HUGO CHAVEZ: COLUMBIA IS ISRAEL OF LATIN AMERICA

Chavez: Colombia has become the Israel of Latin America (HAARETZ)
Venezeuelan President Hugo Chavez ordered tanks and thousands of troops on Sunday to the border with Colombia, accusing it of pushing South America to the brink of war and likening it to Israel for its U.S.-backed attacks on militants.

Chavez called Colombian President Alvaro Uribe a criminal and branded his government a terrorist state, over the killing of a top rebel leader on Ecuadorean soil.

"The Colombian government has become the Israel of Latin America," an agitated Chavez said, reiterating his criticism of the Israel Defense Forces' strikes on Palestinian militants.

"We aren't going to permit Colombia to become the Israel of these lands. ... Uribe, we aren't going to permit you."

Denouncing Colombia's slaying of the rebel commander in a cross-border raid into Ecuador, Chavez said Venezuela would respond militarily if Colombia violates its border.

VENEZUELAN JEWS ARE FEARFUL

Journalist: There is a new fear among Jews in Venezuela (MIAMI HERALD)
Venezuelan Jews, long uneasy with the Chávez government's alliances with Iran and other Middle Eastern countries that espouse anti-Israel views, are concerned that the government is sponsoring anti-Semitism in this hemisphere, a prominent journalist said Tuesday.

''The situation we have now in Venezuela is that for the first time in modern history we have government-sponsored anti-Semitism in a Western country,'' said Sammy Eppel. ``That is why this is very dangerous, not just for the Jewish community in Venezuela but for the Jewish community as a whole.''

Among the examples offered by Eppel: Venezuelan government intelligence services twice have raided the country's most important Jewish center in a vague, ultimately unsuccessful search for weapons. Publications of the government's cultural ministry run articles entitled ''the Jewish Question,'' along with a Jewish star superimposed over a swastika.

CHAVEZ ALLY TURNED CRITIC SLAMMED FOR TIES WITH JEWS

Chavez Ally Turned Critic Slammed for Ties with Jews - Simon Romero
Venezuelan army commander Raul Isaias Baduel led the paratrooper raid that returned Hugo Chavez to office after he was briefly deposed by a coup in 2002. But Gen. Baduel broke with Chavez this month over proposed sweeping changes to the Constitution that, among other things, would abolish presidential term limits. Since going public with his criticism, Gen, Baduel, a Roman Catholic, has been criticized over his close friendships with members of the country's small Jewish community, many of whom are increasingly concerned about Chavez's growing alliance with Iran and the government's tense diplomatic relations with Israel. Gen. Baduel described his outreach to Jews as part of his "ecumenical" beliefs, but Tarek William Saab, the governor of Anzoategui state and an ally of the president, told the daily newspaper El Nacional: "He has been captured by the international ultra right wing, by international Zionism." (New York Times)

ISRAELI CO. SUED FOR REFUSING TO GIVE HUGO CHAVEZ SENSITIVE IMAGERY

Israeli Satellite Company Sued for Refusing to Provide Sensitive Imagery to Venezuela's Hugo Chavez - David Pomerantz
Investors in the Israeli satellite company ImageSat are asking an American judge to punish the company for refusing to provide access to the spacecraft and their sensitive imagery to Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez, who is an ally of Israel's enemy Iran. The investors claim that the Israeli-owned part of the company is killing off several profitable contracts because of diplomatic considerations. For example, the suit says that the Israeli Ministry of Defense pressured the company to renege on a multimillion-dollar contract with Venezuela. (New York Sun)

SEE: HUGO CHAVEZ BARRED FROM VISIT TO SYNAGOGUE; Chavez: Lebanon destroyed by genocidal hand of Israel; HABLAS HEZBOLLAH?

HUGO CHAVEZ BARRED FROM VISIT TO SYNAGOGUE

Chavez denied visit to Caracas synagogue (YNet)
A recent request by socialist Venezuelean President Hugo Chávez to pay an official visit to a Chabad synagogue in Caracas was rejected. The Chabad official news site posted an article saying that Rabbi Moshe Ferman, the chief Chabad envoy to Venezuela, had rejected the president's request arguing that it was aimed at garnering political gains in light of the West's revulsion of him.

Chavez who has been in office since 1999, allied with Saddam Hussein at the time, befriended Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Syrian President Bashar Assad , and has even paid them personal visits.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center has accused him of anti-Semitism after in one of his speeches he accused the Jews of crucifying Jesus and of holding the entire world's capital. Since 2002, when he accused the Israeli Mossad of an attempted coup in his country, the Jewish community is fearful of his conduct.

The Jewish community in Venezuela, one of the oldest in Latin America, comprises a population of 25,300 (some 60 percent are from Ashkenazi descent, and the remainder is Sephardic.) The large Jewish communities reside in the cities of Caracas, Maracaibo, Valencia and Maracay.

SEE ALSO: Chavez: Lebanon destroyed by genocidal hand of Israel (YNet)
Venezuelan president announces nationwide fundraising drive to raise money for rebuilding Lebanon and for Palestinians; calls Lebanese ‘heroic people’