Venezuela’s Jews fear that a state visit by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad could pour fuel on the already smoldering fires of antisemitism that have been nurtured by the government of Hugo Chavez.

Ahmadinejad, an extraordinary Jew hater and Holocaust denier who has committed himself to wiping out Israel, stopped over Caracas on his way to New York for Wednesday’s opening session of the United Nations General Assembly.

Pictures of the Iranian demagogue embracing a grinning Chavez appeared in the Venezuelan and international press.

Venezuelan Jewry are concerned for their security for the first time.

JNW