Most of the “world was confused” when Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s second in command, Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, implicated Israel in Mr. Maduro’s capture, write Jeffrey Scott Shapiro and Gelet Martinez Fragela. They note how Ms. Rodriguez said in a Jan. 3 national address that “the governments of the world are simply shocked that … Venezuela … is the victim and subject of an attack of this nature, which has … a Zionist tint,” and “Zionist undertones.
“These antisemitic narratives first originated across the Atlantic more than a century ago. Fourteen years before the 1917 Russian Revolution, the czarist Russian empire scapegoated Jews by publishing a fabricated text called ‘The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,’” write Mr. Shapiro and Ms. Fragela. “The book was meant to reveal a blueprint written by Jewish leaders aiming to take control [of] the media and banking system, but it was really composed by the czar’s secret police.
“Once the Soviets realized they could use antisemitism to gain support from regional malcontents, they exploited Jew-hatred to gain international allies,” the two write in an op-ed for The Washington Times. “Bridging this gap stoked fear and paranoia, rallying some of the angriest and most ignorant members of their societies.”
Mr. Shapiro is a Washington Times assistant commentary editor. He and Ms. Fragela oversee the Digital News Association’s Latin America Disinformation Tracking Initiative, which identifies Kremlin narratives aimed at Spanish-language audiences.
