El National criticizes Prime Minister Netanyahu

On December 23,2009 El National came out with an article regarding the negotiations with Hamas over the return of Gilad Shalit. They said that Israel agreed to exchange prisoners for Shalit, if Hamas deports selected prisoners. These prisoners El National claims were selected and there is no background reason why. They make it seem as if Israel arbitrarily chose random prisoners to be deported.It continues on to say that Israel was planning to meet with Hamas tuesday night and decide on a solution there. Hamas was suggesting that Israel release 1,000 prisoners in exchange for Shalit. The article criticizes Netanyahu's decision to negotiate with the terrorists saying that it is a contradiction of what he had originally said which was to wage an "inflexible" war against the Palestinians.
This article slightly twisted and left out some information to make Israel seem weak in the negotiation process. They fail to mention that the Palestinians specified which prisoners they wanted to be released, some of the biggest terrorists within the Hamas organization. Yet they do mention that Israel hand-picked the prisoners wanted they wanted to be deported. Also their criticism of Netanyahu at the end makes him seem defenseless and weak in his stance. As if he cannot choose what to do with the situation. They never went into details about Gilad Shalit and how long he has been missing in order to avoid emotional appeal for the readers.The picture within the article was also one of Hamas soldiers not of Shalit, again stressing the plight the Venezuelans beleive the Palestinians are experiencing

The Insecurity forces the Jews to flee Venezuela

"La Inseguridad", the term Venezuelans use to refer to the unrelenting crime wave that has destroyed the country's "economically and ideologically polarized society". Venezuelan Jews have lost faith in the police and judicial system and cite random violence as their biggest fear. Last year Foreign Policy magazine branded Venezuela as the murder capital of the World,citing the homicide rate at 130 per 100,000 residents. In addition to murder, kidnappings for ransom have become a big problem for wealthier residents. Jews are particularly at risk due to the perception that they can get larger amounts of ransom for a kidnapped Jew than a gentile. As someone who's whole family lives in Venezuela, I can say that the kidnappings within the Jewish community have risen significantly in recent years. The criminals know that when they kidnap a Jew, the ransom not only comes from the family but also from within the community. So with each kidnapping they are hindering and damaging the community economical status. These tactics are seen as another way to force the Jews out of Venezuela.
Jews are realizing that this is not a safe place for them, especially after the attack on Tiferes Israel earlier this year. Throughout his decade in power, Chavez has referred to the United States as imperialist and belligerent. He has built friendships with the presidents of Iran and Libya in order to fight against the "hegemony" he believes exists in the United States.Many citizens already feel helpless dealing with one of the highest murder rates in the world, and Chavez's constant anti-Semitic rhetoric only makes the situation worse and stresses the need to leave before it deteriorates even more.

Link to Original Article:http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1128787.html

Chavez refers to Israel as "Murderous" U.S. agent

On Wednesday November 25, 2009 Chavez used a visit by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to accuse Israel of being a "murderous"agent of Washington. Chavez and Ahmadinejad hugged and held hands, praising each others revolutionaries ways. Chavez cited a comment made by Israeli President Shimon Peres, where Peres claimed that his and Ahmadinjad's days in power may be numbered, saying " We know what the state of Israel stands for-- a murderous arm of Yankee empire. What the president of Israel said,we take as a threat." Chavez broke relations with Israel earlier on in 2009 when he referred to Operation Castled as a genocide against the Palestinians.
OPEC members Venezuela and Iran have grown closer recently, with Chavez lending support to Iran's controversial nuclear program and Iran helping Venezuela map uranium deposits. In this visit the leaders were meant to sign business and industrial agreements. This last visit concluded Ahmadinejad's tour of South American left leaning countries in order to gain support for Iran's right to develop atomic power for peaceful purposes.
This situation is threatening not only to the Jews but to the World in general. Ahmadinijad is a public denier of the Holocaust, for Chavez and him to be so closely associated already suggests a huge threat to the Jewish community. It suggests that he too does not believe in the Holocaust. This event is also dangerous Israel. By stigmatizing Israel as a murderer Chavez is showing his complete withdrawal of support of the Jewish land. He is also presenting Israel negatively at a public forum, furthering anti- Israel sentiments within Venezuela and around the world. There is also the threat that Venezuela could potentially help Iran proliferate. Although there is no proof this is happening, this budding relationship makes it a possibility in the future. This imminent nuclear threat could be potentially destructive for the World and therefore no one should take this new alliance lightly.


Link to original article:http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5AO03520091125

The "Exile" of the Venezuelan Jews

The number of Jews has dramatically decreased since Hugo Chavez came to power.The Jewish community has become a target of the media and the government itself. As Abraham Levy Benshimol, the president of Venezuela's Confederation of Israel Associations says, " The fact is, many members of the Jewish community have left Venezuela, the more people we lose, the more difficult it becomes to maintain our institutions." This 'exodus' has many underlying consequences.Among the emigrants there were leaders of the community that were crucial in order for the community to function and develop. But now since so many have emigrated, there has been a severe decrease in donations to Jewish Social service groups making it difficult for institutions to aid those members in need, the ones who do not have the resources to leave. The number of Jews has decreased from 20,000 to 9,000. Daniel Roth claimed in the Miami Herald that the number of students of private Jewish high school has dropped 50 percent in a decade.
People's main concern is the education and lack of future for their children.In August the Chavez government passed an education bill that gives the government "excessive power over the curriculum's of private schools." For the Jewish schools this bill is extremely threatening. The passing of the bill means that the government now has the ability to restrict the teaching of religion and foreign languages such as Hebrew, which are vital to guarantee the survival of a Jewish community anywhere. Miami has become the "exile capital" for the Venezuelan Jews,especially in the last six months, where there has been a significant increase in the number of Venezuelan students in the Jewish schools.
The Jewish community has been trying to remain unnoticed during these difficult times. A choice that the principal rabbi of the Caracas Israeli Union, Pynchas Brener,says is dangerous. As Brener says, "The community must react strongly against any anti-Semitic abuse, regardless of where it comes from, silence only encourages those who wish to discredit us." This education bill is a huge problem. It only further stresses the lack of future for the Jewish community. If Chavez has already begun to privatize the schools, it is only a few years time until he controls them and other important and vital religious institutions. In order for the community to thrive they must receive government support and for now there is none.

Link to original article:http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/other-views/story/1199540.html

Background Information

The history of the Venezuelan Jews dates back to 17th century when a group of marranos arrived and settled within Caracas and Maracaibo. However, the actual Jewish community was not established until the middle of the 19th century. In 1907, the Israelite Beneficial Society which later became the Israelite Society of Venezuela in 1919, was created in order to unite the new Jewish community.By 1917, the number of Jewish citizens was up to 475, rising to 882 in 1926. Throughout the 1920's and 1930's, with the large wave of immigrants from North Africa and Eastern Europe, the Jewish community began to develop. Immigration continued until 1934 when Venezuela began to impose specific restrictions on Jewish immigration, which remained in effect until the 1950's. By 1950, with small waves of immigration from Eastern and Central Europe, there were 6,000 Jews in Venezuela. The largest influx of Jews was during World War II and the 1967 Six-Day War when Sephardi Jews from Morocco settled mostly in Caracas, bringing the number of Jewish citizens up to 45,000.
The Venezuelan Jewish Community works under a central umbrella organization, La Confederation de Asociaciones Israelitas de Venezuela(CAIV), with which the American Jewish Community signed an association agreement last year.Within Venezuela there are 15 Orthodox synagogues, and a Jewish all-in one campus, Hebraica. Hebraica hosts the nursery, elementary, middle and high school and also serves as a country club bringing the community together for sporting activities and happy occasions. The community is close-knit and the level of participation is high, the connection to Israel strong and intermarriage rates are significantly lower than those of America and Britain.
As of 2007,due to concerns of the rising national anti-Semitism, one fifth of the 20,000 strong Jewish population had emigrated elsewhere. There is widespread anti-Semitic and anti- Israel sentiments within the media, including the two biggest newspapers El Universal and El National. An editorial written by Maria de los Angeles Serrano in El National stated that Israeli Jews "are today strangulating,deporting,placing under closure and killing the Palestinian people with the same enthusiasm as their persecutors, the Nazis." There have repeatedly been anti-Semitic acts against the Jewish community. In 2004 Hebraica was raided by the armed national investigative police, under false accusations that Israel may have participated in the murder of Venezuelan government prosecutor Danilo Anderson and that the community may have been hiding him.The police locked the doors with the children inside and searched the school. In 2007 Hebraica was raided once again the day of a government referendum under false suspicion that there were drugs and weapons within the country club. On January 31,2009 the community's oldest and main synagogue, was severely vandalized by a gang. On February 26,2009 a homemade bomb was thrown into the Orthodox Beit Shmuel in Caracas.
President Hugo Chavez has also been constantly accused of anti-Semitism. In 2004 after he won the referendum, Chavez told the opposition not to let themselves,"Be poisoned by those wandering Jews. Don't let them lead you to a place they want you to be led." He once compared Spain's Jose Maria Aznar to Hitler. He has close ties to Norbeto Ceresole, the Argentinian author famous for his denial of the Holocaust and his conspiracy theories about Jewish plans to conquer the World. Chavez has been accused of anti-Semitism by the Anti Defamation League and The Jewish Telegraphic Agency. In 2009 the World Conference against Anti-Semitism claimed "an average of 45 pieces per month" of anti-Semitic writing during 2008 and "more than five per day" during Operation Castled in January 2009 were cited within the Chavez-sponsored media.
The current situation for the Jewish community is extremely grave.The country is surrounded by anti-Semitic and anti- Israel sentiments. Chavez's power is on the rise and no one knows what he is capable of. If the president is anti-Semitic there is not much hope for the Jews who live there.There are thousands who have emigrated due to fears of being attacked once again. If emigration continues at the rate it is now, the community will be at high risk of extinction.

Link for Information:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Venezuela