Robbery, Not Anti-Semitism, Motive for Attack on Venezuelan Synagogue

[IndianaGreen]

Robbery, Not Anti-Semitism, Motive for Attack on Venezuelan Synagogue

February 10th 2009, by James Suggett - Venezuelanalysis.com

Mérida, February 10th 2009 (Venezuelanalysis.com)-- Following a weeklong investigation of the burglary and vandalizing of a prominent Caracas synagogue, Venezuelan authorities have arrested eleven suspects, including a rabbi’s bodyguard who planned the crime, and a security guard who assisted the break in, Venezuelan Interior and Justice Minister Tarek El-Aissami announced Monday.

The attack on the synagogue occurred in the early morning of January 31st. Burglars tampered with security cameras, stole property, defaced sacred items including the Torah, and spray-painted the walls with anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli phrases.

A confession by security guard Víctor Escalona revealed that a personal struggle over money was the motive of the crime. Edgar Cordero, a Caracas police officer and bodyguard of Rabbi Isaac Cohen had been denied a loan by the rabbi, so he planned to rob money from the synagogue’s coffers, and approached Escalona for assistance, according to investigators from the from Venezuela’s national Criminal, Penal, and Scientific Investigations Unit (CICPC).

El Aissami said anti-Semitism was not the motive, but rather a tactic used for two purposes, “First, to weaken the investigation, and second, to direct the blame toward the national government.”

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/4193

[Idealism]

1. Anti-Semitism as a tactic to direct blame?

I am shocked, shocked I tell you

[EFerrari]

3. And DU called it, especially IndianaGreen.

:applause:

[Idealism]

4. Yes, she knew!

:party: :toast:

[Shaktimaan]

15. What's your point exactly?

That Chavez's anti-semitic comments have been vindicated because they turned out to have not been the cause of this crime in the end?

Do you believe that this revelation actually indicates a lack of anti-semitism on the part of the perpetrators? Do you even believe that their assertions are 100% accurate?

[Howardx]

2. kick

n/t

[Howardx]

6. kick

so everyone gets to see it

[GoesTo11]

5. Smells fishy - article reads like a government mouthpiece.

"About 15 people forced their way into the synagogue in downtown Caracas on Jan. 30, shattering religious objects and spray-painting "Jews, get out" on the walls, along with other anti-Semitic messages. The assailants also stole a computer database with names and addresses of Jews living in Venezuela."

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jOU8-GWY2gk1CENOnld0ae2MpURQD968A4182


I think there's a little more to it. Why would 15 people be involved when the security guard could just steal some money anyway?

The article in the OP looks like official or semi-official Venezuelan government news, and it almost says "The fools who accused our great Leader Chavez of anti-Semitism are now exposed as traitors to the Venezuelan people."

The guard (a gentile) seemed to have a personal feud with the rabbi of the synagogue and facilitated an anti-semitic act during which some things were also stolen.

But if you think Hugo Chavez is infallible, then the article's all true.

[Sezu]

8. You didn't get the memo obviously

There is no antisemitism in "leftist" governed places. It's all an illusion masterminded by the Elders and their many tentacled agents and pawns. Why the mods don't just put any post which accuses the archaic meme "antisemitism," right in the Sept 11 thread I don't know.

:sarcasm:

[delad]

7. for god's sake

chavez is anti-american and therefore his government can be tarred with any brush that "fits" his anti-americanism (in this case it anti-semitism as some muppets tend to associate 'jew (zionist)' with 'american')

[GoesTo11]

9. Here's the American gov't's mouthpiece's take on Chavez' anti-Semitism

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/04/AR2008020402428.html

The rising wave of anti-Semitism in Venezuela is part and parcel of this effort by Chávez's increasingly repressive regime. The complex housing the Jewish community school and cultural and sports center has been inexplicably raided twice by Venezuelan police since Chávez came to power. It is especially dangerous when law enforcement carries out these kinds of unfounded acts, since some may interpret them as justification to commit violence against Jews. When a community is singled out and bullied in this way, the danger exists for xenophobes and anti-Semites to take license from the government's actions to spread their hate.

Certain government officials and commentators in the official media frequently resort to implicit and explicit anti-Semitic displays, including rehashing the ancient canard about Jewish control, vilifying Jews and Israel as agents of imperialism, and adopting anti-Semitic stereotypes about Jewish financial influence. Instead of denouncing such hateful speech, Chávez chooses to overlook anti-Jewish rhetoric and often endorses notorious anti-Semites in the media. As dangerous and hurtful as this is for the small Venezuelan Jewish community, it is a symptom of something much deeper and far riskier for all Venezuelans: the breakdown of democratic ideals and institutions.

Chávez has repeatedly compared Israel to Hitler and the Nazis, and he has accused Israel of engaging in genocide against Arabs. These views have been expressed in various Venezuelan government-sponsored media outlets, on radio and TV broadcasts, and in newspaper articles and political cartoons.

Chávez has aligned Venezuela with countries and radical Islamic movements that are a verifiable threat to Israel and world Jewry, including Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; Hezbollah's secretary general, Hassan Nasrallah; and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. He has also fostered relationships with convicted guerrilla terrorist Ilich Ramirez Sanchez (a.k.a. "Carlos the Jackal") and the now-deceased Holocaust denier Norberto Ceresole of Argentina.

====

But he also likes to maintain plausible deniability - consistent with having police who work as guards at the synagogue and then facilitate attacks on it.

[delad]

13. bullshit article based on nothing

right from the get go; "increasingly repressive regime". I guess that's what open elections are to the WaPo, increasingly repressive.

[Shaktimaan]

16. are you implying that Chavez's actions and opinions are not actually anti-semitic?

“the descendants of those who crucified Christ... have taken ownership of the riches of the world, a minority has taken ownership of the gold of the world, the silver, the minerals, water, the good lands, petrol, well, the riches, and they have concentrated the riches in a small number of hands.”

Because they seem pretty anti-semitic to me.

bullshit article based on nothing right from the get go; "increasingly repressive regime"

So uhhhmmm... do you have any criticism to offer of any RELEVANT part of the article? Or should we just assume that the article is BS, through and through, because it briefly voiced a vague opinion that you disagree with? I mean, can you discredit any of the disturbing FACTS written there? Or is there a reasonable explanation for all of them that this biased article just isn't showing anyone?

I guess that's what open elections are to the WaPo, increasingly repressive.

You seem to be saying that a government can't possibly be accurately described as "increasingly repressive" if they have held open elections. Do I really have to point out the obvious flaw in this rationale? Would you ever discredit the opinion of someone who called Israel's government "increasingly repressive" because Israel also holds open elections?

[bemildred]

10. Yawn. I suppose this is about the term limits.

Caracas PD are not, in general, pro-Chavez, nor do they take orders from him:

Caracas Police Chief requests investigation into video of student demonstration

Chief of the Metropolitan Police of Caracas Carlos Meza said that "at no time" he planted the alleged Molotov cocktails that a group of opposition demonstrators allegedly took to a student march last Tuesday.

Meza said that the video footage released by students of Universidad Católica Andrés Bello (UCAB) was recorded at the moment he was checking the bottles to show that the liquid inside was gasoline.

Meza added that the video was manipulated to sow discord between the people and the Metropolitan Police.

He claimed the students tried to disrupt public order by using blunt objects and bottles.

http://english.eluniversal.com/2009/01/22/en_pol_esp_caracas-police-chief_22A2202381.shtml

[bemildred]

11. Police woman led attack against synagogue in Caracas

The investigations conducted by officers of the Department against Theft of the Scientific and Criminal Investigation Force (Cicpc) into the attack against a synagogue in Caracas last January 30 concluded that a police detective woman of the Cicpc, attached to the Homicide Department, led the actions against the synagogue.

The woman was arrested during the early hours of Sunday, as well as other 10 people, six of them officers of the Caracas Metropolitan Police. Her name is Yadira Torres, and she will be taken to the court the Attorney General Office may designate for the relevant preliminary proceedings, together with the rest of the defendants.

Cristian Quijada, the 41st prosecutor will be in charge of accusing the alleged perpetrators of the attack.

According to a report provided by sources of the Cicpc, the attack was due, unofficially, to the fact that one of the defendants, Edgar Alexander Cordero, an officer of the Metropolitan Police who was also a bodyguard of one of the rabbis of the synagogue, asked him for a loan and when the rabbi refused, Cordero decided to plan the robbery of the synagogue, since he thought that the safes had plenty of money.

http://english.eluniversal.com/2009/02/09/en_pol_esp_police-woman-led-att_09A2219723.shtml

[Howardx]

12. sad that a rabbi needs a bodyguard

maybe thats just standard in south america now.

[Shaktimaan]

14. Right, this had totally NOTHING to do with the common acceptance of anti-semitic memes in Venezuela.

Let's see here... Chavez's anti-semitic comments center around reinforcing the belief that Jews exert disproportionate influence via their control over global finance. That the majority of the world's riches are concentrated in Jewish hands.

Then a group of people having money problems, most of them cops, decide to rob a synagogue because its rabbi refused to give one of them a loan, even though the rabbi's safes were packed with cash. (Or at least they assumed for some reason.)

Then they vandalized the building and its contents in order to weaken the investigation and also to direct blame towards Chavez. These explanations are, of course, entirely reasonable... they were really just after the cash but stuck around to destroy sacred items and desecrate the entire area with hateful, anti-semitic phrases in a plot to frame Chavez!

Obviously this couldn't have had anything to do with anti-semitic propaganda receiving widespread reinforcement and repetition in Venezuela lately. No, of course not. Chavez merely made some anti-semitic remarks, some people who clearly ascribed to these same beliefs then destroyed a temple, and then it turns out they did so to discredit Chavez. The coincidence that the vandals committed this crime because they bought into the anti-semitic views that Chavez was voicing is just that, a coincidence and nothing more. Thus, the only possible explanation could be that they did this knowing that Chavez would then receive some backlash.

Oh, and :sarcasm:!

[delad]

17. what anti-semitic remarks did Chavez make?

i love the way rwingers can just say "blah" on the internet, then rwing websites repeat "blah" as fact. Soon "blah" is repeated by Fox and other propaganda organs and is passed into MSM like CNN or the NYTimes. Eventuallly "blah" becomes popularly known and some even accept "blah" as a fact.

regarding Chavez' 'anti-semitism' in 2006;

<snip>
Venezuela's Jewish community doesn't agree. The Confederation of Jewish Associations of Venezuela (CAIV) responded to the Wiesenthal accusations with a letter from CAIV president Fred Pressner that said, "You have acted on your own, without consulting us, on issues that you don't know or understand," and that, "We believe the president was not talking about Jews and that the Jewish world must learn to work together …"

http://www.alternet.org/story/31797/

Maybe there are more recent 'anit-semitic' outbursts that I'm not aware of. if there are then I'd have a predilection to believe it's more bs fabricated by rwingers who don't like Chavez.

And, tbh, i'm not really surprised that a lot of Israeli-firsters/GIYUS-heads are fomenting this kind of bs considering the smackdown that Chavez is willing to publicly put on Israel over its attack on Gaza. What a fucking disgraceful misuse of the words 'anti-semitic'. There will come a day when many people will respond with a "meh" when accusations of anti-semitism are thrown about. Can people not see how they are bankrupting the phrase by throwing it about with abandon when people legitimately criticise Israeli policies?