
 |
|
Nov. 6, 2009
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How
to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Nov. 5, 2009
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking
Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker
With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater?
With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change
With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 30, 2009
Oct. 29, 2009
JWisdom.com We Must Revamp our
Religious Vocabulary With Gavriel Aryeh Sanders ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 28, 2009
JWisdom.com Why what we wear
impacts who we are
With Rabbis Mordechai Becher, Menachem Golberger and Aliza Bulow ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 27, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The United Nations Is Outraged Again, Or: Department of Mideast Static
JWisdom.com The Science of Love
With Rabbi Jonathan Rietti ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 26, 2009
JWisdom.com Wisdom and Wonks
With Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 23, 2009
JWisdom.com Watermark and oneness
with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 4 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick Stop using limited powers in a way that expands our enemies' advantages over us
Oct. 22, 2009
JWisdom.com No More More Family Fights --- Really?
By Sarah Chana Radcliffe ( 5 minutes)
Oct. 21, 2009
Tonya Alanez: Holocaust denier sues survivor, calling Auschwitz memoir 'vicious lies'
JWisdom.com Meditating Jewishly: A
Panacea for Success by Sarah Yoheved Rigler ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 20, 2009
Dennis Prager: Obama and Dalai Lama: Why Israel Worries about U.S. President
JWisdom.com Abraham was not religious
By Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer ( 6 minutes)
Oct. 19, 2009
JWisdom.comWhy Good People Do Bad Things
By Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 16, 2009
JWisdom.com Hearing Voices
By Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 minutes)
Oct. 15, 2009
JWisdom.com: Former MTV producer and stand-up comedian Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff: Taming a Control Freak (A VERY fast 15 minutes)
|
| |
Jewish World Review
March 7, 2008
/ 30 Adar I 5768
The Israel of Latin America
By
Rich Lowry
| 
|
|
|
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez reached for what he considered the ultimate insult when he called Colombia "the new Israel." If by that he means a country better governed than its immediate neighbors, that dares to protect itself against terrorists across its border despite getting bludgeoned for it by the international left he had a point.
Colombia killed Raul Reyes, the second in command of the narco-terrorist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), in a raid about two miles inside Ecuador. Usually when a terrorist leader dies, it's cause for celebration. But Ecuador broke off diplomatic relations, and Chavez mobilized troops to Venezuela's border with Colombia, even though the raid occurred in another country.
Ecuador doesn't have cause for complaint when the northern tier of its territory is practically a FARC spa. Reyes was in a well-appointed camp, and he died in his pajamas. It was Ecuador that failed in its international obligations, by allowing on its territory a criminal with multiple arrest warrants from Interpol and a leader of a group that the U.S., the E.U. and Canada all have declared a terrorist group.
Originally the military wing of the Colombian Communist Party, FARC has employed almost every imaginable criminal tactic in its 40-year war on the Colombian state: assassinations, massacres, drug trafficking, kidnappings, vehicular bombings, hijackings, protection rackets, land mines and gas cylinder mortars. It is responsible for tens of thousands of deaths and untold numbers of internally displaced people.
Once, Chavez had the prudence to dishonestly disavow his support for the group. Increasingly brazen, he now declares solidarity with his fellow left-wing thugs. He called Reyes a "good revolutionary," and honored him with a moment of silence. He calls for FARC's international recognition. Colombia reportedly discovered documents on a laptop at the FARC camp that indicated Chavez, true to his rhetoric, had given FARC $300 million.
What exercised Chavez about the Colombian raid was less a tender regard for Ecuador's sovereignty than outrage at the blow that had been dealt to his ally FARC. He was initially angrier about the raid than his ideological soul mate, Ecuador's President Rafeal Correa, who Chavez dragged into making a show of mobilizing his own troops as well. Chavez's grand ideological project is to legitimize FARC at the expense of the Colombian government, thereby helping it overthrow his enemy, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.
Besides hurling the "I" word, Chavez calls Colombia a "genocidal government." He thus repeats the transvaluation of ethical standards we've seen in the Middle East, in which Israel is deemed a terrorist state for resisting terrorism and compared to Nazi Germany for providing a bulwark against a new anti-Jewish genocide. Chavez has made headway. Once merely incapable of keeping FARC from its territory, Ecuador now appears to welcome it and supports Chavez's pro-FARC agenda. Bolivia and Nicaragua are ideological fellow travelers.
A confrontation with Colombia serves another purpose for Chavez: distracting Venezuelans from how his socialist policies have trashed their economy. Despite oil at record-setting prices, Venezuela is wracked by shortages of basic foodstuffs. Last month, looters ransacked a state grocery store in Chavez's hometown. "You don't have to worry about not being able to find chicken or flour," Chavez implicitly says to Venezuelans, "when I'm mobilizing our army behind an outlaw band of fanatical Marxists."
The U.S. must buttress its ally Uribe in Latin America's ideological war. One way to lend him the legitimacy that his enemies want to deny him is to approve the Colombia-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, which would be an important diplomatic statement of the importance of our relationship and the progress Uribe has made solidifying democratic norms while beating back FARC. Democrats, though, have a case of the anti-trade vapors and are suspicious of Uribe because he is hated by leftist nongovernmental organizations and advocacy groups.
That's another way Colombia is the Israel of Latin America a moniker to be proud of.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Comment by clicking here.
Rich Lowry Archives
© 2008 King Features Syndicate
|
|

Arnold Ahlert
Mitch Albom
Michael Barone
Dave Barry
Tony Blankley
Andy Borowitz
David Broder
Stratfor Briefing
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Suzanne Fields
John Fund
Frank J. Gaffney
Lloyd Garver
Jonah Goldberg
Julia Gorin
Jonathan Gurwitz
Paul Greenberg
Lewis Grossberger
Victor Davis Hanson
Betsy Hart
Nat Hentoff
David Horowitz
Laura Ingraham
Cheri Jacobus Jeff Jacoby
Paul Johnson
Jack Kelly
Ed Koch
Ch. Krauthammer
Michael Ledeen
John Leo
David Limbaugh
Kathryn Lopez
Rich Lowry
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Dick Morris
Bill O'Reilly
Jim Mullen
Clarence Page
Kathleen Parker
Dennis Prager
Wesley Pruden
Tom Purcell
Jonathan Rauch
Celia Rivenbark
Robert Robb
Cokie & Steve Roberts
Pat Sajak
Debra J. Saunders
Culture Shlock
Roger Simon
Michael Smerconish
Thomas Sowell
Mark Steyn
John Stossel
Cal Thomas
Bob Tyrrell
Diana West
Dave Weinbaum
George Will
Walter Williams
Byron York
Mort Zuckerman

Robert Arial
Chuck Asay
Baloo
Chip Bok
Dry Bones
Lisa Benson
John Branch
Gary Brookins
John Cole
J. D. Crowe
John Deering
Brian Duffy
Everything's Relative
Mallard Fillmore
Jake Fuller
Bob Gorrel
Joe Heller
David Hitch
Jerry Holber
Steve Kelley
Jeff Koterba
Dick Locher
Chan Lowe
Ranan R. Lurie
Jimmy Margulies
Rick McKee
Michael Ramirez
Kevin Siers
Jeff Stahler
Ed Stein
Danna Summers
John Trever
Gary Varvel
Kirk Walters

How 2
Lori Borgman
The Savvy Consumer
Elder matters
Fixit
Dr. Peter Gott
GET A JOB! by Marty Nemko
Richard Lederer
Tech Maven
Every Monday Matters
Nutrition Myths
Bookmark These
Bruce Williams
How Stuff Works
|