[Peace-discuss] Chavez "anti-Semitism"

[David Green]

This message from a progressive rabbi, Arthur Waskow,
proving once again the careless manner in which such
charges are generally made. In spite of Waskow's
remaining doubts, I think it's clear that this
accusation is baseless propaganda. I find it rather
precious that Waskow thinks that the JTA is the least
bit interested in retracting their accusation.

Message: 6         
   Date: Sat, 7 Jan 2006 03:47:23 EST
   From: MichaelLevin11 at aol.com
Subject: Fw: (shalomctr) Is Venezuela's President
Anti-Semitic? 
[1/6/06]

Dear Friends,
 

This message raises some serious doubts about a claim
put forward by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that
President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela spoke an
anti-Semitic slur this past Christmas Eve in a speech
to a Venezuelan rehab center. 

My own analysis of the full text of the talk, together
with 
correspondence I have now had with North Americans who
are in Venezuela, cast great doubt on the charge.

I am not absolutely certain the charge is wrong, but I
think it 
probably is, and should be further investigated before
being propagated. Already, however, some other Jewish
organizations have leaped on this JTA article to
attack President Chavez. 

I think the charge itself may, if incorrect, bring
about great and unnecessary hostility between North
American Jews and Chavez and his supporters throughout
the Americas. 

I wrote privately to urge JTA to explore the issues
further through good journalism; my urgings were
utterly rejected. So I am more publicly sharing this
concern and my own effort at serious investigation (in
what I see as the best version of Jewish journalism). 

 

Shalom, Arthur

Rabbi Arthur Waskow

The Shalom Center

www.shalomctr.org


Here is the story:

 

  This past Friday (December 30), JTA sent out the
following bulletin:

 

Chavez makes anti-Semitic slur

 

Venezuela's president said in his Christmas speech
that "the 
descendants of those who crucified Christ" own the
riches of the world.

 

"The world offers riches to all. However, minorities
such as the 
descendants of those who crucified Christ" have become
"the owners of the riches of the world," Chavez said
Dec. 24 on a visit to a rehabilitation center in the
Venezuelan countryside.


When I first read the bulletin, I  was both surprised
and angry.

 

Surprised because never has anyone, through all the
years of attacks by the US government against Chavez,
suggested he was anti-Semitic.

 

Angry because if he actually said and meant what he is
quoted as having said and meant, this is disgusting.


I was angry enough to write the listserves of United
for Peace and Justice that I was very concerned,
thought maybe there was a way to understand the talk
that did not bring the Jews into it at all, but that
this needed to be clarified. I quoted the teaching
that "Anti-Semitism is the socialism of fools," and 
added that I had never thought Chavez was in any way a
fool.

 

So I sent the JTA bulletin (accurately cited and
sourced) to people whom I thought might have some
contacts in Venezuela.  I got back a comment from an
American in Venezuela expressing great surprise,
since, she said, no in-country press has quoted
President Chavez' Christmas speech to any anti-Semitic
effect. She said he usually teaches his views to the
public by

repeating a theme over and over again, but this has
not appeared at all that she knows of.

 

At that point I did not have a source for the text of
the speech in full, since the JTA bulletin did not
give one; but I was able to find it at 
--

 

www.gobiernoenlinea.gob.ve/docMgr/sharedfiles/Chavez_visita_Centro_Manantial_d
e_los_suenos24122005.pdf

 

 

The remarks about those who crucified Jesus are on
page 18. They are as follows:

 

Presidente Chávez: Primero, primero hay que
reconocer, todos tenemos 
que

reconocer, yo el primero, el gran esfuerzo de ustedes,
de los pioneros, 
de 
Fabiola, de Juan el Alcalde, de la Dirección de
Atención al 
Ciudadano, al 
Soberano de la Alcaldía Mayor de Caracas, fíjense
ustedes lo 
importante que es la 
consolidación  política de la Revolución y el
avance de la 
Revolución. Ya lo 
decía Fabiola, ya lo decía Leida: Un buen día se
llevaron de aquí a 
los ancianos 
¿por qué?, le pregunté yo, porque no había dinero,
decían, en la 
Gobernación 
de Miranda ni en la Gobernación de Caracas
seguramente. No había 
dinero ¿y 
dónde estaba el dinero?  El dinero en Venezuela se
concentró... así 
como en el 
mundo, porque esto es un fenómeno mundial ¿saben?
Acabo de leer esta 
madrugada el 
último informe de la Organización de Naciones Unidas
sobre la 
situación del 
mundo y es alarmante por eso es que digo que hoy más
que nunca antes 
jamás en 
2005 años nos hace falta Jesús el Cristo, porque el
mundo, el mundo, 
se está 
acabando el mundo cada día,  cada día, la riqueza
del mundo, porque 
Dios, la 
naturaleza es sabia, el mundo tiene agua suficiente
para que todos 
tuviéramos 
agua, el mundo tiene riquezas suficientes, tierras
suficientes para 
producir 
alimentos para toda la población mundial, el mundo
tiene suficientes 
piedras y 
minerales para las construcciones, para que no hubiera
nadie sin 
vivienda. El 
mundo tiene para todos, pues, pero resulta que unas
minorías, los 
descendientes 
de los mismos que crucificaron a Cristo, los
descendientes de los 
mismos que 
echaron a Bolívar de aquí y también lo crucificaron
a su manera en 
Santa Marta, 
allá en Colombia. Una minoría se adueñó de las
riquezas del mundo, 
una minoría 
se adueñó del oro del planeta, de la plata, de los
minerales, de las 
aguas, 
de las tierras buenas, del petróleo, de las riquezas,
pues, y han 
concentrado 
las riquezas en pocas manos: menos del diez por ciento
de la población 
del 
mundo es dueña de más de la mitad de la riqueza de
todo el mundo y a 
la... más de 
la mitad de los pobladores del planeta son pobres y
cada día hay más 
pobres en 
el mundo entero. Nosotros aquí estamos decididos,
decididos a cambiar 
la 
historia y cada día nos acompaña y nos acompañará
mayor cantidad de 
jefes de Es
tado, de presidentes y de líderes; vean ustedes cómo
el pueblo 
boliviano... 
Bolivia, que es el país más pobre de Suramérica y
uno de los más 
pobres del mundo, 
esa República fundada por Bolívar y por Sucre, esa
que lleva el 
nombre de 
nuestro Bolívar, esa Bolivia, muy rica es Bolivia:
minerales, oro, 
plata, estaño, 
petróleo y gas, y tierra muy fértil, y grandes
montañas. Sin 
embargo, es uno 
de los pueblos más pobres de este planeta, Bolivia,
pero los pobres 
están 
resucitando y acaban de elegir a un indio, por primera
vez en la 
historia, 
Presidente de Bolivia.

 

Please note the following section:

 

<< El mundo tiene para todos, pues, pero resulta que
unas minorías, 
los 
descendientes de los mismos que crucificaron a 
Cristo, los 
descendientes de los 
mismos que echaron a Bolívar de aquí y también lo
crucificaron a su 
manera en 
Santa Marta, allá en Colombia.>>


Please note the parallel between those who crucified
Jesus and those who fought against Bolivar.

 

I know of no one who accuses the Jews of fighting
against Bolivar.

 

And certainly I -- and most Jews --  teach that it was
the Roman 
Empire, and Roman soldiers, who crucified Jesus.

 

So knowing the presence of the Bolivar piece of the
passage, which did not appear in the JTA bulletin,
poses at minimum an important doubt to the
interpretation of the speech embodied in the JTA
headline --  that it was an anti-Semitic slur. 

 

At that point I wrote JTA to raise my concerns.


Meanwhile, my contacts in Venezuela then translated
the longer passage, as follows:

 

<<  On Christmas Eve, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez
visited the 
"Nucleo de 
Desarrollo Endgeno Manantial de los Sueños," a drug
rehab center in 
the state 
of Miranda, about an hour and a half from Caracas.
Residents and 
outpatients 
there get detox if they need it, medical and
psychological attention, 
and 
vocational training. After talking with the director,
staff and 
participants of 
the program and celebrating its accomplishments,
Chavez started talking 
about 
the availability of resources for such efforts. Not
long ago, he said, 
neither 
the state government of Miranda nor the government in
Caracas had any 
money.

 

<<"Where was the money?" Chavez asked. He continued,
"Venezuela's money 
is 
concentrated, as the world's money is concentrated,
because this is a 
worldwide 
phenomenon...

 

 << Early this morning I just read the latest report
from the U.N. on 
the 
world situation and it is alarming. Because of it I
say that today more 
than ever 
before in 2005 years we need Jesus Christ, because the
world is ending 
every 
day. Because God, nature, is wise, the world has
enough water that all 
could 
have water. The world has wealth enough, land enough
to produce food 
for 
everyone, the world has enough rocks and minerals for
construction that 
no one 
should be without housing. The world has enough for
all, but for, it 
turns out that 
some minorities, descendants of the same ones who
crucified Christ, 
descendants of the same ones who threw Bolivar out of
here and also 
crucified him in 
their own way at Santa Marta there in Colombia. A
minority takes over 
the wealth 
of the

world, a minority takes over the gold of the planet,
the silver, the 
minerals, the waters, the good land, the oil, the
wealth and has 
concentrated the 
wealth in a few hands. Less than 10 percent of the
world's population 
owns more t
han half the world's wealth. More than half the
population of the 
planet is 
poor and every day there are more poor people.

 

<< We are determined to change history and every day
more heads of 
state, 
presidents and leaders join us, and every day more
will join us. You 
see how the 
Bolivian people... Bolivia, the poorest country in
South America and 
one of 
the poorest in the world, this republic founded by
Bolivar and Sucre, 
this 
republic that carries the name of our Bolivar, this
Bolivia is very 
rich: minerals, 
gold, silver, tin, oil and gas, very fertile land and
tall mountains. 
Without 
a doubt it has one of the poorest populations of the
planet, Bolivia, 
but the 
poor have revived and have just elected an Indian
president for the 
first 
time in history."


This is what I wrote JTA:

 

To me this sounds more likely to have been an attack
on what in English we might call the "heirs," not the
"descendants," of those who killed Jesus and fought
against Bolivar -- that is, the heirs of the Roman
Empire and the Spanish Empire.
 

For Chavez, as he has said again and again, that means
the American Empire. 

Whether one agrees with his hostility to the present
US government or not, it is not anti-Semitism.  

Now even IF that is the correct understanding of the
speech, the 
phrasing is both careless and dangerous. It is hardly
surprising, given the history of the Jewish people,
that a reporter reading the speech without knowing
much about 
Chavez would take it as anti-Semitic. And it certainly
behooves us to find out 
- I would say, neither assuming it is nor assuming it
is not. 

 

I asked for and received comments from my contacts in
Venezuela – from people who know Venezuela and the
Chavezian rhetoric well, who are independent-minded
– open to disagreement with Chavez  but not members
of the intense opposition to Chavez that attempted to
overthrow his elected government. 

They said –- even before I had tried out my hunch or
hypothesis about the "crucifiers" as the empires, not
the Jews --  that after studying the speech they had
come to much the same thought. 

I still do not view this as a settled question.  If
the speech was intended as anti-Semitic, we must not
only denounce it but try to reeducate Chavez. If it
was not so intended, then we need to correct whatever
misimpression of it that North American Jews might
have given or taken, and he needs to understand what
dangerous language he is flirting with.

 

But surely until we on further examination become
convinced that the 
"anti-Semitic" interpretation of the speech is
correct, we need not go 
running to 
recruit a new and powerful person into the bands of
anti-Semites. There 
are 
already more than enough without our recruiting for
them!

 

I suggest that until more is learned, serious Jews and
responsible 
citizens 
of all communities should take this assumption as not
yet 
substantiated, and 
hold in abeyance either believing it or not believing
it.

 

How do we learn more? 

 

In the meantime, I urge that JTA say publicly that
serious doubts have 
been 
raised concerning the interpretation of the speech as
anti-Semitic, and that  JTA asks readers to suspend
judgment on this question. 

Since both Western folk wisdom and Jewish teaching
remind us that false accusations run far more swiftly
than the truth to correct them, I urge JTA to issue
such a statement right away. 

Shalom,

Arthur 

Rabbi Arthur Waskow

The Shalom Center



		
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