First China, now Venezuela?
An Israeli arms sale to Venezuela was postponed indefinitely following a US demand to not deal with Chavez’s government. Chavez, vocal critic of Bush Jr. and target of calls for assasination by Pat Robertson (is that what Jesus would do?!?) Chavez angered the current US administration by signing trade pacts with Cuba, claiming that the US was planning to invade Venezuela and referring to Condi Rice as ‘an imperial lady’. He also criticized the US’s military action in Afghanistan as “fighting terrorism with terrorism”.
The Israelis, as part of the package, were to upgrade Venezualian F-16s. Israel has sold Venezuela radar, air defense missiles and Litening pods used by fighter jets to target air-to-ground missile. The deal, however, seems like a fairly small one and Israel has played it much safer than the previous dealings they had with China, where the US briefly suspended all military involvement. Mofaz is going to the US to clarify weapon’s trade issue next month.
Read all about it here (Reuters) and here (Ha’aretz).
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Muffti agrees…there have been some charges of human rights violations, and its quite possible he supports some terror groups (though this hasn’t been proven to the best of Muffti’s knowledge.)
Tovya, what’s your problem with him? Joy makes a good point: the sauds sell america oil and we kiss their asses despite massive human rights abuses, etc. Chavez works towards universal healthcare and against corporate exploitation of South America and the US buys his oil while indirectly trying to depose him.
Am jumping up and down on a couch with amazement at the brilliance of you rejoinder. That said though, we can’t hold Chavez responsible for the actions of his associates; he’s own track record is splendid. I dare say that the feather he has in common with Castro is that of Socialist ideals. I suppose he’s closed his eyes to the grim stuff but selectivity is part of diplomacy, wouldn’t you say?
Joy, Muffti’s criticisms are the result of the executions, torture and imprisonment. He doesn’t know when other people started criticizing and he doesn’t care. As for other countries, Muffti would be glad to mention them but you were asking why Muffti thought that the Chavez-Castro connection was hypocritical. If Chavez decided to sell oil to Sudan, Muffti would mention their record to.
Executions are indefensible, ofcourse. But i that’s only an ostensible reason for the criticism leveled at Castro: The criticism started long before the executions. And as far as human rights violations go, there are countries that are far worse, yet i hear no mention of them. Could it be because they’re allies of the land of the free?
Chavez is hypocritical, granted but who isn’t? The compassionate conservatives?
hehehe…well, the Bush-Saudi relations is also strange. It’s not that Muffti finds the relationship suspicious: more like he thinks that Castro is a known violator of human rights and has been for a long time (thogh Muffti approves of nationalized health care): estimates average around 73,000 executed. That makes Chavez’s claims about the oppression of Americans (which he cites as his reason for not going to the US) kind of hypocritical.
Strange bedfellows? Stranger than the relationship between the Bush family and the Saudi royals. Why does Muffti find Chavez”s relationship with Castro suspicious?
Muffti has to say: he’s not really anti-Chavez (though he is pretty anti-China!) However, part of the problem was that hte Israelis were to work on F16s that Venezuela bought, which as an american product. Anyhow, the US has certainly done their fair share of nasty things to Chavez (i.e. not warning him of a coup attempt they knew about in Muffti thinks 2002). Chavez’s partnering up with Castro, however, truly is suspect to Muffti. For all Chavez’s good intentions and claims about oppression in the US, he picks strange bedfellows…
Horrid man, that one: trying to improve the lot of the poor, trying a different way of governing, speaking the truth; good grief, there’s no end to the evil that man’s capable of! By all means, let’s lock him up. Goodness knows the world is too small for the truth, and for anyone who dares to think differently. And we all know that the real danger to world peace is not terrorism, Aids, global warming, Proliferation of nuclear weapons, poverty…. but damned socialists; get rid of them and all will be dandy!
i say send mobius over there to give him a big hug, and they can kick back a Corona together and talk about the good ‘ole days. that would make for a pretty cool meeting, send the JewSchool boys over there to have a little ‘meeting’ and they can take some photos and post them on the site… maybe they can get some political prisoner torture photos or something (which would beat a bunch of frowns in a pancake house).
sucks being on the wrong side of history. he should be saddamized: put him on trial (for being a nuisance and almost as annoying as micheal moore) and return the country to the free market!
sucks being a client state.