A good article. We hear so often of antisemitism in the Middle East that we forget to look for it in the south as well.

Zelaya's anti-semitism is fabricated. Given that indeed there are very few Jews in Honduras, the fact that several of his closest cabinet members were Jewish was enough to actually bring out Honduran anti-semites against Zelaya in the past. Chavez's rhetoric hasn't been helpful; Romero's rant was downright disturbing to say the least, but it was not typical of Radio Globo, and has reportedly been censured by the station and Zelaya himself. The Miami Herald story doesn't seem totally credible in the first place, either:

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefield/3501/against-anti-semitism-right-left-or-media-induced

Translation of Zelaya's letter here:
http://www.narconews.com/Issue60/article3855.html

Hahahahahahahaah. Alright, I get that this is news, but is question in the title really necessary. Why would someone blame the Jews? BECAUSE THEY'RE THE JEWS! Haven't you read any history? Being the most convenient scapegoat in the history of humanity doesn't come easy.

Anti-semitism is clearly wrong, and thankfully most American's have been swamped over the decades by articles and media against it. I've seen films like Exodus or about Ann Frank many times.
But this has become the excuse for any cruel or illegal actions by Israel so many times. The terrible attack on Jews at the Olympics gave them the excuse to also kill moderate Arabs, including their children. A relatively few but terrible rocket attacks gives them, apparently, the excuse to kill hundreds of civilians in Gaza, including again, many children.
Any attempt to examine the Gaza attacks of course is "excused" by anti-semitism, etc., as if ANY cruel attacks, no matter how extreme, are justified by Israel. I used to be a strong supporter of Israel, now I would fight the use of American troops or money for this wild and dangerous country. And Israel has 50+ nuclear weapons, why do they need any of our money when we are broke from the foolish Iraq War?
With their parlimentary system the right wing extremists in Israel always get too much power, even over rather moderate governments. Their extremist's are just as much a danger to real Middle East peace as any nutty Arabs [or our own warmonger's like Cheney, Rice, Rummy, or Boehner].

anti-Semitism is wrong. After all, you've seen Exodus. Whew, good thing we have that going for us or else it seems you would have no problem lumping us in the same bin as Chavez & Co.

Oh wait, you do.

The idea that some 12,000 odd rocket attacks on Israeli cities over eight years is considered both "few", and labeled as an "excuse" is so coldly comforting.

As an American, I know full well how my neighbors would react to rocket attacks that landed on school buildings, forget multiple times, just once.

I think the term "paved over into a parking lot" would be a good fit as to how they would want those committing these attacks to resemble when all was said and done.

Eight years. That seems sufficient for a level of self-defense when the group leading the attacks holds onto a genocidal philosophy, as HAMAS does.

Apparently self-defense is just enough for us Jews to be labeled "wild and dangerous".

Good thing you saw what happened to Anne Frank or we might just have to go it alone again. Or, apparently we do.

Did Honduras have the power to defeat Hitler? I think not. So, all that Honduras had to do for Hitler to destroy the Jews was exactly what Honduras did: nothing. Easy enough.

That, of course, is not a comment on whether Jews have or do not have a significant role in the coup.

If life in the US is any measure, it is not the number of people in any particular group that is significant. It is the power and influence of that group that is important.

Here's a wild guess. The top 1% of Americans in terms of personal wealth in the US have more influence with the government than the 10% of the US population that is black.

I'm not 'Anti' anything but death, so lets be clear I have nothing against any group in particular.

With that said, I've always heard the term Anti-Semitic and was interested in how it only represents Jews when the word SEMITE represents a language. Or at best it represents people that are from a certain area, NOT EXCLUSIVE to Jews.

Some say that the Jews are a distinct RACE. If so, why don't they call people who offend or attack them RACIST instead of Anti-Semitic? What is the origin of the word Semite being connected only to Jews?

Anyone?

What is wrong with people? Don't they know the difference between truth and fact anymore? Oh, yeah, I remember, now. We were taught that truth is relative. Right? The truth about the "coup" was lost in the hype of sensational stories. Makes for better copy if inflamatory statements from world-ruler-wannabes like Zelaya spout ignorance and point their fingers at the least likely (like a two-year old child who didn't get his way). How could anybody take him seriously? I can't believe that anyone could accept the babblings of a man like that. But then, it takes all kinds. Fools and all. God help this world!

The ADL reports that there are about 100 jewish families in Honduras. From the flip side, which no one seemed to realize is, that Honduras has the 11th largest palestinian population in the world numbering around 57,000. With a very wealthy and influential constituency. I must make a point however that until today the palestinian and jewish communities have co-existed peacefully. Non the less the numbers are vastly lopsided.

I agree that blaming Israel in the case of this coup is ridiculous, but just as we know from history that Jews are a convenient scapegoat, we also know from history that Israel
supported the South African regime and Somoza and the contras etc.

Why would they support oppression? I thought that was one of the prime reasons they formed Israel, out of a need to rebuild what had been destroyed through an oppressive regime.

There may be something there,
there use to be good journalism.

"After what I have learned, I ask myself why, why didn't we let Hitler carry out his historic mission?"

The WW2 ended sixty four years ago with the defeat of the Nazis but the thoughts and ideology are still deeply rooted in the minds and souls of people. And sadly, this time it is not even the white supremacy issue.

Boy! He really jumped on you with both feet, didn't he! Nasty attack, as though expressing concerns for people other than Israeli Jews was evil.

You have to realize there is an entire industry spinning Israeli actions and they can shut you down in a heartbeat. They have developed all their arguments and honed them carefully to shut down any opposition the split second it surfaces.

So how can you deal with it and not get savaged as soon as you open your mouth as a Christian or gentile on a web site frequented by Zionist Jews? You don't have the time or the energy to take his nasty and sarcastic comments apart and find out how he is fooling you.

So you just shut down and shut up like most of us gentiles in America.

There is ananswer, however. If you want to get a better education without the anti-Christian anti-gentile hatred the guy on this list is spewing go to

http://mondoweiss.net

and start reading the daily articles and comments. It is hosted by a Jew, Philip Weiss, who is a New York reporter and writer, is married to a Christian woman and is also tired of the ugly pro-Israel rhetoric. (He is also very liberal)

The Anti-Defamation League defames others that highlight Zionsit-Israeli ambitions. It also throws a smoke-screen on certain truths, making them "anti-semetic" rhetoric against the legitimacy of the Israeli state.

The reasons are obvious. Even if there was irrefutable proof that "Jews" were/are complicit in the geo-political farce Honduras has become, that should not get in the way of expanding the Israeli state at the expense of a nation once called Palestine. Also, the term "ant-semitism" is assumed to apply to those of the Jewish faith, obscuring the fact that both Jews and Arabs are Semites, soley due to the fact that both speak a Semetic language.

The Honduras experiment is yet another flashpoint Zionism is using to shore up support for an illegal Israeli state that has been colonising Palestine before 1948. That is the simple fact - on the ground. For that is where the genocidal displacement has occured for over 60 years. Just like a murderer who seeks sympathy - and blind encouragment - from a unknowing public, Israel has done everything to pull the wool over many naive and uneducated eyes.

The time has come to not only wake up, but to see a reality obscured for too long, and a truth dying to be told.

Hondurans clearly have a better memory of their history than do we of ours or theirs... can you say Oliver North, Bud McFarlane

from Time Magazine May 7, 1984

When NBC Nightly News reported last week that Israel had armed one-quarter of the rebel army, Israeli Foreign Ministry Spokesman Yosef Amihood dismissed the account as "utterly ridiculous." But Edgar Chamorro, a director of the Honduras-based Nicaraguan Democratic Force (F.D.N.), the largest contra group, told TIME that his rebels received about 2,000 weapons from the Israelis last October. He emphasized that this was a onetime shipment. It was channeled through a private arms dealer, and consisted mostly of Soviet AK-47s captured from the P.L.O. during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. TIME has learned that Israel funnels arms to the contras through the Honduran army. Israeli intelligence experts have helped the CIA train the contras, and retired or reserve Israeli army commandos have been hired by shadowy private firms to assist the rebels. "The Israelis," says a U.S. intelligence expert, "know how to run a secret operation."

Elliott Abrams -- Pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors. Pardoned by Bush (senior and hired by W to bring his expertise to the Iraqi campaign...explains much).

Carl R. Channell -- Pleaded guilty to a felony. Two years probation.

Thomas G. Clines -- Convicted of four felonies. Went to jail.

Alan D. Fiers, Jr. -- Pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors. Pardoned by Bush.

Clair E. George -- Convicted of two felonies. Pardoned by Bush.

Albert Hakim -- Pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor. Paid a $5,000 fine.

Robert C. McFarlane -- Pleaded guilty four misdemeanors. Pardoned by Bush.

Richard R. Miller -- Pleaded guilty to a felony. Two years probation.

Oliver L. North -- Convicted of three felonies. Won his appeal on the grounds of immunity.

John M. Poindexter -- Convicted of five felonies. Won his appeal on the grounds of immunity.

Richard V. Secord -- Pleaded guilty to a felony. Two years probation.

Duane R. Clarridge -- Indicted on seven felony counts. Pardoned by Bush before trial.

Caspar W. Weinberger -- Indicted on five felony counts. Pardoned by Bush before trial..

Joseph F. Fernandez -- Indicted on five felony counts. Charges were dismissed when he claimed that he could not mount a defense without access to classified documents.

Zelaya Condemns Radio Host’s Comments on Holocaust (Update1)
By Blake Schmidt

Oct. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Ousted Honduran president Manuel Zelaya said he was appalled by comments made by his supporter David Romero, a journalist at the country’s shuttered Radio Globo, that Hitler should have been allowed to finish his “historic mission” of exterminating the Jews.

“I condemn that kind of racism and discrimination,” Zelaya said in a phone interview late yesterday from the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa. “I don’t share that point of view.”

Romero, who says his grandfather was a Jewish immigrant from Czechoslovakia, unleashed an on-air tirade against Jews after Zelaya told reporters “Israelis” were behind “toxic gas” attacks on the Brazilian Embassy, where he has holed up since sneaking back to Honduras from exile on Sept. 21.

In a commentary on Radio Globo on Sept. 25, Romero said “it would have been just for Hitler to have finished his historic mission. It’s true what the Jews have done.”

Romero’s comments drew condemnation from the U.S. embassy in Tegucigalpa and the Anti-Defamation League. An Oct. 4 Wall Street Journal column labeled Zelaya an “anti-Semitic rabble rouser” based on Romero’s comments.

Zelaya’s foreign minister Patricia Rodas said military officials loyal to Zelaya informed her that an Israeli citizen who owns a weapons-supply company in Tegucigalpa had provided the acting government with chemicals that may have been used to make toxic gases, according to a Sept. 25 report on Venezuela’s Telesur.

“It was an error. Pardon me. I ask the Jewish community for forgiveness,” Romero said in a phone interview. “My grandfather’s a Jew. I feel like a Jew myself, though I’m not a practicing one. My blood descends directly from the Jews.”

Zelaya Condemns Radio Host’s Comments on Holocaust (Update1)

Zelaya, who said in a statement that his government included four Jewish advisers, called his relationship with Romero strictly professional and denied allegations he’s an anti- Semite. Romero said there is a “malicious campaign” to use his comments to discredit Zelaya’s push to return to power.

“There’s a campaign to manipulate what I said and link it to Zelaya and the resistance,” he said. “I’m not part of the resistance, I’m a social communicator. I have a professional work relationship with Zelaya, that’s it.”

Romero supports the restoration of Zelaya and had frequent interviews with the ousted leader that helped rally supporters against the acting government of President Roberto Micheletti.

Along with TV Channel 36, Radio Globo was closed by the acting government last week for inciting violence. Soldiers seized their broadcast equipment and suspended their licenses. Romero said Globo has new broadcasting equipment and plans to return to the air even without a license if they’re not satisfied with the result of talks this week aimed at ending the crisis.

Shrinking Growth

The Honduran economy may shrink more than 4 percent this year as the result of the overthrow of the government, risking worsening poverty in Central America’s second-poorest country, ousted Finance Minister Rebeca Patricia Santos Rivera said.

The ousted government of Zelaya had projected growth of 1 percent to 2 percent, before the coup in June that has brought curfews and cuts in foreign-aid, she said.

“Now people are talking about a contraction of 3 to 4 percent for 2009; it could even contract more,” she said in an interview in Madrid today.

To contact the reporter on this story: Blake Schmidt in Tegucigalpa at bschmidt16@bloomberg.net

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=aPc1E_NAGKVg