Venezuela Expels Israeli Ambassador

Chavez Fiercly Critical Of Gaza Conflict, Israel's "Barbarism"

(CBS/AP)  Venezuela ordered the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador and some embassy staff on Tuesday to protest Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip.

The decision by President Hugo Chavez, a longtime critic of U.S. and Israeli policy, to kick out the diplomats appeared to be the strongest reaction yet to the Gaza offensive by any country with ties to Israel.

Venezuela's Foreign Ministry announced the move in a statement, saying it "has decided to expel the Israeli ambassador and part of the personnel of the Israeli embassy."

The Israeli offensive in Gaza has killed nearly 600 Palestinians in ground and air strikes. Israel launched the attacks Dec. 27 to stop Palestinian militants from firing rockets into southern Israel.

Venezuela's Foreign Ministry said its U.N. mission is joining with other countries in demanding the Security Council "apply urgent and necessary measures to stop this invasion."

Officials could not immediately be reached at the Israeli Embassy in Caracas, which had closed by the time of the announcement.

Chavez earlier condemned the Israelis carrying out the military campaign as "murderers" and urged Jews in Venezuela to take a stand against the Israeli government.

"Now I hope that the Venezuelan Jewish community speaks out against this barbarism. Do it. Don't you strongly reject all acts of persecution?" Chavez said.

"How far will this barbarism go?" he said in an appearance on state television. "The president of Israel should be taken before an international court together with the president of the United States, if the world had any conscience."

While many countries have protested Israel's offensive, none so far has expelled the ambassador.

Mauritania, which established relations with Israel in 1999, called home its ambassador from the Jewish state on Monday.

Jordan and Egypt, the other two Arab nations with relations with Israel, summoned their Israeli ambassadors to protest the Gaza attacks, but they have resisted popular calls to expel them.

Chavez has long been critical of the Israeli government's policies in the Middle East and has supported the Palestinians' stance in the conflict.

During Israel's 2006 conflict in Lebanon, Chavez withdrew his top envoy from Israel, calling the bombings there "a new Holocaust."

In spite of its criticisms of Israel, Chavez's government has insisted it is friendly toward Jewish people.

Chavez met with Jewish leaders in August, pledging to work against anti-Semitism despite strong differences on Mideast politics.

Chavez's condemnations of Israel's offensive have grown gradually more severe in recent days.

He called on Israelis to "stand up against" their government. As for those leading the offensive in Gaza, he said, "they are cowards - bombing innocent people. What great soldiers they are, how brave the soldiers of Israel are."

Protests against the offensive have been held in Venezuela and other Latin American countries in recent days.

In Argentina, which has the third-largest Jewish population outside Israel as well as a sizable population of Arab descent, hundreds of people marched to the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires to call for an end to the offensive.

Brazil's government says it is sending 14 tons of medicine and food to the Gaza Strip. And in Bolivia, about 100 Palestinians and Arabs marched to protest the violence.

[mrjustice1]

HUGO CHAVEZ AND MAHMOUD ACHMADINEJAD: TERROR SUPPORT PACT

The infamous, merry duet - Venezuela''s Chavez and Iran''s Achmadinejad - have joined forces to support Hamas the murderous terrorist organization.

The two terrorist supporters have clearly demonstrated that they have no regard for the many innocent, dead, civilian victims that their Hamas friends murdered.

[scorpie79]

Its sad that such a just response is coming from a contry with little power on the world stage. I only wish the USA would take a similar response.

[scorpie79]

I can''t wait until the anti-christ exacts his revenge on god''s people. The irony will be that the jews will deserve it!

[scorpie79]

I think christians should wake up and sever the puppet stings israel uses to control our american goverment!

I think christians ought to use the tools of anti-semetic behavior to send a clear message of disapproval to israel

[abrame]

Chavez makes a decision - the world laughs.

[mitdgreenb]

Scorpie -- You are entitled to your opinion.

Mine is that you should study history a bit. If you believe that the Final Judgment condemns people for killing, take a short walk through the last millennium of European history. You''ll find more Christians killing more Christians than the sum total that Israelis and Palestinians COMBINED have killed. Now, some of those Christians were Catholic and some were Protestant and some were Orthodox. I am sure one of them is the "right" set of Christians. Got to be... and dam n the rest. Right?

Oh, wait... that was long ago in a place far away. American Christians are better you say? OK. Civil War. KKK. People who make very Christian comments like you. All speak to the contrary.

Believe what you will, but I believe you are going o be judged pretty harshly.

[rusure5]

Re: "Chavez Fiercly Critical Of Gaza Conflict, Israel''s "Barbarism"

As is the rest of the civilized world.

Who would want one of these disgusting Zionists in their country, outside of a well guarded cell?

[mitdgreenb]

B4 -- You won''t be seeing your rebate. Hugo sent it to "freedom fighters" in Colombia.

TakeBack -- What a cowardly comment! It takes real guts to be an ambassador to a less-than-friendly country. It takes real guts to be the messenger when the message is not going to be well received. I am not a big fan of a lot of the way diplomacy works, but I at least respect the courage of those who try. My take is that you don''t have the cajones for Hugo to chop off.

[mitdgreenb]

rusure --

Do you live in America? Have you ever read the accounts of what the Civilized World thought of the American Revolution?
"Minutemen hiding behind walls instead of marching in line like a proper army. Barbarous."
"Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain boys targeting officers instead of infantry. Uncivilized!"
"Washington attacks on Christmas! Horrors!"

OK, I paraphrased a bit, but only a little. In fact, you can see rival accounts of the Boston Massacre and the battles of Lexington and Concord if you do a little research. And, friend, you will find that the British point of view... the Civilized point of view... is quite a bit different from what you studied in school.

[mitdgreenb]

Takeback --

Hugo called. He invited you. Please go.

[caligola-2009]

Non Pertinent: an ambassador is a failed politician that couldn''t convince voters to elect him.... so he is elected by the government..... if he agrees on leaving the country....

[rusure5]

Posted by MITDGreenb at 08:45 PM

I''m not sure why you think that you know what I have studied, and I do not follow your point.

[rusure5]

re: "IN FACT THEY TRIED TO DESTROY THE STATE OF ISRAEL AT LEAST 3 TIMES!!!"

Posted by KristianInAL

Better luck next time.

[ericthefool]

Brainwashed Amerika. Hugo Chavez is the only person with the balls in this World to stand up to the NWO, elite, and fake religious types. Fake Christians!

[patriotic9]

I see very bright future for Venezuela. Venezuelans made great alliance with fellow oil rich countries which will help Venezuela in International market.
On the other hand, psychotic Christian enemies of the United States have reached very near to accomplish their mission of destroying the UNHOLY LAND "UNITED STATES" and GOD-NEGLECTED AMERICAN LIVES for NON-AMERICAN HOLY LAND and NON-AMERICAN EUROPEAN INVADERS IN PALESTINE!
Why shouldn''t we help Arabs in the destruction of Israel on Palestinian land, far away from the Concentration Camps in Germany, to enjoy oil in cheaper price?
Why should we support the existance of Israel on Palestine to buy HATRED, TERRORISM and 9/11 for GOD-NEGLECTED AMERICANS and UNHOLY LAND "UNITED STATES"?
Because Christianity is psychosis and Christians are psychotics!

[endofempire]

Chavez is an anthropoid who is now starting to feel the effects of his "benevolent" foreign policy now that oil prices are close to where they should be. So Hugo is not sending free oil to America''s poor, he won''t be building the refineries he promised to Nicaragua and his own people are starting to feel the pinch. So now he wants a distraction and we or Israel are as good as any. Panem et circenses, my friends, bread and circus... Problem is, at sub-$50 a barrel, the bread will soon run out and the circus just won''t be enough... Unfortunately, many political neophytes are unable to understand what is really going on... So what''s new?

[antizion]

At least one nation on earth shows a little integrity. Good for Hugo.

[deadcolony]

Bravo Bravo Bravo President Chavez. You are a human being unlike Bush and the Israelis.
Of course the Israeli controlled US mainstream media will block or play-down news of this event.
What President Chavez says is the truth; can''t have that up in the good old US of A.

[deadcolony]

Bravo Bravo Bravo President Chavez. You are a human being unlike Bush and the Israelis.
Of course the Israeli controlled US mainstream media will block or play-down news of this event.
What President Chavez says is the truth; can''t have that up in the good old US of A.

[deadcolony]

KristianInAL
The vote for the partition of Palestine and the vote for the establishment of the settler colony of Israel were rigged by the Pro-Israeli USA in favor of the Israel squatters.
This is what the Israelis apologist Benny Morris says in his book "Righteous Victims"
Therefore the vote was a fraud and were it not for the US''s arm twisting the voting would have gone against the settler colony of Israel.
Why should the Palestinians accept a rigged vote as justification for the theft of there homeland?

[drinuk]

Well Done Mr President ! At last someone with the Bottle to tell it like it is and NOT toe the Zionist line.

2009 will be the year that the "Chosen People" get their ***** kicked Worldwide. They have caused untold hurt, suffering and death, not too mention stealing the wealth of nations, they must pay the price sooner rather than later.

[hidflect-2009]

Viva Chavez for a reality break from the white noise of the "beleaguered little beacon of democracy" propaganda...

[andonnn]

viva chavez.thank you chavez.
%u0131 am from turkey.

[ffoulkes-2009]

Let that little Venezuelan coke sniffing monkey boy toss out the diplomats! What should Israel care about this backwards Communistic po-dunk regime anyhow!

[ffoulkes-2009]

I can''t believe all these morons cheering this dictator punk...Wow. You all really do have $hlT for brains...

[birdyard1]

a few rockets droped his nation may change his mind

[letsbgood]

SOME PAST FACTS (really important)

1. Jewish always lived in Israel that once was their kingdom
2. Jewish where expelled from Israel but some where always there
3. Jewish temples where destroyed and mosques where build on top of it
4. Jewish did not steal Israel from the Palestinian
5. Jewish are back to Israel and rebuild it
6. Jewish are as greedy, nice, good, bad as any other group
7. Due to be hunted, Jewish EDUCATION was a surviving tool
8. Due to EDUCATION Jewish known to be smarter (high positions) and richer (not greedier...)
9. When economy is bad people tend to blame the powerful and rich groups
10. Racist and anti-semi used depressions to grow hater about Jewish people

[letsbgood]

SOME PRESENT FACTS (really important)
1. Israel is the only democracy in the middle east
2. Israel is now a fact so only a peace agreement can work
3. Palestinian territories where occupied while defending from surrounded Arab countries
4. No Arab county wants the territories as part of them
5. most Arab countries slaughtered the Palestinians in their territories
6. The Palestinian situation is an excuse for Arab countries to divert hate toward Israel
7. Israel had many attempts for peace but was the only one who really wants it
8. Israel dealt with terrorists (Arafat) when showed some willing to negotiate
9. Palestinians never hide the face that a peace will be the 1st step to occupy all Israel
10. Hamas is a terror organization supported by Iran to harm Israel

[letsbgood]

MORE PRESENT FACTS (really important)
11. Hamas took control with power (executed their own people) and corrupted elections
12. Hamas is attacking Israel before and after they took control
13. Israel never aimed at civilians (some unfortunate individuals past incidents)
14. Arab countries killed the Palestinians in their territories when tried to raise their voices
15. After 8 years of getting attacked by Hamas rockets, Israel decided to protect their civilians
16. Hamas is using the Palestinian civilians as a human shield to protect themselves
17. Hamas is using the Palestinian civilians to create hate when civilians killed by Israel
18. Israel is bombing locations where Hamas fired rockets from
19. Israel is sorry when civilians are getting killed but has the right to protect it''s own civilians
20: Hamas is only one of many Islamic groups around the world, who believes in this:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3369102968312745410

[sly_64]

Let them blow each other up.

[mjlewis6]

Where are the protestors against the hundreds of Hamas missles that provoked the invasion?

Where are the diplomats and sponsor nations for Palestine to disavow arming Hamas with missles and
allowing them to undermine a peace process for the development of a Palestinian State?

Where are the banks and funds located that were giving the Hamas group financial support to purchase missles and begin hostilities that necessitated an invasion of Gaza?

Where are the terrorists support based and do they show the destruction their missles have done in Israel as more important than peace negotiations for the creation of a State of Palestine?

[laurieleemoo]

OMG...what an *** Chavez is......HUGO TO HELL CHAVEZ is what I say....

this guy hasn''t been getting any attention so now he is going to try to butt right in and put his ugly nose right in the middle of things.

Oh. whats the matter poor little fat boy Hugo....no one is paying you any attention lately? boo hoo poor baby. Just so you know Chavez...no one gives a *** what you think.

Since when has any South American Nation ever given a hoot about the Middle East anyway. As far as I can tell South American Nations really only care about themselves....never known any of them to be involved in actually "Caring" about anyone else in the world.
Hmm....this is something new. Course...we all know they really don''t give a *** about the Middle East...Chavez just wants to but in and try to get some attention thats all

[laurieleemoo]

watch out for the Venezuelan army.....


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by harrycoxx at 10:05 AM : Jan 07, 2009


ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!....Good One.

[laurieleemoo]

Where are the protestors against the hundreds of Hamas missles that provoked the invasion?

Posted by mjlewis6 at 01:56 PM : Jan 07, 2009
+ report


Well....lets see....we live in the year 2009 and we use our computers to express our protests of Hamas continuing to fire rockets into Israel.

All those Muslims...with the robes...and the muslims who live in the year 712 A.D. still......still have to resort to actually protesting in the streets.......

oh yeah...and we all have jobs here in America....we only have time to go on the computer on our breaks
from work.

Yes....we do see all the people who are not working in the middle east which is why they have so much time to protest in the streets. The reasons they don''t have jobs is because of their leaders and the dictators who hold their people back from actually accomplishing anything in life. In fact.....I will bet they were all threatended with their lifes by the rulers of those nations if they did not get out there and protest.

[clovernyc]

Beware of the Venezuelan army. No one is safe.

If Chavez could destroy the US and Israel with Venezuelan oil reserves and Latin machismo, he''d have a plan.

[jsmithcsa]

Why do you report what this nutjob Chavez does? Treat him like the maladjusted third-grader he is and ignore him.

[clovernyc]

Why do you report what this nutjob Chavez does? Treat him like the maladjusted third-grader he is and ignore him.
posted by JSmithCSA
----------

True, Chavez is a loud mouth weenie. It is amazing to me that his body can still support that fat head.

Nevertheless he is also leader of a nation with phenomenal oil reserves and serious ties with has-been, mostly-dead Castro and we-wanna-rule-the-world-now Russia.

That makes him a credible threat (but only if you factor in his bluster and bad breath).

[obsever2008]

Nevertheless he is also leader of a nation with phenomenal oil reserves and serious ties with has-been, mostly-dead Castro and we-wanna-rule-the-world-now Russia.
...And with China That has just lunched Venezuela''s first satellite
...And has started a coalition of nations called ALBA
... And started a solidarity program that helps ALL Caribbean nations ,selling oil at a reduced price as long as those nations use that money to help their poor
.... And is a member of a just created nation called UNASUR , which has just created a body of national defense (UNASUR is ALL South America)
...and...
...and....
To give an opinion we need to be better informed

[clovernyc]

obsever2008 is a fan club of one

That is an awful lot of BLAH BLAH BLAH about a small man who is growing more unpopular not only in his nation but in the world at large

Giving away a few barrels of discount oil to a few poor nations may be big on your gratitude list, but Chavez has managed to alienate the most powerful nation in the free world. And his list of enemies is growing.

Socialism and particularly the brand Chavez espouses is in its last gasp.

Much like your tiresome opinion of him.

[arifshen]

HEY OBSERVER2008 , i don`t know what you are talking about but since he is president of Venezuella i believe he smarter than you are . instead of surfing over the internet and criticizing important people go and find a important job for your self moron :)

[liberty4you]

Venezuela has been putting its nose in every international matter especially since it has some oil.

But here in the states, we have freedom of speech, or so we''re told.

Hamas launched rockets because Israel deployed a Naval blockade of aid to Palestine. The Israeli leaders knew that they would launch the rockets.

This is a game of politics in Israel as in the United States based on intimidating the general public so politicians will be elected. Just ask Bill Clinton who is quoted as saying "I knew the Israeli invasion was because I wanted him to be elected."

Concerning an Israeli politician who was ironically not elected.

Now the UN school is bombed in Gaza and every UN official is crying out to Western and Arab nations to halt the conflict. The UN is a joke. Americans know this.

Israeli armed forces, stop this madness. Stop listening to your corrupt politicians. Hugo Chavez,
the Israeli intelligence in South America is thick.

Watch your back, vato.

[stopbsing]

"That is an awful lot of BLAH BLAH BLAH about a small man who is growing more unpopular not only in his nation but in the world at large"

What are we in American Idol now? He has to be popular? How could he be famous when most of the news network are blocking the news..correction,ignoring the news.

"Why do you report what this nutjob Chavez does? Treat him like the maladjusted third-grader he is and ignore him" - pure example of an ignorant

"But here in the states, we have freedom of speech, or so we''''re told" - agreed.

Chaves may be a small man but he has our respect. A small man with big balls. RESPECT! And yes he is more famous than some aretard that you have governing your states. Watchout Israelis..comin back atcha.

[mom_o_truth]

Finally A MAN WITH GUTS TAKING ACTION. BRAVO President Chavez.

[gowhar_jamia]

I salute the Venezuelan great leader sir Hugo Chavez for expelling Israel%u2019s ambassador/embasy. Enery country of the world should take a lession from this brave step. The whole world should follow the same step and this is the only way the Terrorist Israel will refrain from doing such a henious humanitarian crime.

[gowhar_jamia]

Let me to tell something about the terrorist Israel`s jews. The were killed and kicked off from every corner of the world mainly by germans and begged for the land in Phalestine.Baked by the most antihumanitarian country usa they inturn tried to control the country who provided the then beggar israel the lan to take shelter