On Jan 7 Joseph Kennedy chairman of Citizens Energy, a nonprofit organization that administers the Venezuelan home heating oil program for the poor households in Massachusetts, announced the continuation of the program and said that he was “personally aware of President Chavez’s genuine concern for the most vulnerable, regardless of where they may live.” He also said that this was “a clear, direct message … of [Chavez’s] desire to strengthen relations between his country and the United States.”
Three weeks later, Friday January 30th 2009, fifteen heavily armed men broke in and desecrated one of the oldest Synagogues in Venezuela. During a five hour raid in Shabbat, Torah scrolls were damaged, prayer books ripped apart and anti-Semitic graffiti like “death to all” and “Jews get out” sprayed on the walls. For the first time since the Jews began living in Venezuela two hundred years ago, this community feels threatened and unprotected. To make things worse, the perpetrators took with them computers with the private data, names, addresses and financial information of Venezuelan Jews. One week later, the perpetrators of these acts have not been found. Some fear they will never be.

The unfortunate truth is that this horrendous attack is not the first one to take place in the country, but just the latest incident in a growing campaign against Venezuela’s Jews fueled by President Hugo Chavez’s demonization of Israel and his embrace of the anti-American and anti-Israeli regime in Iran. His government has twice raided Jewish schools looking for “guns” -which obviously were never found- supposedly hidden by anti-government “conspirators” and the Mossad. Both these raids took place close or on the eve of the Iranian president Ahmadinejad’s visit to Caracas. On December 24, 2005 the Venezuelan president referred to the Jews as “the descendants of the same ones that crucified Christ…” and as “a minority [which] has taken possession of all the wealth of the world.” Last January 6, after the expulsion of the ambassador of Israel, Chavez pressured the Venezuelan Jewish community to speak out against Israel, saying “I wish the Jewish community would declare themselves against this barbarism,” he said. “Do it. Don’t you strongly denounce any act of persecution and the Holocaust? What do you think we are looking at [in Gaza]?” One week before the attack, a Chavista columnist named Emilio Silva posted a call to action on Aporrea, a pro-government Web site, describing Jews as “filthy” anti-Chavez conspirators and exhorting Venezuelans to confront them. On Jan. 24, in an omen of the attack six days later, a community rabbi walking on Shabbat was beaten by a group of attackers before being rescued by taxi drivers. No wonder then that during the Chavez Administration one third of the Jewish community in Venezuela has left the country.

Yes, President Chavez has condemned the attacks but with a strange twist. He blamed the “oligarchy” –his favorite straw man – instead of opening up a serious investigation. The use of violence and intimidation is rampant in Venezuela and has impacted any group that, by trying to maintain their autonomy, is seen as an enemy of the “revolution”. Today it is the Jews, but the clergy, the private sector, the student movement, the press and just about any group with an independent voice has been harassed.

So here is the rub: can Massachusetts receive oil subsidies from Venezuela while keeping quiet about the rising anti-Semitism of its benefactor? Can Bill Delahunt brag about his role in securing the Venezuelan subsidy and not say anything about the Synagogue? Can Joe Kennedy remain a respected member of the Boston community while not denouncing these clear violations to the rights of Venezuelans?

 Venezuela, Politics, News, International, Opinion