In the Media

Jerusalem Post – 3 December 2025

There’s an old adage in Jewish history that keeps resurfacing: when dictators face collapse, the oldest political trick is to blame the Jews. Nowhere is this more evident today than in Venezuela. Once one of Latin America’s wealthiest countries, Venezuela has been reduced to an economic abyss by hyperinflation, a broken health system, and empty supermarket shelves. More than 7.7 million citizens have fled — a displacement crisis comparable to wartime Syria — and the country’s Jewish population has plummeted from 20,000–25,000 in the 1990s to under 6,000 today.

Yet according to President Nicolás Maduro, none of this is his government’s fault. Instead, he points the finger at the United States and “Zionists” — a thinly veiled substitute for Jews. In a national address on November 17, he raged that “far-right Zionists want to hand this country over to the devils.” After claiming victory in a controversial 2024 election marked by fraud allegations, he insisted the opposition was financed by “international Zionism.” In another speech, he claimed that “all the communication power of Zionism, which controls the social networks and satellites, is behind this coup d’état.”

Maduro uses the language of contemporary antisemites who swap “Zionist” for “Jew,” but the classic tropes remain — conspiracies about Jews controlling governments, media, and global systems. These narratives have a bloody history: from Ancient Rome punishing Jews for refusing to worship imperial gods; to Medieval Europe accusing Jews of poisoning wells during the Black Death; to Tsarist Russia’s pogromist propaganda; to post–World War I Germany, where such conspiracies paved the way for Nazism and the Holocaust.

But Venezuela is not acting alone. Its closest geopolitical allies — Iran, China, and Russia — are part of the so-called “Axis of Resistance,” an informal coalition committed to countering the influence of the United States in the world. And all of them deploy antisemitism as a political tool.

In 2006, Tehran hosted an international Holocaust-denial conference featuring neo-Nazis, white supremacists and fringe academics. Iranian leaders routinely call Israel a “cancer” that must be “wiped off the map,” and the regime finances terror groups — Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis — whose charters openly call for killing Jews. Iran was responsible for the 1994 AMIA bombing in Argentina, killing 85. More recently, Australia expelled Iran’s ambassador after security agencies uncovered Tehran-directed antisemitic intimidation campaigns targeting Australian Jews.

For years, Iran has provided Maduro with economic lifelines and military support. It is no coincidence that Maduro’s antisemitic rhetoric mirrors Iran’s state doctrine.

China plays a role too — through a different model of state-enabled antisemitism. Government-run outlets such as China Global Television Network and Global Times have promoted conspiracy theories that “Jews control American finance.” On tightly censored social media platforms like Weibo and Douyin, the state permits Holocaust denial, Nazi praise, and caricatures of Jews as greedy or manipulative, while deleting criticism of the Communist Party. “Wolf Warrior” diplomats have used antisemitic dog whistles implying Jewish control over US politics. Since October 7, Chinese social media platforms such as TikTok have surged with praise for Hamas and harassment of Jewish expats.

Russia, meanwhile, has revived Soviet-style antisemitism. Between 2022 and 2024, Kremlin-aligned media pushed conspiracies that Ukraine’s Jewish president, Volodymyr Zelensky, proves the country is run by “Jewish elites.” At the same time, the Kremlin funds and supports neo-Nazi groups in the West, such as “The Base”. Senior officials – including Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov – have claimed “Hitler had Jewish blood” and accused Jews of being “the worst antisemites,” echoing old inversion tropes.  State media outlets such as RT and Solovyov Live regularly promote conspiracies about a “world Zionist plot” and “Jewish oligarchs controlling governments.”

Venezuela’s adoption of antisemitism therefore fits a broader geopolitical trend. Across the Axis of Resistance, antisemitism serves a purpose: to deflect blame, mobilize resentment, and offer easy scapegoats for nations facing deep internal decay.

Beyond this axis, other global leaders add to his avalanche of antisemitism.. For instance, Turkey’s President Recep Erdoğan has blamed “the Jewish lobby” for his country’s economic troubles.. International institutions are also part of the problem: UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese claimed the United States is “subjugated by the Jewish lobby.” Similar claims came from UN Commission member Miloon Kothari.

Across history, it’s an old story: when societies struggle, many leaders find it easier to blame Jews than fix their own problems, as Venezuela demonstrates today. But today, this hatred is also being weaponized by actors like Iran, China and Russia, who see spreading antisemitism as a key tool for helping achieve their foreign policy goals – especially in terms of damaging the US.

Thus, while antisemitism surged globally since the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023 launched a war over Gaza, this wave of hate is unlikely to subside now that the war appears over. Too many state actors have an interest in seeing that it does not.

And that’s something that should concern not just Jews, but all societies that value tolerance and decency.

Justin Amler is a policy analyst at the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC).