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By Matthew E. Berger
The Jewish Daily Forward
Published September 23, 2009, issue of October 02, 2009.
Washington — The recent return of Honduras’s ousted and expelled president to his country is not an issue in which the Jewish stakes are clear or obvious. But Jewish groups are nonetheless taking sides over the turmoil roiling the Central American country and over the Obama administration’s stand on developments there.
On September 4, two weeks before President Manuel Zelaya snuck back into Tegucigalpa, Honduras’s capital, the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs called on Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to reverse the administration’s position and support Zelaya’s overthrow. Zelaya was democratically elected in 2006. But the group, which is primarily devoted to promoting strong military ties between Israel and the United States, was concerned that Zelaya was leading the country away from democracy and into alliances with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez at the time of his overthrow.
“Zelaya was a man who was moving towards Chavez,” said JINSA’s executive director, Tom Neumann. “He was going anti-American.”
But other Jewish groups, and a key Jewish member of Congress, have defended the administration despite similar concerns, viewing Zelaya’s ouster last June as an affront to the rule of law, whose fostering they view as a more important American interest. Many countries in the western hemisphere have also called for Zelaya’s return to office. No country has recognized the government of Roberto Micheletti, former head of the national legislature, who assumed the presidency following Zelaya’s expulsion.
On September 21, Zelaya was able to sneak back into the country and take refuge in the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa. Violent clashes have since occurred between police and demonstrators rallying to support him.
In an interview, Neumann said that Zelaya’s June 28 overthrow — in which the military removed him from office at gunpoint while he was still in his pajamas, and expatriated him to Costa Rica — was, in fact, lawful, having been ordered by the country’s Supreme Court and backed by its legislature after Zelaya sought to change the country’s constitution. Neumann questioned the State Department’s decision to back the former president, who met with Clinton in Washington on September 3.
“For us to take a position that we are supporting a government that is anti-American and opposing one that is pro-American is absurd,” he said.
JINSA’s comments come as some Jewish groups increase their focus on Chavez and his growing relationship with Iran. In a visit to the Middle East in early September, Chavez agreed to export 20,000 barrels of gasoline per day to Iran, which, despite ample oil reserves, has limited refining capacity of its own. At a news conference in Damascus during his tour, Chavez lashed out against Israel as “a country that annihilates people and is hostile to peace.”
It was Zelaya’s growing connection to Chavez that sparked JINSA’s engagement. “Honduras as itself is no threat to Israel,” Neumann said. “But Honduras as part of the bigger picture is.” He cited a growing nexus between Venezuela and countries that he said support Middle East terrorism, including Iran, Syria and Libya.
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Labels: Wars for Israel
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