Chile is now essentially a first-world country. Say what you like about General Augusto Pinochet bringing in the “Chicago Boys,” a group of free-market economists. Good or bad, the general left Chile with a major world-class economy. And Chile ranks as an extraordinarily free nation, ranking freer than the USA.
So one would think that Chile would take a standard western line on core issues, for example, the present war in Gaza, but you would be wrong.
Chile has a bizarre profile when it comes to the Mideast.
Starting in the late 19th century, Christians in the Holy Land started fleeing to Chile. They were afraid of their sons being drafted into a Muslim-led Ottoman army, to be used as cannon fodder. They primarily came from Beit Safafa in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Beit Jala, and Beit Sahur, where Christians predominated at the time. This is no longer so.
What these Palestinian Christians found was a country with a magnificent Mediterranean climate for thousands of miles, only the tropical far north and the Antarctic far south excepted. It was about thirty times the size of the Holy Land, with the Mediterranean districts alone being ten times larger. Moreover, it was incredibly underpopulated for its size.
If these Palestinians had lost the Holy Land, they had acquired something vastly superior.
No thanks to Chile’s Spanish history, with its Iberian traditions of elites and peons, there was a need for a vibrant mercantile class, and the Palestinian Christians (soon to be called Chilestinos/Chilestinians) prospered. They became Chile’s economic powerhouse. They soon controlled the business district, the Patronato, in the capital.
And these Chilestinos used that power. In 1947, a mere two generations after their initial arrivals, the Chilean government originally wanted to vote yes to partition the Holy Land in order to create a Jewish state, but the Chilestinian community pressured the government to abstain. One Chilean diplomat resigned over the matter.
[P]resident Videla gave in to the internal pressure of the Arab community (100,000 citizens of Arab descent lived in Chile at that time and were known for their financial and political influence) and instructed his delegation to the UN General Assembly to abstain from voting on the resolution to partition Palestine in 1947. Senator Humberto Alvarez, second-ranking member of this delegation, resigned in protest against that decision. -- Jewish Virtual Library
Now that’s power!
People complain about the supposed power of Jews in America, but clearly in Chile, the power was on the other side. Today, the Chilestinians are roughly half a million (about 2% of the population) and they are rich and overrepresented in the government, finance, and industry. The Chilestinos pack an enormous punch.
And what about Chile’s Jews? Well, the Chilean government took in refugees from Nazi Europe as late as 1940, the most famous being the parents of Mario Luis Kreutzberger Blumenfeld, or as he is better known: Don Francisco, the former host of “El Sabado Gigante,” at one time the most watched TV show in the world -- with viewers from Spain to Latin America and the Hispanics of the United States.
So Chilean culture is not antisemitic per se.
The Chilestinians boast of a professional soccer team (Palestino/Palestinian), founded in 1920, which has won national cups. Theirs is a record of amazing success.
Meanwhile, there are only 18,000 Jews in Chile, and whatever their merits, they cannot compete against the Chilestinian constituency which outnumbers the Jews 30 to 1, particularly since that constituency is well-educated, rich, and prosperous.
But, unlike the Jews, who take pains to remember their history, the Chilestinos have a distorted view of their own past. They are roughly 99% Christian, but seem to forget that the reason they started fleeing in the 19th century was to avoid the tyranny of the Muslim Turks. It was Islam that initially drove them to Chile. There are few Christians left in the Holy Land.
Now, it is true that a second wave moved after Israel took over Judea and Samaria (what the world calls the West Bank) in 1967, and understandably, they were not thrilled with Israel by that point. But in their corporate imagination, the Chilestinians remember a Holy Land that never existed. The Muslims in the region regularly went on rampages against Christians. The Lebanese Maronites have not forgotten this, but the Chilestinians have.
Perhaps it is because the Christians in the Holy Land began formulating a national Palestinian identity around 1900, and two Christians started a newspaper in 1911, called Falastin. So there was an early Palestinian identity, but what is forgotten is that the idea of a nation-state came from the bible and contacts with the Western world, not Islam, which prefers a one-world order caliphate. The national identity was initiated by Christians, but not picked up so quickly by Muslims, whose ideas of government vastly differed.
Yet, the Christians in Chile image a Holy Land of halcyon yore. The original wave of flight was due to Muslim, not Zionist tyranny.
Now, enter in Chile’s leftists. Principal among them are Daniel Jadue and Gabriel Boric. Daniel Jadue is an architect cum mayor in Recoleta, a town in the capital district. From there, he ran for Chile’s presidency -- and was initially predicted to win. He lost to Gabriel Boric.
Daniel Jadue is the grandson of Palestinian immigrants, describes himself as an atheist Freemason, and has a child out of wedlock with a partner. He is highly leftist, running on a Communist ticket.
Not the kind of guy who you would expect to work with Iranian mullahs… right?! Wrong.
Jadue is now hosting a series, “Windows on Palestine,” on HispanTV, an Iranian propaganda outlet in South America. (You can have it auto-translated in the settings.) He also has a record on saying things that would get politicians careers destroyed in the USA.
Daniel Jadue, a onetime presidential candidate of Palestinian descent, also says it’s a contradiction’ to be both a Jew and a leftist…
On Tuesday, Jadue drew a parallel between Israel and Nazi Germany, posting a clip in which someone tears down a poster of Adolf Hitler to reveal Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his place, giving a Nazi salute. The text accompanying the post read, “Never again!” -- Times of Israel
In Chile, this is not a major issue. The Jewish community is furious, but Mayor Jadue remains popular. Nor is this the only time he has gotten in trouble.
Gabriel Boric, who is the president of Chile, is not much better, only more politic. In America, politicians must answer to AIPAC, in Chile they answer to Chilestinos, such as attending a Chilestino Christmas ceremony -- even the Conservative former president Piñera was obliged to go.
All the while, the remaining Jews of Chile are worried, and with good reason.
A madness has gripped Chile. Its foreign policy has been hijacked by a Red-Green alliance so strong that even conservatives must pay homage to it. For those of you who complain of Jewish power, Chile is an example of what happens when Jews are all but powerless.
Mike Konrad runs a website, latinarabia.com, where he discusses these issues.
Image: Vector Portal
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