President Hugo Chavez
Caracas, Venezuela

Your Excellency,

You are on the brink of defining the Bolivarian Revolution that you aspire to lead across Latin America. Whether you like it or not, the way in which you deal with your country's small Jewish minority will ultimately define your place in history. Will you be recorded as a complex and controversial personality, perhaps even a genuine statesman - or as a crude mimic of one of the 21st century's worst tyrants and Holocaust deniers, one branded by the entire civilized world as the most powerful and dangerous spokesman of rogue regimes?

History has proven that no society can flourish in which the Jew feels unease.

You may think that you can separate Jews from Israel. Others have tried. But as you will soon learn, you cannot. The courageous Jews of Venezuela, Venezuelan patriots whose support for Israel, both in word and deed, is unwavering, have proven that. Take heed. If you think you can maintain a friendship with rocket rattlers and the bankrollers of international terrorism - and also receive support, or even acceptance in the family of civilized nations, you are mistaken.

But at the end of the day, the choice is yours.

Shalom,

Dr. Israel Singer
Chairman of the Policy Council
of the World Jewish Congress.