By Venezuelanvoices.org
Picture: Minister Plasencia and Isaac Cohen
The Venezuelan dictatorship, led by Delcy Rodríguez, has decided to abandon one of the last traces of its former foreign policy by agreeing to resume diplomatic relations with the genocidal state of Israel, led by Benjamin Netanyahu and his ultra-right coalition. Relations between the two regimes had been severed since 2009, when the Zionist regime massacred more than 1,400 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip during Operation Cast Lead.
“Both governments recognize the importance of the relationship between the State of Israel and the Jewish community in Venezuela, which constitutes an important historic bridge of friendship between the two countries,” said Venezuela’s Foreign Ministry in a press release. As with the recent restoration of ties between the Venezuelan and Peruvian regimes, the process of resuming diplomatic relations has begun at the consular level.
In January, Nicolás Maduro Guerra, son of the former Venezuelan head of state, publicly called for the restoration of relations between Venezuela and Israel. Following the twin earthquakes on June 24, the Venezuelan dictatorship reached an agreement with the Israeli regime—through the mediation of Rabbi Isaac Cohen of the Israeli Association of Venezuela—to send IDF officers to assess damaged infrastructure. Delcy Rodríguez and Benjamin Netanyahu presented this aid mission as a step toward the restoration of diplomatic relations.
On August 9, Foreign Minister Félix Plasencia received Rabbi Cohen in his office and announced in a press release that Cohen had formally requested the restoration of diplomatic relations with Israel. In late July, a delegation of U.S. congressmen linked to the Zionist lobby group AIPAC—comprising Brian Mast, Randy Fine, and Kat Cammack—visited Caracas and met with Foreign Minister Plasencia and other senior Venezuelan officials. The Venezuelan government recently announced its withdrawal from the Rome Statute, a move celebrated by the U.S. government, which is pushing for the “dismantling” of the International Criminal Court for having issued arrest warrants against Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant for crimes against humanity committed against the Palestinian people in Gaza.
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