Chavez and Anti-Semitism

In the Boston Review, The uses of anti-Semitism in Chávez’s Venezuela (via A&L Daily):

On January 30, 2009 fifteen heavily armed men stormed the Tiferet Israel synagogue in the Mariperez neighborhood of Caracas. They held down two guards, robbed the premises, and desecrated the temple, throwing the Torah and other religious paraphernalia to the floor and painting graffiti on the walls: “Out, Death to All”; “Damned Israel, Death”; “666” with a drawing of the devil; “Out Jews”; “We don’t want you, assassins”; a star of David, an equal sign, and a swastika.

The event, though shocking, was neither isolated nor unprecedented. Over the past four years, Venezuela has witnessed alarming signs of state-directed anti-Semitism, including a 2005 Christmas declaration by President Hugo Chávez himself: “The World has enough for everybody, but some minorities, the descendants of the same people that crucified Christ, and of those that expelled Bolívar from here and in their own way crucified him. . . . have taken control of the riches of the world.”

Comments

[Britmex]

It is almost four years since I used this load of old tosh as an electronic bog role, but I see that it still crops up.

http://exile-blog.blogspot.com/2005/12/attacking-chavez-frias-old-old-way.html

[Dom]

Geras can defend himself, I'm sure, but as a long time reader of his blog I see nothing there to indicate that he finds anti-semitism everywhere. Concerning Chavez, he first found the phrase "descendents of those who crucified Christ" to be a reference to Jews, but later did not. Shows he's fair and open-minded.

In any case, the BR article is about an attack on a synagogue. Are the events mentioned there true? No one knows, but it is similar to attacks elsewhere, so I see no reason to dismiss it out-of-hand.