[Marxism] Chavez's alleged anti-Semitism

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Chavez's Alleged Anti-Semitism
By Evan Derkacz, AlterNet
Posted on March 15, 2006, Printed on March 15, 2006

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has likened him to Hitler and Pat 
Robertson has called for his assassination -- twice now. Sean Hannity, the 
moderate of the group, conceded that while Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez 
is, "not up to the level of Hitler," he is, nevertheless, "a threat."

Adding to this downright loony rhetoric from the right wing is the flap 
over Hugo Chavez's alleged anti-Semitic remarks.

During his Christmas Eve address to the nation, Chavez touched off a 
controversy when he said (in translation):

"The world is for all of us, then, but it so happens that a minority, the 
descendants of the same ones that crucified Christ, the descendants of the 
same ones that kicked Bolivar out of here and also crucified him in their 
own way over there in Santa Marta, in Colombia -- a minority has taken 
possession of all the wealth of the world, a minority has taken ownership 
of all of the gold of the planet, of the silver, of the minerals, the 
waters, the good lands, oil, of the wealth, and have concentrated the 
wealth in a few hands: Less than 10 percent of the population of the world 
owns more than half of the wealth of the world and ? more than the 
population of the planet is poor, and each day there are more poor people 
in the whole world."

A few days after the speech, on Dec. 30, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency ran 
a "breaking news" item, cherry-picking "'the descendants of those who 
crucified Christ' own the riches of the world" from the address.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, named for the famous Austrian Jewish Nazi 
hunter, hopped on board less than a week later. The Center echoed the 
anti-Semitism charge, demanding an apology and urging other Latin American 
states to "freeze the process of incorporation of Venezuela" into Mercosur, 
a South American trade agreement.

A week after that, the charge was scooped up by right-wing media outlets 
like the Weekly Standard and the Wall Street Journal, both of which took 
the opportunity to tar and feather the democratically elected leader and to 
associate his left-leaning policies with his alleged anti-Semitism.

Witness the teaser to Aaron Mannes' Weekly Standard piece for this 
guilt-by-association rap: "Hugo Chavez veers into anti-Semitism while 
explaining how to create a workers' paradise."

Calling Chavez a "tyrant," the Wall Street Journal's Mary Anastasia O'Grady 
wrote that Chavez "has made it clear that it backs Iran's nuclear ambitions 
and embraces the mullahs' hateful anti-Semitism."

full: http://www.alternet.org/story/31797/

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