Venezuela expels Israeli ambassador over Gaza

CARACAS, Venezuela – 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 have 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.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090106...la_israel_4;_ylt=Ap1GBd2CVZSk_bgShEwJvRf9SpZ4

 

Venezuela president is the man! Go Chaves!

 

Big fucking surprise.

I tried using Google on his name, surprisingly one of the top suggested keywords were "Hugo Chaves Dictator". You guys are truly insane.

Just Google'd "Hugo Chaves Insane" - Got almost a hunderd thousand results.

Woo, go Hugo Chaves! That just shows who supports you - Insane people and dictators.

 

Hehehe... He's dictator and maybe terrorist why? because he expulsed the "Israeli" ambassador ??? lol very funny

Try to use google in all your government members name and im sure you will see more and more surprices... lol

 

expulsed? You mean expelled?
surprices? You mean surprises?

You're confused? Let me say this again. I didn't say he's a dictator, 100,000 blogs and news reports said he is.

I hope you do remember Hugo Chaves threatened to put tanks in the middle of his country because of some argument he had recently about the elections?

 

"Hugo Chavez is insane" is actually a pretty competitive SERP.

 

Not as good as George Bush Idiot though.

 

hahaha You guys! I must say that regardless of MY perception on Hugo Chavez in the majority of time, this time I completetly agree with him. Afterall, Venezuela is HIS country, er... the country where HE IS president, it does not matter if we like him or not, he has the authority to object and protest such acts in particularly this manner.

 

That's good, I hope Jordan and Egypt would answer the popular demand and expel these two terrorists, already Jordanians are sick of these scum before the recent events start.

Israeli tourists upset Jordanians

 

unfortunately none of the US implanted puppets in Muslim World have the guts to do this

 

hey make up your mind: are you for dictatorship or democracy ?

hint: hamas is democratically elected

 

Lol......Good catch

 

hint: so was Hitler.

 

hehe yall are good

 

If you had a clue you would understand why Hamas is incompatible with democracy.

 

And if you had a clue you would understand why occupation is incompatible with democracy too.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/07/gaza-israel-palestine

 

Wow.

Hey, let's all support a dictator because of the one thing he's done that you agree with! You guys say you are against Israel because "innocent people are getting hurt". So, let's support Chavez who wants to start a war with several countries and doesn't allow the free speech of his people!! Smart thinking! Let's get rid of war and opression by supporting someone who wants both!

 

"innocent people are getting hurt", why you put that into ''. It sounds like a questionmark?

 

No, it's called quoting what others are saying...

 

assuming he is a dictator, which I highly doubt it specially when it comes from Bush and Americans, it is usual for US to support dictators, examples are many, Iran Shah, Mubarak, Saudi's .................................etc

so why they are so bothered with Chavez?