About time?

On 2 Dec 07, Venezuela held a referendum on proposed changes to the Constitution.

The night before, two-dozen policemen searched the Hebraica community center in Caracas — a sprawling, country club-like complex — looking for weapons and for evidence of subversive activity.

Days later the Venezuelan zionist community’s umbrella organization, the Confederation of Israelite Associations of Venezuela, fired off a statement denouncing the raid as an “unjustifiable act.”

“This was government intimidation,” said Abraham Levy Benshimol, president of the Confederation of Israelite Associations of Venezuela.

“We’re facing the first anti-Jewish government in our history,” said Simon Sultan, president of the Hebraica community center in Caracas.

Jews started coming to Venezuela from North Africa and New Khazaria (Eastern Europe) in the mid-1800s, but most came during and after World War II. Evenly made up of Ashkenazic and Sephardic Jews, they thrived in the oil-rich country. By 1998 when Chavez came to power, there were about 16,000 Jews in Venezuela. Since then, about 4,000 have departed to Florida.

Levy Benshimol, president of the Confederation of Israelite Associations of Venezuela, said Chavez met with CAIV leaders when Chavez first came to power in 1998, but began to move away when zionists (led by Rabbi Pinchas Brenner) supported the U.S.-led coup attempt against Chavez in April 2002. Government officials also knew that Jews and Israelis are active arms dealers.

In 2004 Venezuela’s government raided the Hebraica community center.

In 2006 when the Jews attacked Lebanon (again), Chavez condemned zionists, and recalled the charge d’affaires of the Venezuelan Embassy in Tel Aviv.

The zionist entity responded by calling its ambassador home. Although the Israeli diplomat returned to Caracas a month later, and Venezuela sent a low-level envoy to Tel Aviv, relations between Venezuela and the zionist entity remain strained.

Venezuela’s zionists appealed to Argentina’s government (controlled by Jews) to reign in Chavez.

Nestor Kirchner, the (Jewish) president of Argentina, asked Chavez to meet with the Confederation of Israelite Associations of Venezuela. Chavez did so in January 2007.

Benshimol and others say there has been no instance of physical violence against Jews in Venezuela. On the contrary, Venezuelan Jews have defended Chavez against accusations of anti-Semitism aired by hyper-militant groups as the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

Lately, however, the atmosphere has worsened because of Chavez’s increasingly truthful words about the zionist entity. A television program called “The Razor,” broadcast on a state-owned channel, has featured lengthy discussions of Mossad agents that work against Venezuela’s government with the support of the United States and opposition forces in Venezuela. The host of the show questioned the loyalty of Venezuelan Jews, saying their first loyalty is always to the zionist entity.

Venezuela’s zionists have close ties with corrupt former defense minister Raúl Isaías Baduel, and they honored him after he left the government and became a fierce opponent of Chavez.

In March 2007, government officials stayed away from the 40th-anniversary celebration of the Confederation of Israelite Associations of Venezuela. Benshimol said that the Venezuela’s government has had no official ties with his organization for the past year.

As zionist atrocities continue to increase in Palestine, Venezuela’s government continues to move away from Jews. The number of children attending the school at the Hebraica center has dropped some 37% in the past decade, while membership at the club has slipped 30%.

Most of the departed have moved to South Florida, Spain and the zionist entity — although some continue to commute to Venezuela to tend their sizeable businesses.

Jews don’t contribute to Jewish organizations in Venezuela once they leave. Therefore the zionist community is beginning to have financial problems.

The 2004 raid on the Confederation of Israelite Associations of Venezuela was led by the equivalent of the FBI. The 1 Dec 2007 raid was done by officers from a police force under the control of the Interior Ministry. There is no evidence that Chavez ordered the latest raid, but the all-powerful Interior Ministry is one of his strongest levers.

Simon Sultan, president of the Hebraica community center in Caracas says that Tarek al Assaimi (whose father was the representative of Saddam Hussein’s Baath party in Venezuela) is the deputy Interior and Justice minister in charge of internal security. Simon Sultan accused Tarek al Assaimi of ordering the December 1st raid.

Asked about the possibility that most Venezuelan Jews might eventually migrate to Florida for good, Benshimol paused. “We want to live here, but we want to live in dignified conditions.”

Source: The Forward