Translated from French by Ragnar Johannessen

The Grand Rabbi of Sao Paulo, the American Henri Sobel, told President George W. Bush on Sunday in Brasilia about the ”precarious” situation of the Jews in Venezuela, accusing Hugo Chávez of being an ”anti-Semite”.
Speaking over the phone with AFP, the president of the rabbinate of the Congregation of Jews in the Brasilian metropole said that ”even though there is no discrimination in Venezuela officially, Hugo Chávez does everything he can to spread hatred against the minorities”.
"Chávez is a demagogue, a radical, an anti-Semite in a country where there is a lot of social injustice”, said Mr. Sobel, reporting what he had said to the American President George W. Bush, during a private meeting, in which the president of the Jewish Congress, Israel Singer, also participated.
”Under these circumstances it is tempting to look for a scapegoat”, emphasized Rabbi Sobel, adding that ”the masses have a tendency to listen to false messiahs”.
”This mixture of political unrest and social turbulence creates an environment conducive to anti-Semitism and that is why the situation is precarious”, not only for the Jews, but for all the minorities in Venezuela.
According to the leader of the Jewish congregation in Sao Paulo (the largest in Brazil), Mr. Bush was ”surprised” and had said that he was ”concerned” about the situation. He had mentioned to the Rabbi that he would instruct someone to look into the matter and ”to make a report to him”. (AFP) (Translated by R. Johannessen)
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November 11, 2005 http://quibla.net/protocoles/protocoles133.htm