The US-backed Venezuelan coup regime of Juan Guaidó is reestablishing ties
with Israel and has opened a virtual embassy in Jerusalem, run by a
right-wing rabbi who lives in Miami and wants Netanyahus help to fight
terrorism.
By Ben Norton
Venezuelas late socialist President Hugo Chávez was a strong supporter of
Palestinian rights who officially broke ties with Israel over its brutal war
on the besieged Gaza Strip in 2009.
More than 11 years later, the coup regime of self-declared leader Juan
Guaidó, whom the United States recognizes as the unelected president of
Venezuela, is hoping to reestablish the countrys alliance with Israel.
On August 6, the coup regime announced the opening of a virtual embassy in
Jerusalem. It launched an official website and said this action is the
first step toward the restoration of bilateral diplomatic relations between
Venezuela and Israel.
The man Guaidó recognized as ambassador is a staunchly pro-Israel,
right-wing rabbi who has lived in the US for the past eight years. He has
called on foreign countries to help bring about regime change in Venezuela,
and also insists that Israel can help the opposition rebuild Venezuela,
using its counter-terrorism tactics to purge the country of supposed armed
Chavista elements.
In August 2019, Guaidó appointed Pynchas Brener as his envoy to Israel.
Brener, who was born in Poland and later immigrated in Venezuela, previously
served as the chief Ashkenazi rabbi of Caracas.
In a video back in 2017, Brener acknowledged that he had left Venezuela
between five and six years before, sometime around 2011 or 2012. Since then,
Brener has been living in Miami, Florida, the de facto capital of the Latin
American right wing in exile.
Brener shares this in common with other supposed ambassadors of the Guaidó
coup regime, who are elites who have spent much of their lives outside of
Venezuela such as British envoy Vanessa Neumann, a socialite heiress who
has dual US citizenship and left Venezuela as a child.
This August 9, Guaidós new virtual embassy declared that the opposition
in Venezuela says it is ready to restores diplomatic relations with Israel.
The virtual embassy linked to a Spanish translation of an article in the
right-wing Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom, which quoted Brener and reported
that Israel, which already recognizes Juan Guaidó, is expected to officially
establish diplomatic relations soon.
On its official website, the new virtual embassy tells Venezuelans that if
their passports have expired or need to be updated, they should contact the
Venezuelan embassy in Jordan.
The Venezuelan coup regimes virtual embassy in Israel mirrors the virtual
US embassy in Venezuela, which doesnt actually exist on the ground in the
country, but recognizes Guaidó as its putative president.
Guaidós ambassador wants Israel to help the Venezuelan coup regime fight
terrorism
The Juan Guaidó coup regimes virtual embassy in Israel is largely a
one-man operation run by ostensible ambassador Pynchas Brener.
This May, Brener held an interview with an Argentina-based pro-Israel radio
station in which he stated that he was in the process of restoring
diplomatic relations with the far-right government of Benjamin Netanyahu.
Brener said he and the Guaidó coup regime have been building relationships
with Israeli companies and universities. He also insisted Israel could help
a new Venezuelan right-wing regime purge Chavista elements with its
counter-terrorism tactics.
Israel and Venezuela can have a great relationship, Brener effused.
Because, to rebuild Venezuela, where there are many different armed
groups, he continued, claiming there are paramilitaries, drug cartels, and
Colombian guerrilla groups active in the country, I believe that the
experience that Israel has in its fight against terrorism will be invaluable
for Venezuela in the future.
In the radio interview, Brener did not mention Palestinians once. He did
however demonize Iran, claiming it wants to produce a nuclear bomb that
would threaten the whole world.
Israeli support for Guaidós coup regime
Mere days after the Donald Trump administration initiated its coup attempt
in Venezuela on January 23, 2019, Juan Guaidó made it clear that he would do
a total 180 on the Chavista governments pro-Palestinian stance.
On January 27, Guaidó thanked Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
for recognizing him.
Guaidós new Venezuelan virtual embassy highlighted a meeting that
Israels foreign minister, Gabi Ashkenazi, held in Jerusalem this August 6
with members of the Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC). Diplomats
from 16 South and Central American countries attended the meeting, and
Ashkenazi called on them to vote in support of Israel in international
institutions, pledging potential economic assistance in return.
In the meeting, Ashkenazi also condemned Iran and the Lebanese resistance
group Hezbollah, claiming they are threatening South America with
terrorism. As an example of these supposed terror activities, Ashkenazi
cited the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, AMIA.
However, recent revelations by a former police spy have cast doubts and
instead suggested that the real culprits were fascistic anti-Semitic
elements linked to the Argentine intelligence services and the former
US-backed military dictatorships dirty war.
Venezuelas virtual embassy additionally tried to blame the catastrophic
explosion in Beirut on August 4 on Hezbollah, without a shred of evidence.
The Lebanese government has said it was likely an accident caused by the
detonation of thousands of tons of ammonium nitrate that were improperly
stored next to the Beirut port.
Pynchas Brener Venezuela Israel Miami
The Venezuelan coup regimes ambassador to Israel, Pynchas Brener
Who is Guaidós Israel ambassador, Pynchas Brener?
From his luxury home in Miami, the Venezuelan coup regimes ambassador to
Israel, Pynchas Brener, actively publishes video rants to his YouTube
channel. These provide candid insight into his ideology and political
history.
In his videos, in both Spanish and English, Brener shows himself to be an
anti-Chavista ideologue who uses religion to push right-wing clichés.
In March 2018, before the Trump administration initiated its coup attempt
with Juan Guaidó, Brener published a video rant titled No more tyranny, in
which he made a plea for foreign intervention to bring about regime change.
Brener cited religious canon to portray Chavista Venezuela, Cuba, the former
Soviet Union, and North Korea as hellish dystopias.
Take a look at North Korea; take a look at Cuba; and now we see the same
thing happening in Venezuela, he argued. It seems that by themselves they
cannot change their regimes. You need somebody from outside; you need
external forces to help them, because otherwise theyll never come out of
the terrible situation in which they find themselves.
Brener also uses religious doctrine to push conservative principles like
There is no free lunch, and ponders whether the Covid-19 pandemic is
divine punishment by God.
Breners YouTube channel similarly displays his staunch ideological support
for the Zionist movement and Israels far-right government.
In 2013, Brener took a trip to Israel and filmed a documentary for privately
owned, anti-Chavista Venezuelan TV channel. Included in the broadcast, which
he uploaded to YouTube, were fawning interviews with former Israeli Prime
Minister Shimon Peres and ex-IDF spokesperson Nachman Shai.
Venezuela Pynchas Brener Shimon Peres Israel
Juan Guaidós future ambassador Pynchas Brener interviewing Shimon Peres in
Israel in 2013
During Israels punishing war on the besieged Gaza Strip in 2014, Brener
published a video boasting, We won for Israel! On the front lines of the
media war.
In 2015, Brener uploaded a bizarre video rant in which he insisted THERE IS
NO SOLUTION (sic) in the Israel-Palestine conflict, because, in his mind,
Palestinians are hate-filled, genocidal anti-Semitic fanatics who will never
be happy until they wipe Israel off of the map.
In another 2015 video, Brener condemned the Barack Obama administrations
nuclear deal with Iran, which he called a bad deal. Fearmongering about
Iran, which he compared to Adolf Hitler, Brener insisted Tehran wants to
commit a new holocaust against Jews.
Venezuela Pynchas Brener Israeli consul Miami
Juan Guaidós future Israel ambassador Pynchas Brener interviewing the
Israeli consul in Miami, Florida in 2016
Subsequently, in 2016, Brener conducted an adulatory interview with the
Israeli consul in Miami. Sitting in front of the US flag, Brener lamented
Chavézs breaking of diplomatic relations with Israel. He also blamed the
conflict in Israel-Palestine not on Zionist colonialism, but rather on
radical Islam.
Brener insisted that Israel is the voice of conscience for the world.