WASHINGTON (JTA) -- The chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Latin American subcommittee slammed Venezuela's president for calling Israel a "genocidal" state.
Hugo Chavez, this week hosting Syrian president Bashar Assad, described their countries as having "common enemies": "The Yankee empire, the genocidal state of Israel."
U.S. Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) said Chavez needed to distract attention from his own problems.
