[progchat_action] The last refuge of scoundrels
 
Date: Sun, 13 Jan 2008 13:25:01 -0600 (CST)


"Anti-semitism" - the last refuge of scoundrels

Left I on the News
January 9, 2008

Such an easy charge to hurl, and so useful as a tool against your enemies.
This from today's Miami Herald:

Venezuelan Jews, long uneasy with the Chavez government's alliances with
Iran and other Middle Eastern countries that espouse anti-Israel views, are
concerned that the government is sponsoring anti-Semitism in this
hemisphere, a prominent journalist said Tuesday.

Note the quick seque from "anti-Israel views," which is reasonably accurate
(although "pro-Palestinian" would be more accurate) to "anti-Semitism." And
the evidence? For one, the country's allegedly "fast-dwindling Jewish
population." No statistics to back up that claim, however, nor any
recognition that a lot of rich people have left Venezuela thanks to their
(hopefully correct) perceptions of the future directions of the country, and
that if the Jewish population of Venezuela is really "fast-dwindling," it
likely has nothing whatsoever to do with "anti-Semitism." Nor, for that
matter, any recognition that there is a large, stable, and un-persecuted
Jewish population in Iran which speaks to the question of whether there is a
correlation between "anti-Israel" view and "anti-Semitic" views.

Oh, but there's more. There's an article from 2006 from an allegedly
"government-linked" newspaper (I assume that means it supports the
government, since it's not actually owned or run by the government) in which
an article "debates whether it will be necessary to 'expel [the Jews] from
the country.'" Clearly not exactly an ongoing debate or a more recent
reference would be available, even if this is true and not completely taken
out of context. Oh, and an article (date unspecified) that "accuses Jews of
being involved in the murder of a government prosecutor." Not "the Jews,"
mind you, just "Jews." Which, out of context, tells us nothing. Were these
just random individuals being accused of murder, who are in passing noted as
Jews? Did they organize their plot (if they did) out of the Jewish Community
Center? Who knows.

Last but not least, this:

Venezuelan government intelligence services twice have raided the country's
most important Jewish center in a vague, ultimately unsuccessful search for
weapons. Publications of the government's cultural ministry run articles
entitled 'the Jewish Question,' along with a Jewish star superimposed over a
swastika. Talk about "vague." What was the context of the search for weapons
in the Jewish center? Was it in conjunction with the murder of the
prosecutor, perhaps? And what does "the Jewish Question" discuss? For all we
know, it's a pamphlet explaining to Venezuelans that opposition to the
Israeli occupation of Palestine has nothing whatsoever to do with, and is in
no way a justification for, anti-Semitism.

In the end, I think we can judge the character of these charges from this:

Eppel drew connections between the anti-Semitism and Chavez's alliance with
the Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, also stridently critical of the
United States. 'Chavez actually believes he is going to defeat capitalism
and the U.S.,' Eppel said.

As I said at the beginning, this is really all about political opposition to
Chavez, and using the epithet of "anti-Semite" to attempt to tar him and by
extension his program, and quite probably nothing whatsoever to do with any
real anti-Semitism in Venezuela. No doubt there are anti-Semites in
Venezuela, as there are in Miami and everywhere else, but I seriously doubt
there is any evidence that Hugo Chavez or anyone is his government is
supportive of such attitudes.

http://lefti.blogspot.com/2008_01_01_archive.html#5466184188207220309

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