Chummy with Chavez

Madeleine Albright’s former poodle and Mr. Christiane Amanpour, James Rubin, has published an essay Why Obama Shook Chávez’s Hand.

Despite the results of November’s election, Mr. Obama’s critics are judging him on the basis of the old Bush calculus. Whether it is Venezuela or Cuba, they assess Mr. Obama’s actions based on whether or not they immediately contribute to the downfall of a regime. If not, then they go off in high dudgeon.

Worse yet, Mr. Obama’s critics are using the same logic that contributed to early failures in Iraq. They say the president’s politeness to Hugo Chávez, for example, should be judged by the standards of the Cold War. They point to the fact that dissidents in Eastern Europe were heartened when President Ronald Reagan called the Soviet Union an “evil empire.” But that truth doesn’t always translate to other parts of the world. If Iraq has taught us anything, it is that not all countries respond the same way when a dictator falls. Unfortunately, many heirs to the Reagan tradition haven’t learned that policy by analogy is a risky business.

This is poorly reasoned. What does heartening dissidents have to do with after a dictator falls? Heartening dissidents is something that ought to weaken (at least slightly) a dictator’s hold on power.

It’s a point that those who were dissidents in the past understand. (h/t Dr. Sanity)

In the case of Venezuela, the Jewish community could use a little encouragement at the expense of the man who has targeted them.

Jews not only fear the petty criminal, but being subjected to abuse because they are Jewish and identify with Israel. Today, the Jewish community is a target of a vicious campaign instigated by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who compared Israel’s entry into Gaza to Nazi aggression.

In fact, on the cover of the most recent edition of PDVSA, the monthly magazine of the Venezuelan state oil company, there is a picture of a concentration camp with a watchtower and barbed wire. Flying over the camp is an Israeli flag. The caption emblazoned across the picture reads “NUEVA ADMINISTRACION” (“under new management”).

Or as Seraphic Secret puts it:

When the President of the United States warmly greets and embraces a Jew-hating tyrant, there are consequences.

The tyrant’s cruel rein is legitimized.

The tyrant’s Jew-hatred is legitimized.

Those who oppose the tyrant are dealt a terrible blow.

And of course, the lives of victims of totalitarian regimes—the unjustly imprisoned, the tortured, the murdered and the maimed—are devalued.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.