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Puerto Rico Paper Blames Jews for Island's Condition

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Though it’s been months since Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico, forcing countless families into homelessness, the recovery process is nowhere near complete. Neither, it seems, is the corresponding blame game being played by columnists like Wilda Rodríguez, who apparently blames the nation’s woes on Jews.

In a disturbing column published last week titled, “What does ‘the Jew’ want with the colony?” Rodríguez suggested that the blame for Puerto Rico’s slow recovery lies with Jewish people, who, she argued, wield power and wealth from Washington and Wall Street

“In the end, Congress will do what ‘the Jew’ wants, as the vulgar prototype of true power is called,” Rodríguez wrote for the Puerto Rican newspaper El Nuevo Día (New Day), as translated by the Washington Examiner.

And what “the Jew” wants, she claims, is to punish Puerto Ricans because of the territory’s $70 billion debt.

“That we could get away without paying would be fatal to Wall Street morale,” Rodríguez opined. “The punishment needs to make it clear to the debtor world that Wall Street cannot be manipulated.”

The Forward, an American magazine published for a Jewish-American audience, notes that Rodríguez added a disclaimer for using the term “the Jew.”

“More than 20 years ago, the Israeli paper Ma’ariv had an article in Hebrew that explained how the Jews control Washington,” she reportedly wrote. “For Israelis, recognizing Jewish power over Washington is not an offensive statement. It is the victory of the Diaspora.”

Many disagreed, including the Anti-Defamation League, which derided the column as “a collection of classic anti-Semitic assertions,” as reported by The Jerusalem Chronicle. “

“This is not the first time that confronted with an economic crisis, Jews are accused of controlling the power and money,” the league wrote in a letter to the editor of New Day.

Is Rodríguez' article anti-Semitic?

“Wilma Rodríguez’s column … follows the worst legacies of anti-Semitic regimes that we would like to have left behind in the 20th century,” the letter added.

Speaking with The Jerusalem Post, the ADL’s coordinator for Latino Community Relations, Monica Bauer, concurred, adding that “publishing an article accusing the Jewish people of controlling governments to the detriment of the future of Puerto Rico is practically the definition of anti-Semitism.”

As of Monday, the column still remains posted at El Nuevo Día, though both the paper’s editors and Rodríguez have amended it with “explanatory” notes in Spanish.

“More humorously, the story has been updated so that it also carries an apology from the author herself, which reads, ‘I deeply regret that my writing is interpreted as anti-Semitic,'” notes the Washington Examiner. “She added her intention was ‘not to provoke offense, but to contribute to public discussion.'”

“Yes, readers confused ‘the Jews control Congress’ with real anti-Semitism. How foolish of them,” the Examiner sarcastically concluded.

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Just as a reminder, Rodríguez isn’t the only Puerto Rican woman playing this silly blame game. San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz has also eagerly been playing it, albeit with a different target: President Donald Trump.

And to be perfectly frank, both Rodríguez and Cruz sound like some very rotten people.

Please share this story on Facebook and Twitter and let us know what you think about this Puerto Rican columnist blaming “the Jew” for the country’s slow recovery efforts.

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