(h/t: Gramfan)
American Thinker: The spin of things to come
By Mike Konrad
Five Latin American nations pulled their ambassadors from Israel over the recent Gaza war. Fear not for Latin America. Rather, fear is what is coming to the United States.
El Salvador recalled its Israeli ambassador from Tel Aviv on Wednesday to protest the military operation in Gaza, making it the fifth Latin American country to do so.
Brazil, Chile, Ecuador and Peru have already recalled their ambassadors. – Haaretz
Why? Latin Culture is based on the Reconquista; the war against Islam. Why on earth would they support Islamist Hamas?
Two of the five nations stand out: Chile, and El Salvador. Both have elite, very influential Palestinian populations. Chile and El Salvador might have been expected to do something.
Or maybe not?
The Palestinians in Chile and El Salvador are almost all Christian. Yes, El Salvador had a Palestinian president, Antonio Saca, but he was an Evangelical Christian. How on earth are these nations supporting an Islamist regime like Hamas in Gaza?
Moreover, there is a massive pro-Zionist Evangelical revival in Latin America, especially strong in Guatemala, Chile, and Brazil. Guatemala is 40% Protestant; Chile 15%, and Brazil 22%. What on earth is happening?
Even the history flabbergasts us. Arab-Latins fled Muslims.
There was an enormous flight to Latin America from the Mideast after a series of genocidal anti-Christian pogroms occurred in Syria and Lebanon from 1840-60. By 1890, floods of Arabs went to South America. Over 80% of all Arabs who immigrated were Christian. Those few Muslims who did arrive either converted or married into Christianity.
Some 40% of all Arab-Argentines have one Muslim ancestor, yet only 10% or less of Arab-Argentines are Muslim. Conversion, until recently, was the norm. In other countries, almost no Muslims arrived at all. Chile’s Palestinian Arabs are 99.1% Christian. Though Muslims have recently started to arrive and set up mosques in Chile, there still may be less than 10 mosques in the whole country.Yet, small though they are, they are at the center of smuggling in Iquique, Chile, a major Pacific seaport.
Christian Arabs rose to be elites in South Americ;a; captains of industry, bankers. They have their own Arab Ethnic TV internet network. They have massive power, far above their numbers.
“The Palestinian community is to Chile what the Jewish community is to the US,” – Gabriel Zalisnak, Chilean Jewish leader – Haaretz
One would expect the Arabs to take pride in their Arab power, but why would these Arab Christians support an Islamic revolt, just because their ancestors shared a geographic connection with the Muslims? American Jews never supported the Nazis, even if their ancestors came from Germany. Yet, Arab-Latins are supporting the very same people who slaughtered their ancestors, and who persecute Christians in Gaza, today. Christian Arab-Latins now support Hamas. They have forgotten their own history.
Most of these Arab-Latins are third- and fourth-generation Latino. The majority are intermarried with Spanish-, Indio-, Italian-, French-, or German-Latins. Yet, now, they’re suddenly deciding to rediscover long lost Arab roots and learn the forgotten Arabic of their ancestors! How many Scottish-Americans do you know who are interested in learning Highland Gaelic? Or Shetland Norse?
Even more incomprehensible, depending on the country, roughly half of Arab-Latinos are Maronite Lebanese Catholics, who have no historic animus towards Israel at all; and who have every reason to hate Islam. Palestinians are strong only in Chile, El Salvador, and Honduras. So how did the moderate Maronite voice get drowned out, and the Palestinian voice gain supremacy?
There are four reasons:
1) There is almost no strong Jewish lobby anywhere in South America, except possibly Argentina. There is no equivalent of an AIPAC or ADL to contest the rising tide of anti-Israelism. Yes, there are Jews in South America, and yes, they contributed mightily, but their numbers were fewer; their influence was muted by a very powerful Catholic culture. They have power, but it is far weaker than they have in America.
The only exception might have been Argentina, which once had a very large Jewish population. However, Argentina’s instabilities in government and economy have persuaded almost half of Argentina’s Jews to leave. Once 2% of Argentina (similar to the USA), Jews are now ½%. They wield a shadow of their former clout.
In Chile, the small Jewish community is fighting a losing battle against Palestinianism.
2) A powerful, incredibly rich Arab community, especially among the subset of Palestinians. Though only 3% of Chile, Palestinians are 10% of the Senate. They have strong armed the Chilean government into positions no other government would have taken. When the rabble-rousing Palestinian-Chilean Maurico Abu Ghosh was stopped at Ben Gurion airport, and prevented from entering the contested territories, and deported, it was headline news in Chile. The Chilean government protested. No other government would have done this. It certainly is not national news in America when Israel deports American activists. Our government would have kept quiet.
3) Saudi and Iranian oil money have been allowed to go into Latin America uncontested. While Israel and America slept, the Arabs pumped in tens of millions of dollars to swing a continent. And it has worked. Arab language courses subsidized by the Saudis. A gigantic mosque in downtown Buenos Aires that almost no native Argentine attends.Saudi financed Islamic schools offering quality education to Christian children. They rarely make converts but they do impart a worldview.
Islamic TV shows on Argentine public TV which the locals are convinced are the results of bribery.
Venezuela allowed in Iran’s HispanTV to broadcast to a continent, even though European countries like Britain and Spain banned Iranian propaganda.
The Arabs focused heavily on South America for decades, and it paid off.
4) A Latin fascination with leftist ideology which views anything American or Israeli as retrograde. Forget Arab brutalization, mutilation, and murder of women. Forget Islam’s retrograde tyranny. It has to be the fault of los yanquis y israel.
Meanwhile Israel has yet to learn. Israel’s I24 TV News broadcasts in English, Arabic, and French. Why no Spanish? Even now, Israel is ignoring a rising Latin power.
The head of the Yesha settler movement is Dani Dayan, a tri-lingual Argentine-born Jew. Urbane and persuasive, he has written Op-Eds in the New York Times. I have to assume he has been pleading with Israel to do something. Yet, Israel ignores South America, and seems surprised at the present results.
Give Dani Dayan a show on I24, for crying out loud. He could be the voice of Israel in South America, in their own accent. There are 70,000 Argentine Jews in Israel. There is no excuse for Israel to have allowed this to happen.
