Show notes, WFWL, 2/15/08

February 16, 2008

OPEN:
RADIO FREE WHITELANDIA
Govnn.com vnnforum.com
Istina
Monday ftl
STORIES:
Some select examples from Mass communication in American social thought
Judeo-hypocricy
Kevin MacDonald
Being harangued by some UC Faculty, spearheaded by a jew(s)
Show notes and URLs at coolkidsrebel.com
Point:
J hypocricy in state/religion
Church/state bad:
http://www.adl.org/PresRele/Mise_00/5228_00.htm
While acknowledging the right of politicians to speak their beliefs, which he called “a valid and helpful form of self-identification,” Rev. Gaddy (COOPTING OF CHRISTIAN CLERGY)  said that candidates overstep when they appeal directly to voters based on their religious beliefs. “Our public expressions of religion ought never to leave any of our fellow citizens believing that we have no place for them in that nation that we envision,” he said.
White reminding us:
ADL’s annual meeting, held February 7-9 in Palm Beach, Florida, featured Rev. Gaddy and a range of experts speaking on issues of central importance to the Jewish community, including immigration reform, the 2008 campaign, the current state of anti-Semitism at home and abroad, how Jews and democracy fare in Venezuela, and the U.S. strategy to isolate an increasingly bellicose and nuclear weapon-seeking Iran.
Church/State Good:
What can be done?
A/S and new Medias
http://america.hagalil.com/2000-04/anti-semitism.htm
haGalil onLine - a German-Jewish Online-Magazine, as a model for the successful fight against anti-Semitic propaganda on the Internet
Much has been written, said and deplored for the past decade regarding the antisemitic campaign in the “new media”, which is not so new anymore.
Many reasons have been accounted for why not much can be done against the flood of rassist and antisemitic hustle in the Internet. Some suggestions as to how to restrain these have been discussed and rejected during notable conferences, others have been pursued, some are still in the making. One is getting used to the frequent announcements by state security services that the numbers of these so-called “hate-sites” are frighteningly increasing.
In order to better explain the countermeasures of haGalil onLine against the circulation of the anti-Semitic campaign, one crucial point has to be made beforehand: anti-Semitism is the distinguishing feature of fundamental-nationalistic ideology and as such a connection for many different movements, such as the Pamjat in Russia to the Ku-Klux-Klan in the United States, from Christian-Arian alliances and Islamic fundamentalists.
Anti-Semitism holds a more and more dominant and aggressive position on the Internet-sites of all these organisations. In comparison to all other means of propaganda, Internet-Propaganda is actually the broadest tool of distribution, since it also reaches “unskilled/unsophisticated” recipients, who are not to found within the common circles. There is however one “positive aspect” from these conclusions: the more the antisemitic-antizionistic ideas are central in the ideological fundament of a movement, the more such ideas can be proven wrong, if one can expose such as delusion.
The Internet is international. The hate-campaign is being circulated in many languages. Demands for a worldwide binding consent of values are praiseworthy initiatives, but they lack the technical reality. They presume that it should be defined and established what can be said and circulated about Jews and Israel, this not only at the Bodensee, but also in Malaysia, Durban, Budapest or Riad. With regard to the constantly developing media Internet, this discussion should not aim at what is morally desirable, but should instead concentrate on what can be actually done from a very technical point of view. Supposedly “patent solutions”, such as “filter software”, positive and negative lists, optional cd’s, control through provider companies etc. show only limited success.
With haGalil onLine we introduce a model, which since 1995 has proven to be a successful method in fighting right wing extremism and anti-Semitism on the Internet. It is a rather simple model, which can be used in various manners and which is possibly this successful, because it has been created for something and not against something. We have worked much less against the lies as for the truth.
100 : 1  for haGalil onLine
It is haGalil onLine’s major strategy to create a massive counterbalance through the use of detailed content: promoting truth against lies and hatred. If we use 100 of our pages against one right-exremist page, which promotes antisemitic slander, the chances that a student, in search of information, will end up on haGalil onLine -  rather than coming up with a Nazi-Site - are 100:1.
The continuing improvement of the information offered is responsible for a high position in search enginges, meaning that pupils, teachers, students, journalist or other users in search of information such as “Judaism” or “Jewish holidays” will first encounter haGalil onLine, being a serious source of information. It is rather stunning, that this simple “fence of content” actually functions quite effectively without any regard to all known weak spots thought of by official sides, since the relation of 100:1 remains even without a worldwide consent and is rather independent from filter software etc.
Use of communicative means
Our second approach uses the communicative means of an active online service. The best requirements for communication are encounters and authentic information. We have known for a long time, that antisemitism and racism are always more alive, where no or few Jews only are present. HaGalil onLine is therefore sometimes for many teenagers in East Germany the first and only option to establish contact with Jews.
Out of a total of 210.000 visitors monthly, we receive on a daily basis numerours e-mails with queries from pupils and teachers. Our discussion forums and chats offer the possibility of communication within the reading audience. Consequently, a Nazi dropout met the chairwomen of a Jewish community in Bavaria. Together they created a series of lectures at schools and youth centres.
Support for the Juridical System
Juridical means are another effective way in the battle against Nazipropaganda. In 1997, we introduced the first form of notification for Nazi-Sites. About 1,000 charges are being reported yearly. In Germany itself, almost every third charge against Nazi-Sites is the result of a notification through the haGalil onLine notification form.
We not only pass on the observations of our readers, but conduct our own – at times without any specific given reason – investigations and offer the state’s attorney juridical as well as technical support. For most parts the charges brought up by haGalil onLine eventually led to convictions. This clearly proves that for the fight against antisemitism no new laws are needed, but the use of the existing laws is sufficient.
Anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism hate and hositility against democracy on the Internet, must be battled on the Internet and through the use of the Internet. The efficiency of haGalil onLine proves, that the circulation of the fundamentalistic-nationalistic hate-campaign can be immensely limited through the proper use of the Internet.
David Gall / Transl. Noa Livne
haGalil onLine - www.hagalil.com - P.O.Box: 900 504 - 81505 Munich - Phone.: +49 - (0) 179 - 112 15 46
Suffering more violence than evar
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/14/race.ukcrime
The number of violent attacks on Jewish people in the UK last year reached the highest level since records began in 1984, new figures showed today.
But the Community Security Trust said the overall number of “antisemitic race hate incidents” – defined as malicious acts against the Jewish community – fell by 8% from the record level seen in 2006.
The trust, which styles itself as a “the Jewish community’s only defence organisation”, said the fall may be due to a lack of “trigger events” during 2007 which typically lead to temporary spikes.
In 2006, the war between Israel and Hizbollah in Lebanon led to the highest recorded number of anti-semitic incidents in the UK, the report said.

Overall, in 2007 there were a record 114 violent assaults, one of which resulted in life-threatening injuries, among 547 race hate incidents against the Jewish community.
However, the CST warned the decrease from 594 such incidents the previous year did not alter the long-term trend of rising levels since the late 1990s.

The remainder of the 547 race hate incidents included 328 cases of abusive behaviour, 62 acts of damage and desecration of Jewish property, 24 threats and 19 cases of mass-produced antisemitic literature.
CST spokesman Mark Gardner said: “The fall in the number of antisemitic incidents is very welcome, but is less than we had hoped for.

“2007 was still the second worst year on record and the worst ever for violent assaults. Over the past decade there has been a significant rise in the basic level of antisemitic incidents in our society, and it is affecting the lives of far too many British Jews.”
A Department for Communities and Local Government spokesman said: “While we welcome the fall in the overall number of antisemitic incidents in 2007, the wider findings from the Community Security Trust’s report are of concern to the government and serve as a reminder to us all that we still have more to do to eradicate antisemitism from our society.
“Antisemitism must be understood for what it is - and condemned. It should be dealt with promptly and effectively through the law.
“We have one of the strongest legal frameworks in the world to protect people from discrimination or persecution on the grounds of their faith or race, and this was strengthened by the introduction of the Racial and Religious Hatred Act last year.”
JFK’s “A Nation of Immigrants
http://www.adl.org/immigrants/
At a time when the issue of immigration and immigrants has taken center stage in this country, the message of President John F. Kennedy’s classic essay A Nation of Immigrants is as relevant today as it was 50 years ago.  That is why the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and publisher Harper Perennial have reissued this landmark essay on the contribution of immigrants to American society.

With a new introduction by Senator Edward M. Kennedy, A Nation of Immigrants (Harper Perennial) offers inspiring suggestions for immigration policy and presents a chronology of the main events in the history of immigration in America.

Written by Kennedy in 1958 after ADL reached out to the then-junior senator from Massachusetts asking him to highlight the contribution of immigrants at a time when the country was locked in a debate about the direction its policy should take, it is the last manuscript President Kennedy ever wrote, and the book was first published posthumously.

Throughout his presidency, John F. Kennedy was passionate about the issue of immigration reform. He believed that America is a nation of people who value both tradition and the exploration of new frontiers, people who deserve the freedom to build better lives for themselves in their adopted homeland. This modern edition of his posthumously published, timeless work — with a new introduction by Senator Edward M. Kennedy and a foreword by Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director — offers the late president’s inspiring suggestions for immigration policy and presents a chronology of the main events in the history of immigration in America.

As continued debates on immigration engulf the nation, this paean to the importance of immigrants to our nation’s prominence and success is as timely as ever.
“An odd response to ugly A/S:
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/14579.html
We’ve all seen some nasty primary fights, but I can’t think of any recent examples that got as ugly as the fight in Tennessee’s 9th congressional district. The Memphis-area district has a majority African-American population, but recently elected Rep. Steve Cohen (D), who is white and Jewish.
His opponents in the area are now distributing a shocking flier, painting Cohen as a Jesus-hater.
“Memphis Congressman Steve Cohen and the JEWS HATE Jesus,” blares the flier, which Cohen himself received in the mail — inducing gasps — last week.
JA envoy to Venezuela charged over fake conversions
By Ruth Sinai and Anshel Pfeffer  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=954037
A Jewish Agency Aliyah envoy to South America has been arrested on suspicion of providing immigration papers to 200 Venezuelan citizens whom he knew had undergone fraudulent conversions to Judaism.

The Ramle Magistrate’s Court extended the remand yesterday of Ilan Architecter, 66, a veteran Jewish Agency employee who had run the absorption center in Ra’anana for many years.

The Immigration Police said the suspect - who was arrested in Israel on Tuesday - had confessed to the allegations, saying he knew the rabbi who converted the Venezuelans was suspect.

Most of the Venezuelans were of indigenous descent, who were convinced to convert with promises of the benefits they would receive if they immigrated to Israel.

The envoy told police that he wanted to be cited as an outstanding employee by attempting to bring as many immigrants to Israel as possible.

Some of the Venezuelan “immigrants,” who received absorption benefits from the state, live in Ramle, while others have left the country in the past few years.

The Immigration Police started an undercover investigation a few months ago following intelligence tips. A month ago Police arrested a woman and her son of South American descent on suspicion of mediating between the Venezuelans, a rabbi in Venezuela and Architecter.

A search in the suspects’ home yielded 20 conversion certificates signed by that rabbi. However, the certificates had been issued before the 20 had undergone conversion.

Police said the rabbi was not recognized by the Israeli Rabbinate, and they have expanded inquiries to find out how officials from the Absorption and Interior ministries did not realize that the immigrants’ conversions were fake.

Police are checking whether Architecter pocketed any of the money given to the Venezuelans as part of their absorption package.

Jewish Agency officials were surprised to hear of the arrest of one of their veteran envoys. Architecter won an “outstanding envoy” citation last year due to the good relations he had forged with Venezuela’s Jewish community.

A year ago he asked to return to Israel, but agreed to stay because of the difficulty in finding someone suitable to fill this important post, and in view of the fear for the community’s safety under President Hugo Chavez’s leadership.

Despite the community’s fear of Chavez, only a few hundred of Venezuela’s 15,000 Jews have come to Israel in recent years. Thousands have immigrated to Miami.

The Jewish Agency denied that it exerts any pressure on envoys to bring as many immigrants as possible to Israel. Jewish Agency Chairman Ze’ev Bielski told Haaretz a week ago that “our envoys are not measured by how many immigrants they bring”.

The agency said it has always been “committed to ensuring a legal and proper immigration process to Israel.”

Yair Redl, acting director of the Jewish Agency’s Immigration and Absorption division, said the allegations against Architecter were unclear.

“The Interior Ministry officials are the ones who decide who can authorize a potential immigrant’s conversion,” he said. “Jewish Agency envoys act according to their instructions and all the permits are brought to Israel anyway.”

Likud MK Yuli Edelstein, a former absorption minister, said that “the Jewish Agency must find a better way to motivate their envoys and not encourage a quota system.”

The agency also called for an inquiry into the rabbi who provided the false conversions.
Israeli troops steals millions of shekels from money changers in West Bank
·    http://www.indianmuslims.info/news/2008/feb/12/israeli_troops_steals_millions_shekels_money_changers_west_bank.html
·    Muslim World News
By NNN-WAFA
Ramallah, Palestine : Israeli troops raided Palestinian money changers across the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, seizing cash worth more than $800,000, security sources confirmed.
The sources said Israeli troops entered the homes and offices of a total of 14 money changers.
They also added that the troops arrested five money changers and confiscated three million shekels ($840,000) in Hebron, Nablus, Ramallah, Jenin and Tulkarm.
Israeli troops also arrested on Tuesday morning 15 citizens in the West Bank(WB) cities of Nablus and Jenin and Ramallah, local sources said.
They added that IOF troops stormed the city and its Balata refugee camp, broke into citizens’ houses and arrested nine citizens, leading them into an unknown location.
Jewish Rep. Cohen Battles Antisemitism and Racism In Re-Election
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2008/02/jewish_rep_cohen_battles_antis.html
If you thought race was an uncomfortable issue in the Democratic presidential primary, wait ’til you get a load of what’s going on in the Democratic primary in the Memphis area’s 9th District of Tennessee, where a shockingly worded flier paints Jewish Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) as a Jesus hater.
“Memphis Congressman Steve Cohen and the JEWS HATE Jesus,” blares the flier, which Cohen himself received in the mail — inducing gasps — last week.
Circulated by an African-American minister from Murfreesboro Tenn., which isn’t even in Cohen’s district, the literature encourages other black leaders in Memphis to “see to it that one and ONLY one black Christian faces this opponent of Christ and Christianity in the 2008 election.”
 
The flier was sent out by an African-American minister to try to defeat Rep. Cohen.
Cohen’s main opponent in the August 5 Democratic primary in his predominantly African-American district is Nikki Tinker, who is black. The Commercial Appeal wrote an editorial in Wednesday’s paper condemning Tinker for not speaking out against the anti-Semitic literature.
“What does Nikki Tinker think about anti-Semitic literature being circulated that might help her unseat 9th District Congressman Steve Cohen in the Democratic primary next August?” the editorial asked. “The question goes to the character of the woman who wants to represent the 9th District, and 9th District voters deserve an answer. But Tinker declined to return a phone call about the flier.”
The editorial also noted that last summer Cohen came under attack from black ministers who challenged the congressman’s support for federal hate crimes legislation to protect gay rights. The paper wrote that the “real motive” behind the ministers’ attacks was revealed later by Rev. Robert Poindexter who, according to the Commercial Appeal, said of Cohen: “He’s not black and he can’t represent me, that’s just the bottom line.”
Cohen tells the Sleuth it was “shocking” to receive the flier, “particularly coming from an African-American the week after Dr. King’s birthday. This was just such an ignorant and racist and prejudiced type of flier — it’s hard to fathom we’re in the 21st century,” Cohen says.
The first-term congressman hopes Barack Obama’s success will trickle down. “Obama is showing us that Americans have gotten beyond race. He’s gotten a good number of Caucasian votes, so I think we’re making advances,” says Cohen, who endorsed Obama.
While he says he has plenty of support from the “old guard” African-American leaders in his district, Cohen is having difficultly wooing influential black colleagues from Congress to campaign on his behalf. He’ll surely be looking for support from Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), who is scheduled to be honored as this year’s April 4th Foundation awards banquet in Memphis along with actor/singer Harry Belafonte - whose sister, Shirley Cooks, coincidentally, serves as Cohen’s chief of staff.
Cohen battled racial and religious innuendo in his 2006 campaign for Congress, but not anything as blunt as the flier he received last week. After winning, he tried unsuccessfully to become the first white member of the Congressional Black Caucus, leaving him decidedly white.
“It’s a chink in my armor,” Cohen says. “I’m always going to be white. I don’t have to always be Jewish — but I am, and will be.”
A/S or Anti-Imperialism in Venezuela?
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/3148
February 12th 2008, by James Suggett – Venezuelanalysis.com
“We have to be very careful about what is going on in Venezuela, especially what is going on in the private universities,” Mario Silva asserts on his pro-Chávez television talk show La Hojilla (”The Razor Blade”) in late November 2007. The provocative host points out that in television news footage of a recent student march against proposed changes to the Venezuelan constitution, which were voted down December 2, a leader of the marchers crosses a police barricade and signals for the others to follow. Silva identifies this person as the brother of prominent Rabbi Jacobo Benzaquen.
 
“I repeat, so as not to be called anti-Semite, those Jewish businessmen not involved in the conspiracy should say so,” Silva premises. He then draws the connection between the Benzaquens and another well-known Rabbi, Pinchas Brenner, who participated in the April 2002 coup d’état and appears in video footage with coup leader Pedro Carmona in the presidential palace where Carmona was declared the new (illegitimate) president. “These persons are actively participating in the conspiracy… and a lot of the [opposition] student movement now in activity is related to that group,” Silva declares.

La Hojilla and the government television channel that broadcasts it are implicated in the latest round of accusations of anti-Semitism published in the Miami Herald, the Washington Post, The Forward, the Moderate Voice, and the Jewish World Review and across the blogsphere by Jewish organizations in the United States and Venezuela. The “increasingly repressive” Venezuelan government’s anti-Semitism creates an “environment of permissiveness” for the “rising wave of anti-Semitism in Venezuela” by harassing Jewish organizations, permitting anti-Semitism in government media, opposing Israeli policies, and aligning itself with Iran, Syria, and “radical Islamic movements”. All of this could be interpreted by “xenophobes and anti-Semites” as “justification to commit violence against Jews,” according to a February 5th, 2008 Anti-Defamation League (ADL) report published as an op-ed in the Washington Post.

When the recent accusations of government-sponsored anti-Semitism are thoroughly investigated,  shedding light on the full context and content of the acts under scrutiny, it is revealed that in the majority of cases, the strongly anti-imperialist political sentiments of Venezuelan social movements, however problematically they may be expressed within a precarious political climate, are erroneously conflated with anti-Semitism.

Police Search Jewish School and Community Center

What “conspiracy” was Silva lambasting in his November talk show? Critics imply that he was perpetuating baseless anti-Semitic stereotypes about Jewish aspirations for world domination. But real events and testimonies suggest Silva was instead targeting the alleged international conspiracy to overthrow President Chávez. Suspicion about this is based not only on the long history of such activity led by the United States government in Latin America and other parts of the world, but by specific evidence cited by Silva and the Venezuelan government which implicates leaders of this subversive activity, some of whom are members of the Venezuelan Jewish community.

In 2004 federal police searched, critics say “raided,” a Jewish school in Caracas. Recent critics allege that they conducted a similar search on December 1, 2007 in Hebraica, a sprawling private Jewish community center related to the school. Neither search discovered anything, nor was anybody repressed or hurt.

Both searches were denounced as “inexplicable,” “anti-Jewish,” “harassment theatre,” and “intimidation” by various critics, including Abraham Levy Benshimol, president of the Confederation of Israelite Associations of Venezuela (CAIV), who acknowledges that no acts of anti-Semitic violence have been committed against the Venezuelan Jewish community. Those leading the outcry make abundantly clear that the searches were conducted when kids were present and there was a wedding taking place, but they ignore the broader context and further facts.

For instance, the search warrant for the 2004 search was granted based on evidence that the notorious Israeli intelligence organization Mossad may be connected to the assassination of a Venezuelan Federal Prosecutor Danilo Anderson, who was investigating the authors of the 2002 coup - including allies of Rabbi Pinchas Brenner - when he was murdered in a car bombing in an allegedly Mossad-like manner. The search was part of an investigation of Anderson’s murder, seeking information regarding the murder and possible future destabilization plans in facilities where suspects were known to operate.

Denunciations of last December’s search leave out the fact that it occurred the day before the controversial constitutional reform referendum. The run up to the referendum was intensified by a steep increase in acts of false propaganda and violent protest committed by people and organizations opposed to the reform in various regions of the country, which seemed part of a coordinated destabilization effort among large national and transnational businesses, student groups, and opposition political leaders. In the Andean city of Mérida, in the weeks before the referendum, groups of up to 40 masked student protestors from the extremely violent March 13th Movement (M13) on multiple occasions blocked off major avenues with metal wire, burned hundreds of tires in the street, and threw glass bottles and Molotov cocktails at police officers who remained vigilant but never repressed the demonstrators.

These types of protests, known as “guarimbas,” are nothing new; they were employed multiple times in the past during major political events so as to create an atmosphere of chaos, non-governability, and a basis for claims of police repression and illegitimacy of the political order, paving the way for a coup. On one occasion related to student government elections at the University of the Andes and an OPEP meeting in the Spring of 2006, masked M13 members armed with shotguns and pistols assaulted police officers, leaving 26 injured and one officer nearly raped.

According to sources within the government, the search warrant for last December’s search was issued on evidence that the owner of major opposition television station Globovisión, Federico Alberto Ravel, was collaborating with a plan to assassinate President Chávez with the help of a particular member of Hebraica, a businessman who will remain unnamed, and that weapons or information regarding this were in the club’s complex.  

Police searches preceding, during, and following important political events must be considered in this precarious historical and political context. Some critics may look at the entire picture and conclude that the facilities of these Jewish organizations were singled out merely because they were Jewish, leading to accusations of anti-Semitic harassment.
But claiming that the searches were “inexplicable” and leaving out the facts is revisionist and inaccurate. So are the manipulative conclusions published by the pro-government newspaper Diario Vea at that time, which claimed that the searches had “proven” that the Mossad had been involved in Anderson’s murder, for which no conclusive evidence was found in those particular searches. But even Diario Vea’s dishonest coverage does not amount to anti-Semitism, as prominent Venezuelan journalist and critic of anti-Semitism Sammy Eppel claims, just biased journalism.

Tarek El-Aissami

In an apparent attempt to prove that the searches were conducted illegally, a January 20, 2008 article in The Forward cites Hebraica president Simon Sultan suggesting that the searches were initiated by Tarek El-Aissami, the Vice President of Citizen Security in the Venezuelan Ministry of the Interior. No actual irregularities in the searches is cited as evidence, just the fact that El-Aissami is of Arab descent, is the son a former Baath party representative in Venezuela, and works in the government. An article in The Jewish World Review on January 28th, 2008 does not bother to imply that Tarek El-Aissami may be connected to the searches, but rather presents the simple fact of his appointment to a position within the government as troubling and suspicious to the Venezuelan Jewish community.

El-Aissami is well-known in Mérida because he is a former president of the student association at Mérida’s prestigious University of the Andes. Extensive connections to student and government organizations provide El-Aissami with plenty of information about the activities of the M13, especially their spring 2006 assault referred to above, during which El-Aissami was a representative of the Youth Caucus of the National Assembly. In a May 2006 press conference at the National Assembly, he issued a report qualifying the M13’s actions as the “epicenter” of a national destabilization campaign that had a markedly “terrorist” character due to the “paramilitary” style of their execution and local reports of M13 paramilitary training camps in the surrounding Andes Mountains. El-Aissami’s report cited evidence that many of those involved in M13 actions are not students at all, but paramilitaries posing as members of the student group.

El-Aissami informed the press that some of the information provided in his report came from investigations carried out in 2004 in Mérida by late Federal Prosecutor Danilo Anderson. Anderson was investigating violence perpetrated against the Mérida state government by M13 members including the group’s leader, Nixon Moreno, during the April 2002 coup. 

The training of counter-revolutionary paramilitary groups in Latin American countries by the CIA is widely documented by historians and other researchers. Less documented is the history of Israeli soldiers contracted by the Columbian government in the 1980s to train military personnel through the Security Administration Department (DAS), planting the seeds of the paramilitary group United Self-defense of Colombia (AUC), which uses terrorist tactics to combat insurgent forces such as the FARC and ELN in the countryside of both Colombia and Venezuela. A recent issue of the pro-government publication Temas, a weekly journal accused of anti-Semitism by the ADL, made the connection between an Israeli soldier and Colombia when it ran a report on Yair Klein, a veteran of the first Lebanese war and paramilitary trainer in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and of the AUC in Colombia. Last week, President Chávez denounced the open secret about paramilitary activity in the western region of Venezuela as well. This gave visibility to the 190 cases of alleged homicide committed by paramilitaries working for big landowners against farming communities organizing for land reform in the western border region of Venezuela since 2001, according to the Frente Campesino Ezequiel Zamora, which defends the rights of rural farmer communities. 

The possibility that El-Aissami initiated the Hebraica search should be considered in the context of El-Aissami’s political activity and the plethora of such investigations informing the Ministry of the Interior. El-Aissami’s Arab background and the Jewish identity of Hebraica seem unrelated to the fact that the searches were carried out, while the real political situation in Venezuela and the activities of a few participants in the community center seem much related. Second, the searches were not illegal nor were they carried out improperly. Claiming El-Aissami initiated the searches is to accuse him of doing his job, as Danilo Anderson was doing when he was murdered.

A Plena Voz and Other pro-Government Media

Considering the role of foreign intelligence organizations in Latin American history, Venezuelans’ consciousness of imperialist intervention in their country, and the details presented above help us see Silva’s program La Hojilla in a different light. Rather than demonize Jews in general, it reflects the preoccupation many Venezuelans have that opposition groups may be planning more violent anti-democratic activity with support from foreign intelligence organizations such as the CIA and the Mossad. A thorough examination of other pro-government media recently accused of anti-Semitism should be interrogated with this mentality and approach.

“Once upon a time there was an ‘American Dream’” is the headline of an article published in the same edition of Temas as the Yair Klein investigation. A quote by Martin Luther King, Jr. follows: “We have learned to fly like birds, to swim like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living like brothers.” The article lays out a critique of the growing gap between rich and poor in the U.S., the extreme individualism, the fear-mongering, racist police repression and prison industrial complex, the rampant consumerism, and the inefficient and costly health care system. Displayed in the center of the article is a large black and white image of President George W. Bush robed and crowned like the Statue of Liberty, Hitler mustache under his nose, the globe tucked under his left arm and his right arm stiffly extended in a Nazi salute, standing (or perhaps floating) upon a Star of David.

Such an amalgam of images and concepts is not a rare occurrence in the pro-Chávez media. Those who decry this material as ragingly anti-Semitic refer principally to the images presented, and frequently omit the content, which is crucial in order to understand what is being said.

Every recent accusation of anti-Semitism in the government media outlets denounces the monthly magazine of the Venezuelan Culture Ministry, A Plena Voz, particularly referring to an article titled “The Jewish Question” and an image of the Star of David with a Swastika. It is presented as though this magazine was advocating the Holocaust, but a look at the actual articles tells another story.

The article titled “The Jewish Question” is accompanied by an image of a menorah with an Israeli tank on either side. Another A Plena Voz article titled “A Disgusting War” is accompanied by an Israeli flag with a Swastika in the middle rather than the Star of David. Another article in the same edition of the magazine is titled “Zionism, Colonialism, and Imperialism” accompanied by a Star of David with a Swastika in the middle. The clear target of criticism in these three articles is the military action conducted by the state of Israel, which is portrayed as similar or equal to the genocide committed by the Nazis. While Amherst Professor Ilan Stevens, in his February 7th, 2008 article “The Twisted Roots of Hispanic Anti-Semitism,” states that “comparing Israel’s attitude with Hitler’s approach is ridiculous,” we should not be so quick to conclude that historical comparisons which imply that genocide may be occurring in the Middle East are anti-Semitic.

The article titled “The Jewish Question,” written by Germán Pinto Saavedra, opens:

“The massacre of Caná, committed by the Israeli army, in which 57 civilian died, the majority children, is hardly the gravest in recent weeks. A few days ago, Fox [News] and CNN celebrated the bombing attack on a building in Beirut, which directly killed two terrorists, although ‘unfortunately, 100 other civilians found in the building also lost their lives.”

The article proceeds to criticize the anti-humanitarian partiality of these international media outlets, and makes note of the fact that the French government condemned the Israeli attacks. The author laments that the attacks momentarily took the international spotlight off U.S. military atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan. The article questions why Israeli aggression, which has been compared to that of the Nazis, seems to be revenge against a people that had nothing to do with the “Hitlerian infamy.” Referring exclusively to the Israeli state, the article critiques the “repugnant” use of Nazi atrocities to justify further atrocities, arguably committed to support the interests not only of Israel but of its U.S. and British allies in the region.
 
Without a doubt, historical analogies, however inaccurate or controversial, relating Nazi genocide to Israeli oppression of Palestinians and Lebanese Muslims abound in pro-government media. So does propaganda expressing solidarity with the Lebanese and Palestinian people, speculations that Israeli death squads will assassinate President Chávez, and cartoons asking whether it is true that the Israel is chosen by God, concluding that Israel is chosen by the United States, which is sort of the same thing. But in most articles written on such themes, there is an explicit differentiation between the Israeli government and the Israeli people, between militant Zionists allied with the U.S. government and the Jewish community worldwide. The themes are explicitly anti-imperialist and anti-war, not against Jews in general.

The pro-government weekly paper Diario Vea, however, in many instances refers to Jews and Israeli soldiers interchangeably, in which cases it seems Jews in general are being stereotyped as oppressors or conspirators. Likewise, an anti-Semitic article by Tarek Muci Nasir published in El Diario de Caracas on September 2, 2006, includes the phrase:

“Possibly, we’ll have to expel them from the country, as other nations have done, which is the reason that Jews remain in a continuous state of stateless exodus, and it is why in 1948 they invaded Palestine, guided by Albion.”

The article also claims that the Jewish race is condemned to disappear either through degenerative intra-breeding or mixture with non-Jews. It continues to assert that they are not the chosen people of God, but instead marked for having sacrificed Jesus (apparently because of the wars they wage), and that they are conspiring to take over the country’s finances. While the conclusion of the article declares that if the Jews get rid of their Zionist leadership, they will be embraced like brothers, this hardly veils the seething hatred for Jews as a whole espoused by the article.

Venezuelan columnist Sammy Eppel posted on his blog a collection of graffiti sprayed on the walls of Jewish facilities in Caracas during Palestine and Lebanon solidarity marches, most of which are obviously anti-imperialist, but some of which may be anti-Semitic as Eppel claims.
 
Graffiti that is more explicitly anti-imperialist reads: “Long live the Palestinian People,” “NO to Israeli snipers, NO to Mossad, NO to the CIA,” “Bush + Sharon = Murderers,” “Bush-Israel Murderers,” “Israel murderer,” “Genocidal Zionists,” and “Zionists Kill Children.” The fact that these messages were sprayed on the walls of organizations that included Jews of different political beliefs, classes, organizations, and not Israeli citizens could mean that the graffiti was associating all Jews with murder, the CIA, Mossad, Bush and Sharon. However, it seems that the clear target of these acts is the perpetrators of atrocities and imperialism rather than Jews in general.

Other graffiti reads: “Jews = Murderers,” and “Jews go home.” The former targets the entire population Jews, and the latter suggests an expulsion of Jews, both of which should be denounced as anti-Semitic.

The association of the Star of David with the Swastika, and of the state of Israel with genocide, is indeed more complex than it seems and in the majority of cases is not anti-Semitic; in the cases that it is, it should by all means be called out. The fact that Diario Vea and El Diario de Caracas have not been denounced formally by the government gives some merit to the criticism raised by Abraham Foxman of the ADL recently that the Venezuelan government is turning a blind eye to anti-Semitism in the country. However, categorizing all anti-imperialist sentiment in Venezuela as a government-sponsored “rising wave” of anti-Semitism is manipulative propaganda.

President Chávez’s Declarations and Alliances with Iran and Syria

The day Abraham Foxman´s ADL report was published by the Washington Post in the first week of February, Venezuelan Popular Economy Minister, Pedro Morejón, was in Tehran signing economic accords with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad intended to alleviate the “difficulties that the imperialists impose” on “the two revolutionary and brotherly nations” which share a “unified stand in dealing with global hegemony,” the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported. Venezuela`s bilateral cooperation agreements with Iran in the areas of food, medicine, oil, services, and engineering have been consistently criticized by the ADL along with President Chávez´s staunch defense of what he says is Iran`s right to enrich uranium.

The question raised is whether relationships among the heads of state of different nations signify full mutual endorsement of each other’s policies. ADL critics, the Venezuelan Jewish Community, and many others, supported by President Kirchner of Argentina on her recent visit to the CAIV national conference in Venezuela, express deep concern over the fact that Chávez ever wrapped his arms around Ahmadinejad or allowed him to cross Venezuelan borders.

Chávez’s defenders assert that signing economic agreements is a humanitarian act which will alleviate poverty in Venezuela, and should be considered separate from the regional foreign policy or the religious orientation of the Iranian government. But Chávez’s words were clear; Ahmadinejad is a “brother revolutionary,” not just a source of investment that comes on less imperialist terms than that offered by the United States or other economic powers. Whether Chávez was referring exclusively to the economic portion of revolution is unknown, but his pronouncements should rightly cause alarm at least for queer rights groups and feminist groups across the globe that are aware of the immense sexuality and gender-based oppression in Iran.

Nonetheless, it seems that Iran’s opposition to the policies of the Israeli government are the main objection of Foxman and other recent critics, and their conflation of anti-imperialism with anti-Semitism is incredibly damaging to honest discourse. For example, an ADL report from 2006 attempts to condemn President Chávez’s “fostering [of] anti-Semitism” by quoting Chávez in an interview with Al Jazeera: “Israel is right in criticizing Hitler and the hostility against Jews, we do to, but they are doing the same thing that Hitler did to the Jews. They are killing innocent children, entire families.”

Foxman also expresses concern about Chávez`s relationship with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, who he claims is a “verifiable threat to Israel and world Jewry.” An example of supposedly troublesome Syrian-Venezuelan relations is the accord of solidarity with Lebanon presented by representatives of the Venezuelan National Assembly to Syrian officials in August 2006. Clauses of the accord condemn Israel’s “savage and terrorist aggression” against Lebanon, demand that Israel comply with United Nations resolutions to withdraw immediately from Lebanon and other Arab occupied territories, and request that the U.N. accelerate the process of humanitarian aid to the victims of the conflict in Lebanon and Palestine.    

The ADL president suggests that the “attacks” upon Jews in Venezuela are “part and parcel” of Chávez`s efforts to “harass and intimidate” other groups such as the Catholic Church, the media, and multinational companies. Chávez’s complicity with anti-Semitism is a symptom of the general “breakdown of democratic ideals and institutions” in Venezuela, Foxman said, claiming “Chávez has turned public institutions into pawns of his regime.” Other recent articles flippantly label Chávez “proto-authoritarian” and present a false image that the president is inclined to persecute anybody who criticizes him.

These ridiculous claims about the lack of democracy in Venezuela are just as dangerous to global peace and democracy as the assertion that opposing Israeli policies, being anti-war and anti-capitalist, or advocating the perspective of oppressed peoples worldwide are anti-Semitic.

Carlos Escarrá, the Vice-President of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Venezuelan National Assembly, reflected this distinction between anti-semitism and anti-imperialism when he responded to Foxman`s ADL report, assuring that Venezuela “has always respected all ethnicities and cultures of the world… it is a country where there is freedom of worship and freedom of religion.” However, Venezuela also rejects any conduct that could mean the hegemony of one country over another. “We believe in life,” Escarrá explained, reaffirming that the Venezuelan government opposes those sectors of Israeli and U.S. society that serve the interests of United States hegemony in the Middle East by way of “state terrorism.”
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