in). There were 20 or so of them in the gang, including a couple of local police officers. They were all caught within days of the incident. And the local Jewish community--as well as the president of the largest Jewish organization in Venezuela--thanked the government for its swift action, and the president of the Jewish group went out of his way, on several occasions, to say that Venezuela is a liberal government that protects minorities.
Before almost anything was known about that incident, the Miami Herald and the Washington Post and other corpo/fascist newspapers came out with blistering editorials criticizing the Chavez government for anti-semitism, based on Chavez's criticisms of Israel for the Gaza bombings--something dozens of world leaders had done. They implied that his criticism of Israel somehow inspired the vandalism in the synagogue.
It was robbers! And they painted the synagogue with anti-Jewish slogans to cover up their crime and mis-direct the police (according to news accounts).
This bomb incident is still new. Not much is known about it. But I will say this: I am suspicious about rightwing/fascist and lingering Bushwhack/CIA operatives in Venezuela. When the Miami Herald, WaPo and others instantly jump on an incident like the vandalism to exorciate Chavez as anti-semitic, before anybody knows anything about it, you have to be somewhat suspicious. I am still suspicious about the vandalism--that it was instigated from the right for political reasons. The incident occurred right before the term limits referendum. If a Bushwhack-CIA agent provocateur, or a rightwing operative, were behind it (organized it, planted the idea in these peoples' heads, used the security guard's grudge in an opportunistic way) that operative would likely disappear into the background, when it was investigated. The bombing seems to be an escalation--very worrisome--and I hope that the Caracas police, or whoever is on it, solves it soon.
If there is anti-semitism in Venezuela, I want to know about. If it is organized and violent, I want to know about it. And I think that the Chavez government is very much in accord with that sentiment--from everything I've read on this issue, ever since that original misinterpretation (mistranslation) of Chavez's remarks by the Weisenthal Center, a couple of years ago (when local Jewish leaders wrote an angry letter to the Center telling them they were wrong). There does seem to be a campaign to "divide and conquer" between the majority in Venezuela, which supports Chavez, and the Jewish community, and also--very markedly--in our corpo/fascist press, to slander Chavez and thus slander his liberal and socialist policies with the Jewish community here, in this country.
I find this disgusting and reprehensible. Chavez is NOT anti-semitic. He has proven that time and time again. He is one of the most liberal presidents in the history of the western hemisphere. He tried to get an equal rights amendment for women and gays passed by the voters, in a country with the one of the most rightwing Catholic clergies in Latin America--and he probably lost that referendum, back in Nov 07, and thus lost 68 other amendments on the economy and on term limits, because of his principled stand on human rights.
These anti-Jewish incidents worry me from both perspectives--from the perspective of potential harm to Jews, and all the horrors of such bigotry, and from the perspective of the political use of this issue to harm a good, progressive, democratic government.
If there is a serious problem of anti-semitism in Venezuela, I want it addressed. I don't think there is. I think these incidents are isolated, and possibly politically contrived. But that needs to be known, too. Who benefits from this? What's behind it?
If the Miami Herald and the Washington Post are any guide, corporate interests and war profiteers benefit from incidents of anti-semitism in Venezuela. Chavez certainly doesn't benefit from it (as the president of the Jewish group pointed out). The people of Venezuela--in a country in which extreme poverty has been cut in half, illiteracy has been wiped out, everyone now has health care, and the economic growth hit nearly 10% for five years--don't benefit from these incidents. Only the rightwing benefits--in having a false "talking point" against Chavez.
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