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The BBC has reported that there has been vandalism in Venezuela against a Caracas synagogue. This is truly unfortunate, a global anachronism, and an expression of xenophobic hatred that has never existed in this Caribbean nation that is famous for its tolerance, generosity and openness.

It is true that there has been a great deal of social violence here, but until now it has been associated with chance brutality, a clash of chaotic criminality. Even so, and in spite of everything, Venezuela has also been characterized by a noble vocation for peace.

Personally, I consider the aggression committed against Palestine by the Israeli leadership to be nasty, cruel, and vindictive. But this cannot be generalized to an entire people, and even less to Jews that are not Israelis. Furthermore, violence never, ever solves anything. If once I was saying, “We are all Palestinians”, now I say, “We are all Jews”, as a rejection of all xenophobic acts.

I can only hope that rapidly the Venezuelan government, the political parties, the religious affiliations and other groups will announce their opposition to hatred against any and all social groups, political factions or faiths.

Additional note: Monday, Feb 2, 2009
I only found one Venezuelan on-line news source about this, but it is restricted to subscribers: http://www.talcualdigital.com/index.html .

The Venezuelan TV channel, Globovisión has emphasized it in interview shows.